In addition to Phoenix in the lead role, the Beau Is Afraid cast includes Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan as his ankle tag captors, Stephen McKinley Henderson as a member of Beau’s support group, and Armen Nahapetian as the younger version of Beau. After violent confrontations with an intruder at home, then by a police officer and a murderer on the street, Beau is hit by a food truck. The film was shown a week early in select IMAX theaters in Los Angeles and New York on April 14, before being released in select North American IMAX theaters on April 21. the "exuberantly manic energy of Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love" (2002), the "nightmare logic of David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), " Charlie Kaufman's painfully contrived Synecdoche, New York" (2008), and "slipping on a Buñuelian banana skin". Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is middle-aged, profoundly paranoid, and preparing to face one of his greatest fears: paying a visit to his mother.

His previous arthouse horror dramas, Hereditary and Midsommar, may have been strange, but Beau Is Afraid is certain to rank as one of the most bizarre films of the year. The UK release date for Beau Is Afraid is still out for confirmation, but the film has been scheduled to come out in North America on the 21st April 2023. Beau is Afraid will officially be released in US cinemas on 21st April 2023, so there's only a few months to wait for those who are stateside. Hung so heavily with Freudian symbolism that it features a scene where a man beats a giant penis monster to death, it’s impossible not to see it all as Aster trying to turn his own counselling sessions into something as terrifying, twitchy and accidentally hilarious as only he sees them. Stage 6 also acquired rights from A24 in Middle East, worldwide ships and airlines and pan Asia pay TV.

Hereditary was a little over two hours, but Midsommar clocked in at two and a half and with all of the time skipping and setting changes we could be in for another longer film here. I would say that if you enjoy dark fantasy and bizarre, sometimes shocking and horrific scenes, you might just love this film.

There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Speaking about Joaquin Phoenix working alongside Ari Aster, co-star Stephen McKinley Henderson told The Hollywood Reporter: "Joaquin and Ari were so simpatico, and they worked together for the whole film. And then a final chapter, set in Beau's family home, with mother issues that would make Norman Bates from Psycho seem well adjusted. Production and distribution company A24's films are often released later on this side of the pond, meaning it could be a little while longer before we get to see it. Beau has sex with a woman who is late getting to the home for the funeral and to his amazement he doesn’t die like his mother swore he would.Die Filme von Ari Aster sind ziemlich speziell - und das kann man schon jetzt sagen, denn bislang hat der Regisseur, Drehbuchautor und Produzent erst drei Spielfilme gemacht. Am Ende muss Beau erkennen, dass er seine dunkelsten Abgründe überwinden muss, um seine Träume zu erfüllen. Beau geht es nicht gut - seine Paranoia macht ihm das Leben schwer und die Medikamente, die ihm sein Therapeut verschreibt sind auch keine Lösung.

The result seems nakedly personal while echoing the comic invention of Woody Allen's early films, the formal precision of Stanley Kubrick, and the bleak, deadpan surrealism of Roy Andersson, with bits of Charlie Kaufman and David Cronenberg thrown in.Structurally, though, it's fairly neat and contained, in that it focuses on a week in the life of one character: Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix), a balding, paunchy, miserable, middle-aged loner. Characters smoke joints, and it is suggested the drugs have been laced with other unnamed substances. A rambling, labyrinthine, navel-gazing romp, it has narrative echoes of Tristram Shandy (both Sterne’s novel and Michael Winterbottom’s film) and an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink aesthetic reminiscent of the chaotic Cinerama comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Phoenix is extraordinary as Beau – pouring his whole self into someone else’s psychosis for a jittery, child-like performance that feels like it might break apart at any moment. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times wrote that the film was "a supersized, fitfully amusing, self-important tale of fear and loathing," and chastised the run-time by saying, "It's a journey; midway, it becomes a slog. On top of the Oscar-winning Phoenix, the movie stars Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zoe Lister-Jones, Armen Nahapetian, with Parker Posey and Michael Gandolfini, among others.

She talks about being sorry for what his dad had passed down to him, so Beau clearly has a fairly chunky skeleton somewhere in his closet. He has an air ticket to visit his mother on the anniversary of his father’s death – a prospect that cranks his anxiety levels up to 11. Joaquin Phoenix, to whom Aster was significantly drawn following his career-torching identity-crisis mockumentary I’m Still Here , is middle-aged bundle of nerves Beau.