What is going on in this trailer? I have no idea. I’m not sure I want to know. Beau Is Afraid is a new movie from A24, the company behind the hit Everything Everywhere All At Once, which was equally baffling when trailers first dropped. I love A24 movies, though I admit I haven’t watched writer and director Ari Aster’s previous A24 films, Hereditary and Midsommar. Why haven’t I watched those? I guess I just wasn’t ever in the mood, though clearly I need to before I go see Beau Is Afraid.
The film stars a balding, greying Joaquin Phoenix who has certainly seen better days. He plays Beau, a man who has some kind of twisted relationship with his overbearing mother and who lives in a weird dystopian future of lawlessness. He has some sort of near-fatal encounter with Roger and Grace (played by Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan, who make me think of Only Murders In The Building) who then apparently imprison him in their home. He escapes into a weird shifting dreamscape.
The film is described as a surrealist horror comedy and that certainly seems to be the case. As with many films like this, despite my job as a critic (or perhaps because of my job as a critic) I don’t want to know too much about this film before I see it. I’m happily perplexed by the trailer. I hate trailers that spoil the entire plot. I feel like this one is as much about misdirection as anything. That’s fine by me. I guess this kind of reminds me a little bit of a twisted, terrifying version of What About Bob? minus the relationship with the psychiatrist.
Beau Is Afraid hits theaters on April 21st, 2023.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/02/17/i-have-no-idea-whats-going-on-in-this-trailer-for-joaquin-phoenixs-new-movie-beau-is-afraid/