Review: Joaquin Phoenix shows again why he's one of the finest actors of his generation in 'Beau Is Afraid'

By Peter Travers

It's not for everyone. That's critic shorthand for a movie that makes too many demands on audiences to qualify as a crowdpleaser. To a list including "Synecdoche, New York," "Twin Peaks," and anything by Terrence Malick add "Beau Is Afraid, a hypnotic head-scratcher now in theaters nationwide, where it aims to mess with your head and heart. Mission accomplished.

At three hours -- writer-director Ari Aster (he hit the twin peaks of scares with "Hereditary" and "Midsommar") takes his sweet bonkers time -- "Beau Is Afraid" indulges his wicked whims as the reliably charismatic Joaquin Phoenix takes on his most challenging role yet: a total loser.

We first meet Beau Wasserman working his way through the birth canal before cutting to him as a 50-year-old virgin (something about swollen testicles) about to embark on a road trip to see his mother Mona (Zoe Lister-Jones in the past, Patti LuPone in the present, both killer good).

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Joaquin Phoenix appears in a scene from the movie "Beau Is Afraid."

Sound simple? Aster makes sure that it's anything but. You'll need to brace yourself for "Beau Is Afraid" since it often feels like Greek tragedy filtered through Looney Tunes.

Though we don't meet Mommie Dearest till much later, in scenes that the dynamite LuPone takes to heights of twisted momism unseen since "Psycho," fear is a near constant in Beau's existence. His cramped apartment is located in a corpse-strewn urban hellscape of marauding gangs that keeps Beau in a state of perpetual dread.

It's a relief when this mama's boy visits his therapist, played by Stephen McKinley Henderson with a roly-poly warmth that belies his words about Beau's mother: "Do you ever wish that she was dead?" he asks. Beau's answer is an incredulous "What!" but the cat is out of the bag.

And we're off in a series of trials for Beau, who always expects the worst to happen. And it does, like Beau getting hit by a truck and waking up in the care of a couple, played with unnerving smiles by Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan, whose kindness takes on a dark edge when Beau is chased by their dead son's PTSD-afflicted war buddy (Denis Ménochet).

Even worse, Beau must deliver the crushing news that he's missed his flight by phoning mom, who may or may not be dead. Mom's lawyer (Richard Kind) keeps calling about her funeral. In flashbacks, there's a creepy scene of Mona bathing young Beau (Armen Nahapetian). Yikes!

Aster does allow Beau to reconnect with his now-grown childhood sweetie Elaine (a fine, feisty Parker Posey), but their coupling is a comic disaster set to Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby."

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Joaquin Phoenix appears in a scene from the movie "Beau Is Afraid."

The film's most ambitious sequence is an animated fantasy, created by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña ("The Wolf House"), in which a troupe of forest players perform a play that suggests what Beau's life might have been as the bearded father of three sons.

It's a cruel joke. Reality makes sure that Beau -- a walking poster boy for trauma -- will never have such a moment as the movie ends with Beau being judged in a crowded stadium by a mother enraged at the sins her sonny boy has committed against her. Damn!

Phoenix shows again why he's one of the finest and most fearless actors of his generations as he steers us past the film's lapses in clarity and coherence and into the hallucinatory hellzapoppin of Beau's shell of a life. Aster's movie is too much of everything. But it's that rare bird in our debased cinema culture that gives you something to think about.

"Beau Is Afraid" is like nothing you've ever seen or maybe ever wanted to see. This wild, polarizing ride through the unconscious is definitely not for everyone, except for audiences starved for originality in copycat Hollywood. And don't worry, you'll only laugh when it hurts.