With the two films Midsommar and Hereditary, Ari Aster won over fans of horror, the art house, and everything that is strange. He will make a comeback this year with Beau Is Afraid (aka Disappointment Blvd.), an epic tale of a prosperous businessman starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Other notable actors in the cast include Richard Kind, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Meryl Streep, and Nathan Lane. A24 will handle distribution, while Aster will co-produce with Lars Knudsen. Based on his 2011 short film Beau, Beau Is Afraid has been called a “four-hour nightmare comedy” by Ari Aster himself.
The title character in this six-minute film, played by the late Billy Mayo, is a very stressed and anxious man whose intention is to see his mother go astray in strange ways. Early examples of Aster’s ability to create situations with the greatest amount of cinematic tension can be found in Beau.
Beau Is Afraid Release Date
There is not much information available about the movie, and there is no official release date. But Beau is Afraid is said to be released sometime in April. The limited information we do have, though, is plenty to spark our interest in what will undoubtedly be an unrelenting spiral into fear, madness, desire, and misery — or, to put it another way, a classic Ari Aster movie.
Beau Is Afraid, formerly known as Disappointment Blvd., will premiere its official trailer on Tuesday, 10th January. In the upcoming film, Joaquin Phoenix plays the title character at several points in his life, at least according to this brand-new poster.
It was expected that Beau is Afraid would have its international premiere in May of 2022 at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was not shown at the festival, and on 24th May 2022, Jordan Ruimy published a short article outlining the reasons why. According to Ruimy, he was informed that Ari Aster’s version of the movie came in at 210 minutes, and A24 probably wanted him to shorten it.
Beau Is Afraid Story
Beau Is Afraid’s plot seems to be less of a graphic violence fest and more of a tale of passion, success, and disillusionment based on what little is known about it, namely that it spans decades and follows a successful businessman.
This would put it in the same genre as American epics that concentrate on the growth (and fall) of the individual in a capitalist society; examples of this large and varied subgenre include There Will Be Blood, Scarface, The Social Network, and more.
This does not imply that the movie won’t occasionally turn terrifying (there will be blood throughout much of its run time acting as a horror movie, owing in large part to the background music by Johnny Greenwood), but that the fear will probably not come from ghosts or murder cults.
This, for an Ari Aster movie fan, should be no difficulty at all as the main source of fear is always human vulnerability and existential sadness, despite his horrific brutality and chilling visuals. This is what gives his movies their genuine scare factor; it doesn’t require the usual horror tropes to be frightening.
Aster said that this movie is a “nightmare comedy,” but this could just be Aster being sneaky about his motives. After all, he called Hereditary a family drama and Midsommar a breakup film.
Those films are unquestionably both of those things, but they’re also pretty terrifying. It’s probably safe to assume that Beau is Afraid will continue the legacy of its predecessors. The rest of the actual story is only speculation at this time.
Beau Is Afraid Cast
In addition to Joaquin Phoenix, Beau is Afraid also stars Stephen McKinley Henderson, Parker Posey, Hayley Squires, Denis Ménochet, Michael Gandolfini, and Zoe Lister-Jones. Armen Nahapetian, who starred as young Beau in Daybreak, joins the cast in addition to Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Kylie Rogers, and Amy Ryan.
Ari Aster, who directed the critically acclaimed films Midsommar and Hereditary, has only made a handful of films, but he has already established himself as a singularly creative director who is capable of evoking true dread on the big screen.
Beau is Afraid should be at the top of your “must-watch” list this year, especially with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix at the core of his most recent film. Whatever form Beau Is Afraid ends up taking, there is no doubt that it will be a fascinating and unclassifiable journey into the depths of the human brain.
