I’ve seen Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid” twice. I still firmly believe that its first two hours are filled with brilliance. The last hour … not so much. It eventually gets bogged down by Aster’s mad ambitions.
With that said, there are plenty of ‘Beau’ fans out there, including a vocal bunch on this site, and, in some corners, it’s being hailed as a great film.
While speaking with Empire, Aster reflected on the polarizing reaction to his film, adding that he believes it should be seen a second (or third) time to fully grasp its complexities:
I do hope people return to it. It’s definitely a film that I think benefits from going back. I don’t think you quite know what it is until you’ve gone all the way through. I imagine that the second viewing would be hopefully rich in a way that the first one can’t. It’s designed to be wrestled with. I consider the film to be a picaresque, and I think part of that tradition is a certain irreverence towards the integrity of any sort of narrative structure. The film is designed to kind of shapeshift a lot.
Despite the mixed reactions, Aster is proud of what he’s accomplished: “I feel like it’s always kind of an unhealthy thing to sit in, the grappling with the release and the reception,” he said. “So I’m happy to be on the other side of it. But I would say that it’s the film I’m proudest of. I think it’s the best filmmaking that I’ve done. I love the film, and I really hope that people continue to find it.”
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as the titular character, a man wholly crushed by anxiety who must confront his darkest fears as he embarks on a twisted odyssey back home to his mother‘a funeral.
If Pauline Kael was still alive today she’d shrug off Aster’s suggestion of a rewatch. She refused to watch a movie twice. Her first reaction, she said, was the truest one, with all senses reacting together to something wholly fresh that was being seen on-screen. After that, the film lost its spontaneous value.
Of course, I wholeheartedly disagree with Kael. Who here actually gave ‘Beau’ a rewatch and liked it more the second time around?