Beau is Afraid Parent Guide

Living in a dingy apartment next to a rundown porn theater in a dangerous part of town, Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) has legitimate reasons to be afraid. A nude killer prowling the neighborhood, a brown recluse spider loose in the building, and a tortured relationship with his mother, Mona (Patti LuPone), with whom he has planned a visit for the next day, are all valid causes for concern. But when Beau’s keys and luggage are stolen, things start spiraling downwards. He can’t make his flight to see his mother, but he can’t just stay in his apartment either.

The unexpected death of his mother soon renders the failed visit moot. Beau learns about her demise in a call with a distraught UPS driver who finds her body – and only her body, because her head has apparently been crushed by a chandelier. As his conditions become worse and far, far stranger, Beau is launched on a surreal and unsettling adventure which will force him to confront his own anxieties, his difficult relationships, and the mysteries that have surrounded him since infancy.

Kafka-esque doesn’t begin to cover the voluminous strangeness of this film. This is closer to Naked Lunch than it is to The Metamorphosis. Over the inexcusable and self-indulgent three-hour runtime, Beau is Afraid sets out to not only show you what Beau fears, but to make you fear losing your own mind. That’s not entirely fair – there were large sections of the movie that I found both interesting and enjoyable. There’s also a lot of bloat in there, hence the hideous runtime, but there are also a few choices that, frankly, did not make a lot of sense to me. I suspect I’ll arrive at some new conclusions as I sit with the movie, but I’m on a deadline here. This isn’t a film you’re going to get a good handle on right away.

It’s also packed full of some serious content concerns. The film doesn’t shy away from graphic violence, but it almost feels incidental to Beau’s strange quest - as does all the graphic nudity, drug use, and frequent uses of profanity. I’m not saying that the negative content is completely irrelevant to the plot, but the function of this material seems to be to make Beau’s trip as difficult and emotionally exhausting as possible (a feeling shared by the audience).

I’m not sure if I like this movie or not yet. What I am sure of is that its excessive length is unnecessary, and borders on self-indulgence. The movie’s bloat also renders it lacking in homogeneity, which makes for a curious viewing experience as you sift through the chunks of interesting and entertaining or unsettling and downright unpleasant material, like a bowl of oatmeal mixed with cat food. You can’t always tell which part is which until it’s already in your mouth.