Ari Aster on ‘Beau is Afraid’: “I knew this film would be divisive”
Beau is Afraid, the new movie from Ari Aster, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a man with high anxiety levels as a result of being mistreated by his overbearing mothers, looks to be causing a stir and has divided critics and audiences.
Aster recently opened up on the film when talking to the Inside Total Film podcast. He said: “I knew this film would be divisive. It’s a film of extremes, and it’s a film that’s really playing with structure in a way that might even feel to people almost counterintuitive, but, for me, it felt totally intuitive. But it’s also the structure of a picaresque – it’s a film that changes shape.”
He added, “If I could give any sort of disclaimer to anybody going into the film, I would say the film is a shape-shifting beast and that the more open you are to it, the better. It’s a film that I felt my way through making, and I think the best way to watch it is to feel your way through it.”
In our review of Beau is Afraid, we wrote, “Aster has succinctly and accurately portrayed a beyond-bonkers selfish mother and the undoubted effect that her behaviour has on her child. But with just a touch too much focus on the symbolism and intentionally ambiguous meaning and an overt departure from the direct horror of his previous films, one can leave the cinema with an overwhelming feeling of ‘well, so what of it all?’.” Read the full review here.
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