It’s been a blast
FAST AND FURIOUS FRANCHISE APPROACHES THE FINISH LINE WITH AN EXPLOSIVE YET DISAPPOINTING 10TH CHAPTER
In his previous films Hereditary and Midsommar, writer-director Ari Aster plundered universal fears for skinprickling discomfort.
He repeats the trick, with considerably less narrative clarity, in the hallucinogenic horror comedy
Beau is Afraid, a bamboozling and beguiling exercise in self-reflection and self-indulgence tethered to a fiercely committed lead performance from Joaquin Phoenix as the titular worrywart.
Imperious single mother Mona Wassermann (Zoe Lister-Jones) is a constant companion to her teenage son Beau (Armen Nahapetian).
She schools Beau to consider her love as a life raft in a sea of danger and disappointment and reminds her boy that his father died mid-coitus courtesy of a heart murmur that he inherited through the genetic lottery. It is little surprise that when Beau experiences the first pangs of romance, he strays no further than a tentative kiss.
Now middle-aged and riddled with anxiety, Beau (Phoenix) visits a kindly psychiatrist (Stephen McKinley Henderson) ahead of a trip home to see his mother (Patti Lupone), who presides over a pharmaceutical empire.
Alas, Beau oversleeps and in the frantic dash to the airport, he is the victim of a bizarre crime. He telephones his mother for advice about calling the police and missing his flight – “I think you’ll do the right thing, sweetheart,” she tersely responds – and best laid plans spiral of control.
Evicted from his rundown apartment on to streets filled with violence, Beau collides with respected surgeon Roger (Nathan Lane) and his wife Grace (Amy Ryan) and they provide temporary sanctuary from the psychological storm with their troubled daughter
Toni (Kylie Rogers).
Beau is Afraid is a wildly ambitious mood piece that defies categorisation or succinct explanation.
Gobs are repeatedly smacked by Aster’s unwillingness to restrict himself to storytelling convention, abetted by Phoenix’s mesmerising theatrics. Art should always make you feel something, even if in this case, it’s dizziness and confusion.
In cinemas Friday