![]() Nathan Lane is one of many supporting cast members known for their comedy chops, including Richard Kind and Bill Hader. Hell, that's almost covered just by hearing the way Nathan Lane, as one of numerous supporting cast members firing on all cylinders here, says "My dude." You probably think you know where you land on this kind of thing but if you're less than certain and you've got the necessary three-hour window in your day, then finding out easily warrants the price of admission. This is Aster's Synecdoche, New York, with Charlie Kaufman's melancholic self-loathing subbed out for a mother lode of mommy issues – and, like Kaufman's film, Beau Is Afraid is likely to strike some as a profound statement about the purgatorial nature of existence and others as a janky Rube Goldberg machine meant to purge the artist's fears of death and women. You certainly can't miss the Mariah Carey needle-drop that does for Always Be My Baby something like what David Lynch did for Roy Orbison's In Dreams in Blue Velvet. The soundtrack includes Shine by Australian 00s pop star Vanessa Amorosi. These realms are rich in details both hilarious and disquieting: Note the "O'Loha" microwave dinner Beau sups on (it's "the best of Hawaii and Ireland") the punny names of the sex shops on his street (Asstral Projection Erectus Ejectus) the many commemorative touches in the home of a deceased soldier's parents, including a custom jigsaw puzzle of his military portrait. Hence the erratically mushrooming story-world, with Beau traversing state lines, social strata, and even artistic media (an animated landscape takes over from live action in one extended sequence). The writer-director's analyst surely has their work cut out for them with his latest film: Beau Is Afraid is a cruelly absurd saga of sexual repression in which a slump-shouldered Joaquin Phoenix, as the emotionally stunted titular character, bears the brunt of Aster's spectacular catastrophising – realised here on a budget substantially roomier than that of either Hereditary or his 2019 follow-up, Midsommar. "That's how I end up writing stuff like this." "I'm very neurotic and I'm obsessed with worst-case scenarios," Ari Aster explained at a Q&A for Hereditary, his feted – and truly frightening – debut feature, when asked about his exhaustive pre-production process.
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