Beau Is Afraid - Schizo vision

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Yesterday night I watched Joaquin Phoenix's new film about a schizo going through crazy scenarios trying to get to his mother's house.

I can't say too much more about the plot without spoiling it. But bow I felt about the film is that it w as a journey with a three hour runtime, it is a bit too long and some parts drag out too much, but other parts can be surprising by how out there it gets and how they are perfectly paced.

I think it deserves a thread for being unique enough and showing a literal schizo worldview without falling into either of the "full retard" extremes. Joaquin nails it as someone with mental issues that you feel bad for but can't trust in any way.
 
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I was dragged to see this by a relative. The director is the same guy who did Midsommar and Hereditary, so I knew it would be way less intelligent than it thought it was and way too long. But it was more entertaining than I thought it would be. It's been a week since I saw it and I'm still thinking about it

It's a weird, dark, very surreal comedy that focuses on a man damaged by his self centered, overbearing mother with a shit ton of dick jokes. It gets weirdly disturbing and uncomfortable towards the middle. Where it fails is running an hour too long and taking the dick jokes too far. I can't recommend it though because it's way too weird, like it makes Brazil look almost normal. It also suffers from too much in your face "this scene/scenery/character represents this psychological aspect of the main character, isn't that deep?!" that made me hate Ari Aster's other films and art house films in general.

I didn't really feel that the movie is trying to paint Phoenix's character as schizo, just completely helpless and anxious, like a six year old in a 50 year old body. At first it seemed like he was living in a society very near it's own collapse. Then you do start to question if he's actually crazy or if everyone around him is because all the characters are behaving strangely. But in the third act it's revealed that it was all his wealthy industrialist mother trying to force him to come back home, and when that failed, to punish him for not wanting to be her emotional dumpster. Think really fucked up Truman Show where the mom is the show runner.
 
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I'm waiting for it to come to VOD. I loved Hereditary and Midsommar.
 
duckbutter&toejamsandwich said:
I was dragged to see this by a relative. The director is the same guy who did Midsommar and Hereditary, so I knew it would be way less intelligent than it thought it was and way too long. But it was more entertaining than I thought it would be. It's been a week since I saw it and I'm still thinking about it

It's a weird, dark, very surreal comedy that focuses on a man damaged by his self centered, overbearing mother with a shit ton of dick jokes. It gets weirdly disturbing and uncomfortable towards the middle. Where it fails is running an hour too long and taking the dick jokes too far. I can't recommend it though because it's way too weird, like it makes Brazil look almost normal. It also suffers from too much in your face "this scene/scenery/character represents this psychological aspect of the main character, isn't that deep?!" that made me hate Ari Aster's other films and art house films in general.

I didn't really feel that the movie is trying to paint Phoenix's character as schizo, just completely helpless and anxious, like a six year old in a 50 year old body. At first it seemed like he was living in a society very near it's own collapse. Then you do start to question if he's actually crazy or if everyone around him is because all the characters are behaving strangely. But in the third act it's revealed that it was all his wealthy industrialist mother trying to force him to come back home, and when that failed, to punish him for not wanting to be her emotional dumpster. Think really fucked up Truman Show where the mom is the show runner.
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If you take what you see literally then yes, but thinking "my mother controls every social aspect of my life and tracks me 24/7" is grade A schizo, including people accusing you of shit you didn't do/mean or the fact that considering the protagonist's shitty apartment his family is almost certainely poor rather than world controlling.
 
My review that nobody asked for:

I'm quite conflicted. On one hand I enjoyed what a strange trip it was, but on the other I feel that if you're going to tell a story that long you should at least give it a bit more of a satisfying ending, have a bit more exposition on who his mother really is (he doesn't need to understand or interpret it correctly) and perhaps cut the attic penis monster into the deleted scenes reel; I thought it was going to take a really dark/tragic twist when he encounters his father up there, but no, attic penis monster comes out of fucking nowhere; what the fuck did I just spend 3 hours watching?

My verdict: Perhaps see it if you like a weird film that doesn't spoonfeed you, but if you're checking your watch at the second hour and contemplating an early bedtime (as I was), just know it won't get much better.
 
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I like weird shit so I'm still going to watch this.
 
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