Ari Aster is doing the press rounds in the U.S. for “Beau is Afraid.” At just 36 years of age, Aster has, somehow, managed to make three distinct films in the last 5 years: “Hereditary,” “Midsommar,” and ‘Beau.’
In the process, and despite some vocal detractors of his films, he’s also managed to get a creative “carte blanche” from A24. I can probably count on just one hand the amount of directors today who would be able to get the financing needed for a movie like “Beau is Afraid”.
While introducing the screening in L.A. last night, which was attended by Pedro Pascal and Daniel Kwan, among others, Aster admitted that A24 was a fool for giving the green light on ‘Beau.’
I still can’t quite believe I was given the resources and freedom to make it in the way that we did, and credit is very much due to A24 for being stupid enough to give me that.
“Beau is Afraid” is A24’s most expensive movie ever — $40 million was the price tag. Some are saying it might be as high as $50 million. The film is an immense risk. It’ll be interesting to see how it does at the arthouse box-office this weekend.
This, of course, won’t be a walk in the park success for A24 — what’s the demo for this kind of movie? However, I’m sure glad such a film can still, somehow, get made in today’s creatively dry climate.
Critics are also, mostly, positive with Aster’s film — 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and 69 on Metacritic, but I’m willing to bet it gets an F CinemaScore next week. There’s no way a majority of moviegoers will warm up to Aster’s 3-hour existentialist nightmare.