Ari Aster’s third feature “Beau is Afraid” is set to start screening for press, at least around here, this Thursday morning at 9am. There is currently a very firm embargo that won’t lift until April 18th, three days before it gets released.
You have to think that A24 are confident that this one will be well-greeted by critics, why else would they be screening it more than three weeks before its April 21st release?
‘Beau’ will be launched without a festival run by A24 — a strategy also used for Aster’s “Midsommer.” A24 seems to believe a festival-less route is the best way forward for Aster’s 3-hour movie.
I can’t wait to catch “Beau is Afraid” this week. Aster is one of the most exciting new voices in American cinema. Martin Scorsese is also a big fan, he’s openly raved about “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”
The trailer for ‘Beau’ made it look totally inaccessible. It actually felt like Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York.” If you’ve read the leaked screenplay then you know that it will very much play like Kaufman’s existentialist 2008 film.
Earlier in the month, “Beau is Afraid” earned an “R” Rating for “Strong Violence and Graphic Nudity”. Again, if you’ve read the script, not that surprising.
This will be a film soaked in surrealism. There’s also a lot of existential dread as well. Joaquin Phoenix looks perfectly at home. What is the plot about exactly? In a nutshell, mommy issues. Dark, gloomy, despairing mommy issues.
The film hits theaters on April 21st.
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.