“Beau is Afraid” is sort of like what happens when, “What About Bob” meets “Mommy Dearest” and the “Wizard of Oz”🤣

@ChristophBartlett

9 ай бұрын

Love what about Bob

Loved the movie. For me, it was a paranoid fever dream that shows the inner workings of someone who is paralysed by fear, anxiety, and guilt. I saw it as a story that plays out completely in Beau's mind. Not sure he ever makes it out of his apartment.

@ChrisMeadows1992

10 ай бұрын

I completely agree. He's a man whose mother isolated him from birth, made him completely co-dependent through abuse and because his only frame of reference to society is his toxic, evil mom, he assumes the entire world will treat him just as she does and just as she says they will. I've been there.

@AlexMoscow9mmpr

10 ай бұрын

@@ChrisMeadows1992 me too. Not nearly to the same degree as Beau but certainly related to elements. Toxic motherhood is certainly a consistent theme in much of Astor's work, so assuming he's been there too.

I think Beau has a terrible and abusive mother, His mom is so rich and successful but also a control freak and always give Beau a hard time. He's 48 years old and can't make his own decision and trapped in misery of anxiety and depression. The Saddest fact is nobody help him. Everybody else doesn't understand what he is going through. That's why Beau is so afraid

@justinbondar2491

11 ай бұрын

It's a 3 hour showcase of analogies and symbolism explaining what's it's like to have anxiety. What it's like in the head of the anxious. For example, the dude above the tub represented arachnophobia. It's just a spider but the anxious see a threat, an attacker that's gonna get you, so go run naked and crazy down the street (in the head). And the dick monster that starves beau of a farthers love and attention by not being in his life. Etc. All in the structure of a crazy mother that is criminally controlling, smothering him to death with love...Everything was bought and paid for by beau's mom. She ran 24/7 surveillance, wanting every second to be with him. She literally owned his world. And it fucked beau up. Anxious and depressed, afraid of everything.

@MoonPhantom

11 ай бұрын

Oh absolutely, that seems to be the entire theme of the movie. EVERYTHING in Bau's life is controlled by this completely over protective mother, who feels like she MUST have control over everything. And she is entitled to his love and adoration. His mother has made sure that Beau has remained a child and could never grow up, in Beaus perfect fantasy as he watches the play, he gets to be an actual man and have agency, but then he is being cast back into the real world where he is a little child in a mans body, not allowed to grow because of his mothers constant surveillance over him. I also love the subtle detail that we then find out that his mom runs several drug companies, making drugs designed to help people, and the people living around Beaus apartment building making everything so terrible are drug addicts. Addicts that his mom inadvertently created with this drug dependency. So EVERYTHING is terrible in this world because of this mother instinct taken to the absolute extreme and has been allowed to take over the world, denying boys the right to ever become men or having any agency of their own. I think that's a brilliant commentary of our modern world where this very thing IS happening, and we are seeing the effects. We are seeing a TON of young adults right now, who hasn't actually grown up at all as they are clearly behaving like little children who can't do anything for themselves, and they are a product of this new world we are living in where everything must be safe and protected, this motherly way of running things taken to the extreme that stops any personal growth.

@Charlakin

10 ай бұрын

@@justinbondar2491 Actually when you put it that way, I feel a lot less disgruntled by the seemingly non-sequitur imagery and scenes. I was trying to put them in: "is this imaginary and altered by Beau's perception, if so what does it say" but getting mixed up by consequences happening. I guess I was just looking too deep into it at times (the dick monster, like wtf could that represent other than the over-arching mystery and lie his mother told him?) and too shallow (with sceenes like the guy above the tub) as Beau's general fear of people.

@justinbondar2491

10 ай бұрын

@@Charlakin oh believe me, I was scoffing my way out of the theater thinking that I just wasted 3 hours of my life. The ensuing days I just brainstormed, heard out others opinions and went back for another viewing. It all just came together like this for me. I'm fairly confident I grasp his conception?? Lol I struggle with the bitch freezing after beau ejaculates. Haven't confirmed an opinion confidently there yet. ..Outside that part, that's my take.

This film needs to get Academy Awards consideration. One of the best films I’ve ever seen. Easily Aster’s best Also Synecdoche is my current favourite film ever

@asian-americanwithanopinio8954

10 ай бұрын

This film wishes it was "Synecdoche NY"

@asian-americanwithanopinio8954

10 ай бұрын

That's my all time favorite too. It gets me laid.

I watched it yesterday and still thinking about it constantly 24hours later - epic, strange, exciting, terrifying, dramatic, funny…what a movie!

I have Social Anxiety and I kept thinking he was gonna wake up in a metal institution or home health care. Like Shutter Island or something. I really enjoyed the movie and when I came across it I thought how did they not advertise this movie because I had never heard of it...

@cgonz777

9 ай бұрын

That's exactly what I kept waiting for!

My absolute favorite description of this movie was “Jewish Lord of the Rings”. As an anxious man with a complicated relationship with my mother I was double-over laughing in the first two acts, a little perplexed by the third, and slightly anxious in the fourth.

@hvitekristesdod

10 ай бұрын

Charlie Kaufman’s novel Antkind I would also describe as Jewish Lord of the Rings

I agreed with you, we got very lucky. I love this film. Masterpiece. Thank you for the review I hope your channel becomes successful.

I saw this movie around release and am still trying to digest it. One of the best movies I've ever had the pleasure to see. Ari Astar is a breath of fresh air. Thank you for this review

Felt like a story of what it’s like running your entire reality through the worst things that had been done to you OR the worst things you’d done to others.

My mom is overbearing & I have anxiety disorder. Totally get it.

Either one of two things are true: Either Beau's entire world is basically a Truman Show level conspiracy engineered by his mother at exorbitant cost (including human lives as well as money), where she runs one of the largest companies in the world and enacts complex plans all to test her son's love for her, or else all of that is in beau's rabid imaginings, his worst fears brought to life in his own mind, and his mom is just a sweet and normal lady who might have had her own complex of fears which warped her parenting style. I don't think that's meant to be the main question of the movie and its meaning, but I do think that's the most fun thing people are all trying to figure out, just what was 'real', anyway? I think we have to grant that the film begins in reality, the doctor's office seems very normal and much like our world. Once on the street, it's crowded, sure, but it's not actively dangerous yet, people are just selling guns on the street and such. Then Beau takes his new medicine, and the next thing we see is his neighborhood in total chaos. That's where I placed the break into his own warped reality, and it may be seen as more of a slide. But in any case by the time he's outside and they party in his apartment, that seemed to be more likely not happening. But in the other version of reality, it is all happening, and the director is showing us a bizarre dystopian world in which Beau's reactions are justified. Which is why I came down on, 'it's all his warped perception of reality', and nothing can be counted on to be real except his death, likely from stroke or heart failure due to excessive fright. Because while it could be like Sorry To Bother You, a world distorted into freakish form to make points about our world, I don't think it is, I think it's a movie about a man's mind destroying itself in response to a normal world he is unable to correctly respond to. That seems to form the more relevant message and focus the story on the character, not on the entire world actually targeting him. The question is, does it make sense that Beau Is Afraid, or not? And if it does make sense for him to be afraid, I think the whole meaning and purpose of the movie start to unravel.

@TheABSRDST

11 ай бұрын

I think that you're ignoring the text if you choose to focus on interpretations rather than the raw experience of it. Ari has said that this is like a "Jewish lord of the rings", and is his favorite film that he's made, and is a very personal piece of filmmaking. I'd wager to guess that what's happening to Beau is actually happening. It's expressionism. It can have its own logic and still be a metaphor. It's a film about a feeling, and those feelings sometimes feel really big. Ari Aster just wanted to capture that feeling. In his own words, "Don't try to figure it out. It's stupid." It's a piece of imagination, not a piece of sci fi.

@fusionspace175

11 ай бұрын

@@TheABSRDST I would posit that Ari's words there only apply to a first viewing experience. Of course you want to take the emotional journey as intended, but I think you're selling both yourself and the film short if you let your interpretation end with just that. For me and many others, the fun is in the figuring out, the decoding of reality, based on the clues provided within the film, or in the text, if you like. There are plenty to go on, and even if there is no one correct interpretation, I believe there is great value in the determining which are more or less likely, as the interplay of reality and fiction is a core part of the film's operation. We view David Lynch much the same way. We value that emotional journey, but we rewatch and decode by our very nature, and so our thought process does not end there. Genre is completely unimportant here, but I could imagine terming it as sci fi, if one were to place it next to A Scanner Darkly or others which use sci fi as a lens to examine humanity. Also, no artist always knows exactly what they're doing, it's always an intuitive process to some extent, and so unintended meanings can also be considered valid, if there is substantial textual evidence to draw them from, regardless of the original intent. I hope you don't need me to provide examples of that, but the gay undertones in the second Nightmare on Elm Street come to mind offhand.

@TheABSRDST

11 ай бұрын

@@fusionspace175 I think there are plenty of answer in the text that completely explain what happened, but I think that's not really as much what matters to me as a viewer because that's the sort of pattern seeking consumer behavior that's gotten us to a place where everything needs an overly complex cinematic universe or dense explanation Just my opinion tho

@TheABSRDST

11 ай бұрын

It's a magical realism that is more associated with comedies, Monty Python comes to mind immediately. Think of the scene in Holy Grail where a rabbit is able to tear a bunch of men asunder. The impact of that scene is that it's brutal and unexpected, and I don't think any amount of lore, "why is this bunny so strong?" adds to the joke. It's just kind of text that exists to be engaging, to put the character in a situation. Also, the holy hand grenade; its origin is of little importance to the joke. It's funny because it's so self explanatory if that makes sense? I think that Ari is very much trying to tap into this double standard of logic that comedy movies don't really have to make sense for us to accept their text. The world of Beau feels more Monty Python than Truman show to me. It's absurd in a way that's really native to comedy, and that's where I want to try to appreciate it, since that's really what Ari set out to make.

3hrs movie that felt like a whole day at the office

Small piece of constructive feedback: I'd script these shorter analysis videos. I'd also record a paragraph or so at a time and listen back during the edit, re-recording when you need to. That way you could avoid small mistakes like calling the film 'Beau Afraid' right before the spoilers section. I like your off-the-cuff style, but I think it would suit a more long-form discussion, maybe even a livestream where you made notes on the points you wanted to hit on beforehand to keep the conversation moving. You're clearly suited to this kind of content and there's genuine promise here. I look forward to watching this channel grow and evolve, keep at it, this is an excellent start. I hope none of this comes off as condescending or patronizing, I mean it with total respect and goodwill.

Beau is Afraid = Murphys Law whatever can go wrong always does

Okay so I'm going to write an essay on this because I can and movies are my special interest. I'll start by saying Ari Aster's movies are fun to watch once and this is not a critizism on his skillset. Examples of my taste in movies are "Nope" "Something Wicked this Way Comes" "Full Metal Jacket" and "Code Unknown" which to me are re-watchable. The thing they all have in common (to me) is they have more than one "fun to watch" scene. I think about and and are willing to watch the whole movie again because there's more than one good scene. For those that haven't seen "Code Unknown" it has much going on at once. It's slow moving, but things happen that make you wonder how you would have reacted in a similar situation. Me being someone who isn't bothered very easily I tend to look for value in the deaths of characters and how their afterlife affects others after they leave the movie. Unfortunately only Hereditary did that in my opinion. Short films would be the best angle for Aster I think, cutting out characters we don't care about and giving the time to ones we do. Too much time is put into a film that would be more powerful with a clear build up, climax, and reward. Beau is the only character I like or care about. The house with the family felt like a climax and had characters I was curious about but instead it fizzled out. Why even have it in there? If I could compare it to another film it almost felt like "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" only that movie stayed in focus with characters we needed to see. The other thing here is the Wes Anderson style. That's a style best suited for meaningful character study. Again, my opinion. Random characters that come and go are best suited for styles like Harmony Korine movies or those that don't focus on the characters as much as the ideas. This movie feels like it should care about it's journey with all the details we're given, but instead it feels like a breakout film that is experimenting with styles and ideas. I think Hereditary accomplished things like making us care for characters much better, and so did Midsommar... to an extent. But that's a whole other essay.

Man, they really went to town with how lifelong anxiety is reflected on Beau's face and has beaten the crap out of him. Joaquin Phoenix look like he's a haggard old man.

Most 3 hour movies can be cut down, and I get pretty bored in a billion dollar film wasting my time with a 45 minute action scene, but Beau is Afraid didn't feel like it was wasting time or needlessly pandering to demographics. This is a pretty bad take.

@westernmonk6036

10 ай бұрын

I completely agree, idk whats wrong with me, but I would rather sit through this 3 hour master piece rather than watch another 90-minute, franchise-addition superhero movie :’)

@andrewstephens5885

10 ай бұрын

You both are so special and unique.

i think it'll have a good future ahead of it

@TheABSRDST

11 ай бұрын

the success of Barbie shows that people are more excited for saturated, imaginative experiences, soundstages, "movie magic". Beau is kind of a more grown up version of that whole vibe.

i enjoyed this movie. It is beautifully artistic and expressive, but i doubt ever watching it again. It was a bit too intense. Lol

If Tyler Durden’s story highlighted his mother’s inability to let go of him to let him find his masculinity, until he had anxiety and slew of other mental issues, we’d hav a shorter Beau is Afraid. My take on it is a man who’s mentally ill from not being given a chance to find himself and his masculinity ( his mom was telling him why he should be liked by his first crush, he did not have sex his whole life from his mom’s lie, he didn’t meet the most important male figure in his life) the only time Beau was a “real” man is in the woods, in the theatre piece. He works and builds a house as opposed to living in his mom’s housing projects, he has 3 sons - every man who procreates wants a son, etc. from that fantasy he’s woken up by a man who was in the army ( defending his country). - there’s a lot to unpack, sorry. But like I said, his brain is at war with himself for not becoming as masculine as he wanted to be - thanks to his mom. The dragon . 😂😂😂

Still think Phoenix in 8mm was a standout "introduction" to the actor. While it isn't award worthy , it certainly proved to me, and I bet a lot of Hollywood, that he was his own man and could act. Until then he was just River's brother. But when you can "out-weird" Nicholas Cage by under acting? Another note, I don't mind 3 hour films, but the director better make sure not one minute is wasted. Otherwise, yeah, I will notice. Oppenheimer did that for me. I lost perception of time, which means you have my full attention on screen. Otherwise, you need to edit that film ad get rid of anything either superfluous or just in their for the director's gratification.

“Sin-ek-doh-key” New York

@CollinClicks

11 ай бұрын

My man😎

@fusionspace175

11 ай бұрын

@@CollinClicks Your chapters aren't working. Try this format. 0:00 - Start 5:57 - Spoilers

@MikeTaffet

11 ай бұрын

As someone who’s familiar with the actual town “Schenectady”, trying to say the movie’s name was even harder because I’m so used to the correct pronunciation

Funny, the three hours kinda breezed by. Maybe it's due to never having used TikTok. LMAO

Took me 3 days to finish this movie. I was into it in the beginning and lost interest the longer it ran. Hereditary is leagues ahead of this.

Schenectady

@prettynpetty8342

10 ай бұрын

literally was saying to myself "is he saying suh·nek·duh·kee". Google is free, yall.

Good day to all Sorry but I couldn't help but notice you are not talking about the film itself Mostly the budget and the effects and stuff like that Was expecting something else as you put a title to the video that vastly contradicts with what you are discussing And hey that's just my opinion

Winner of the wanna-be "Synechodoche NY" copycats. I love "Hereditary" and "The Strange Thing About the Johnsons", but I hate his last two, this one and Midsommar . I wanted to like this one, until I saw it. Phoenix is just doing his best Phillip Seymour Hoffman impression through the whole film because beat for beat it's ripping off Charlie Kaufman's masterpiece "Synechdoche NY", but getting all the mainstream success it didn't get when it was released.

@andrewstephens5885

10 ай бұрын

What’re some other copycats in your opinion?

Ari Aster's??????? Nooooooooo thanks!!!!! ✋

@hvitekristesdod

10 ай бұрын

Do it

Watch it today didn't get it never watch it again