Beau is Afraid is the movie I have been waiting for
!Spoilers Ahead! *LONG POST*
TW: Child Abuse, Gaslighting, Narcissistic Abuse, Strangulation, Discussions of Severe Anxiety
Like many people I knew Ari Aster as the guy who made Hereditary and Midsommar. Weird and trauma focused horror and that is definitely what Beau is Afraid is classified as, but it is nothing like his previous films.
To summarize, Beau is afraid starts off with Beau meeting his therapist (well it literally starts with Beau being born but i digress) and here we learn that Beau has a severe and crippling anxiety disorder. From the moment Beau starts talking about his mother I knew exactly what this movie was going to be about(though i donβt think anyone could guess the plot). We see that he is planning to visit his mother the next day because itβs the anniversary of his fathers death. Due to unforeseen circumstances Beau oversleeps and as he is rushing his keys get stolen out of his door along with his suitcase. Beau calls to tell his mom just wanting to tell her whatβs happened and as she began to speak I got immediately triggered. You can see him sink into a shell of himself as she tries to make him feel guilty for thinking he should stay at home since someone has access to his apartment. She hangs up on him and Beau begins to lose it a little bit.
A lot of things domino fall and this leads to Beau getting locked out of his apartment (this also leads to the first time we see Beau experience something iβve never seen so perfectly portrayed in a film. executive dysfunction. and it happens multiple times, he simply freezes in place even though he knows he should move. Part of it is definitely his anxiety as he is afraid to move because thats a decision and he doesnβt want the responsibility of what comes after a decision)and learning that his mother was killed by a falling chandelier. Then we see him get hit by a car. He ends up in the care of a family and long story short he has to run from them and ends up in the woods with a theatre troupe.
This is important because we learn that Beauβs biggest dream is to simply have a job and home of his own with a family that loves him. Thatβs his perfect future, but even as heβs seeing it playing out his kind canβt help but conjure up the worst case scenarios. We also see it repeated here that Beau canβt have kids because he canβt have sex because of a genetic heart murmur that killed his father. After Beau is separated from the theatre troupe he makes his way to his mothers house(though he should have been healing after being hit by a car and being stabbed his ONLY CONCERN was his mother not being humiliated by not being buried). When he sees her body he isnβt at peace yet but he lays down and gets his first night of good rest in days. When he wakes up he is greeted with his old friend Elaine who asked him to wait for her and he did. Long story short, Beau and her have sex. He is under the direct impression he is going to die when this happens.
But he doesnβt. However, Elaine does. He is rightfully terrified and cowers in fear until the music Elaine was playing suddenly shuts off and he looks up to find none other than his mother staring back at him. She faked her death to get him home and then tries to turn this on Beau saying he couldnβt wait for her to die, when Beau admits he knew she was alive because of the birthmark on the hands on the body. But sheβs not done. Out of the shadows steps Beauβs therapist as his mother begins playing a recording of one of his sessions where Beau admits reluctantly that he felt his mothers love was conditional. Since he feels like he has nothing to lose he chooses to finally confront his mother about the dream he has where he sees an identical version of himself ask about his father because Beau isnβt brave enough and he asks where his father is.
His mother takes him to the attic from the dream and tells him to go up there telling him it wasnβt a dream, it was a memory. There Beau meets his twin brother and his father(itβs a lot more batshit than this but thatβs the gist of it). He begs to go back down and his mother finally lets him and he LITERALLY KISSES HER LEGS telling her heβs sorry. But sheβs still not done. She goes on a whole tirade about how her mother blamed her for her mothers mistakes completely missing how sheβs doing the same to Beau. She continues to berate him until she finally says what she means. She hates Beau. And at that point Beau puts his hands around her throat, strangling her. He eventually comes to his senses and lets her go, shocked at his own actions, but the damage has been done, she collapses and dies.
Beau leaves the house the look of shock frozen on his face and he reaches a motorboat on his mothers private little beach. He starts the motor and begins to drive the boat towards a cavern. For the first time the whole movie Beau seems like he might no longer be afraid. Until the motor mysteriously sputters and hereβs where shit gets VERY REAL. SERIOUSLY IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE GO WATCH IT BEFORE CONTINUING.
Beau is sitting in darkness for a few seconds and suddenly this cavern is flooded with light and he sees no, itβs not actually a cavern at all. Itβs a stadium filled with people. They are all watching him. Through his (and the audiences) confusion a voice booms from a microphone. When Beau finds the source he is shocked to see that it is coming from a man on a mini stage high in the stadium sitting next to his mother. From a giant 4 sided jumbotron video plays of moments from Beauβs life dating back to when he was NINE. YEARS. OLD. All of of which is taken out of context. Beauβs only βdefenseβ is a shitty lawyer who has yell because he wasnβt given a microphone and even when he is heard and things his lawyer says are reasonable his mothers lawyer simply writes it off and moves onto the next thing heβs βdone wrongβ. (To me this represents all of the times Beau tried to reason with his mother and make her see his side before he just had to succumb to her will for survival, because you canβt reason with a narcissist.) When his defense is literally thrown from his stage and dies on a steep rock Beau is left to defend himself. Through his anxiety and fear he still tries to make them see his side, but Beau is found to be guilty. He never really loved his mother, he was a manipulative child who took from her and never gave anything back.
As this is all coming to a close the motor on the boat begins to flame and the boat begins to sink. Beau is begging, pleading, screaming, for his mother as she watches him in distress. As the entire arena of people watches him struggling and does nothing. We can see the exact moment Beau succumbs to his fate, he says nothing and for the first time in the whole film his shoulders droop. All of his anxiety is gone. He knows his mother wonβt help him, that no one will. And the look that crosses his face is one I understood so deeply. One of anger that he dedicated his life to this woman, one of realization that he couldnβt trust anyone, one of sadness that he was truly alone. And I relate to that so deeply.
I remember people talking about the relationship between Joy and Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All at Once and while I definitely relate to their story somewhat there was something missing and I didnβt know what it was until I saw Beau is Afraid.
On the one hand thereβs the constant twisting of Beauβs actions that is particularly triggering to me. Him living in one of his mothers apartment buildings and using a card with her money is turned on him when for one thing the apartment is shitty and he is constantly in fear for his life. Number 2 the card was given to him by her to use, because Beau is literally agoraphobic because of HER ACTIONS. He canβt hold down a job even if he wanted to. His whole life is his therapist and his home. I find it so strange that mothers like this will stifle any interest their child has that falls outside of what they want for them and literally block them from opportunities to advance, but then get upset when their kids arenβt able to function on their own as adults.
But thatβs not the main thing that stuck out to me and made me realize I had been carrying this massive weight with me I couldnβt explain.
This ever present fear I felt living with my mother that just never left. This feeling that she was always watching me even when I wasnβt with her and that I couldnβt trust anyone because they would turn them against me eventually. That I couldnβt say bad things about her because the words would find their way back to her. When I was actively going to therapy I would triple check my phone to make sure I didnβt accidentally dial her and she could every word I was saying. Thatβs how terrifying it feels and Iβve never seen that captured on screen. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched Beauβs cries be ignored and as people just let him die. In the silence of the theater I simply stared at the place Beau had been and thought βyou have to leave, you have to get out.β
!End of Spoilers!
Itβs a great movie and I think you should definitely go see it if you have 3 hours to spare. Iβve personally seen it twice and I relate so much to Beau itβs kinda scary. Sorry for this long post I wonder what anyone who saw it thinks though, iβd like to hear new perspectives. Now time to watch Queen Charlotte for something lighter π
