During the 2010s and early 2020s, a new age of horror films relied more heavily on atmosphere and disturbing imagery rather than the jump scares of mainstream horror.  A plethora of these films were released by independent distributors such as A24 and Neon, with works like “The Witch,” “Infinity Pool,” and “X” garnering attention and acclaim. 

One filmmaker who has gained prominence in this new wave of horror is Ari Aster, who has impacted the genre with works such as the disturbing 2019 folk horror feature “Midsommar.” Nearly four years after that film’s release, Aster has made a feature more reliant on humor while retaining disturbing qualities: “Beau Is Afraid.” 

 Joaquin Phoenix stars as Beau Wassermann, a paranoid middle-aged man who resides in a crime-ridden slum. Beau suffers from forms of childhood trauma, which is communicated through a reoccurring dream sequence and the opening scene with his therapist, Dr. Jeremy Friel (played by Stephen McKinley Henderson). 

During an incident that happens before he gets the chance to visit his mother, business mogul Mona Wassermann, Beau gets hit by a car — which sets off a chain of events that will send him into a descent toward a nightmarish odyssey beginning with a couple: a surgeon named Roger (Nathan Lane) and his wife Grace (Amy Ryan).

 As this character, Phoenix immerses himself in his performance, capturing the paranoia that plagues him throughout the film. An example of this is a sequence during the first act, where he is frantically trying to pay the convenience store clerk the water for his medication (which specifically requires water for consumption). He also has the door to his building pried open with only a phone book (as a result of having his keys stolen). 

Scene from “Beau is Afraid,” where Joaquin Phoenix sits in a chair outside. (Contributed/The Emory Wheel).

 There are good supporting performances from newcomers such as Julia Antonelli, who portrays the teenage version of Elaine, a woman from Beau’s past who appears in a lengthy flashback sequence. The adolescent version of Beau also appears during this sequence, played by Armen Nahapetian, who was a perfect casting choice for this role due to his resemblance to  Joaquin Phoenix. 

 Ari Aster crafts a hallucinatory examination of a man’s psyche who feels like a character out of a Franz Kafka novel, a man thrown into horrifying situations for no explicable reason. He has created a surrealist film with heavy doses of dark comedy, including bizarre background characters such as Birthday Boy Stab Man, a deranged killer causing havoc in the city. The combination of these elements culminates in the final hour, which contains some of the most disturbing imagery that Aster has put on film. 

 Pawel Pogorzelski’s distinct cinematography is one of the preeminent elements of the film. Whether it’s a tracking shot in Beau’s apartment hallway that captures the environment that he lives in or a long shot of Beau in the imaginary world of a play during the second act (with this sequence also utilizing animation to form the people and animals that inhabit this world), Pogorzelski captures visuals that compliment the film quite well, along with a color palette that at times feels reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s films. 

 “Beau Is Afraid” transports the viewer on a nightmarish Kafkaesque journey through the world of a man who encounters nightmare scenarios while trying to travel to his mother’s house. With a unique premise, a fantastic leading performance from Joaquin Phoenix, and stunning visuals, it is one of the year’s most original and outstanding films—an odyssey of a film.

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