Beau is Afraid

Beau Is Afraid

Writer & Director – Ari Aster

2023, United States-United Kingdom-Finland-Canada

Stars – Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan

 

If my reservations about ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommer’ was that the brilliance on show relied ultimately too heavily on tropes whilst suggesting something even better or wilder was possible, I thought aster would just do more of the same (which would still be a good thing) or something off-the-rails might be on the cards. (I’m thinking in the same arena as Brandon Cronenberg?) Certainly wilder, with ‘Beau is Afraid’ making no concessions: it’s all tease-the-meaning, a picaresque odyssey for a shambling, injured and anxious protagonist. Indeed, it is anxiety that leads the narrative, rather than just the nightmare logic on display, so there is lot of promise and irresolution, and it does gel a little, eventually, but not in any way that is bound to satisfy. WTF? you’ll say, both amused and frustrated, both positively and negatively.

 

It's overlong and the indulgence is the point, but where ‘Midsommer’ felt appropriately paced (I never felt the 3 hours was overlong), ‘Beau is Afraid’ just keeps going, a series of sections that all offer treats, but it’s true that the first is perhaps best. Because perpetual anxiety is the goal, not answers: not really. If ‘Uncut Gems’ ran on audience anxiety, this film runs on Beau’s, and the feel is something between, say, David Lynch (those creepily smiling medical men!), Lars Von Trier’s trolling and ‘Mother!’: that is to say that it won’t be everyone’s cup-of-black-humour-coffee, and he’s sure to lose a few fans built on his more conventional horror tropes, but it’s a film that will click even more on a second watch when knowing what it is.

 

 

Joaquin Phoenix is reliably great, schlubby, and a little weak-willed but personifying our perpetually apprehensive side that rarely takes centre stage or guides narratives. Especially in the first section where he must try and navigate the farcical piling on from an aggressive outside world (yes, prop the door open with the book; that’ll be okay…).  Slightly unkempt, slightly whiny, slightly defiant, worn down by his paranoia and neurosis. In fact, it’s the first section that best displays this. It moves from its start in urban dread and home invasion, it heads into benign/sinister imprisoned, Freudian confrontation, horror in the attic, folk setting, and autobiography as animated folklore, being theatrically judged… All satirical and verging on the wilfully baffling. Throughout, Phoenix projects intelligence and suffering. How afraid should Beau be?

 

A chief narrative of cinema is the reassurance of overcoming, so this adventure to always being thwarted goes against that, but always with the hint that Beau might be to blame himself, that this is all unreliable narrator stuff; but even this manifests the self-recriminatory side to a worrying personality. Even the black humour is less from schadenfreude than from relating to his misfortune or the absurdity of his humiliations.

 

Yes, it tests patience, and it’s brilliantly rendered and just when you find yourself opting out it will likely so something to drag you back in. Too wilfully abstract, perhaps, and happy to frustrate, which will lose many early on. But if you do click with the black comedy, the amusement of discomfort, and the slapstick of misfortune – and the audience I saw it with laughed many times – or if you enjoy trying to decode puzzle-boxes of symbolism and discomfort, then it will offer many joys and highlights.

 

Sisu

Sisu

Writer & Director - Jalmari Helander

2023, Finland-United Kingdom

Stars - Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan

 

A grizzled prospector finally finds gold in the last days of WWII, but then he runs into Nazis and they want it too.

 

Both Jalmari Helander’s ‘Rare Exports’ and ‘Big Game’ felt like premises that were enjoyable near-misses. ‘Sisu’ is the same, in that there’s the feeling that it could have been so much more, that’s its underselling its assets. Although as splendid as it looks, as fun as its WWII/Spaghetti Western mash-up is, it perhaps errs on the side of forsaking any grounding in reality. Although there is initial excitement at the idea of all this playing out in a wasteland where there’s nowhere to run, it rapidly emerges that such problems are solved by indulging in the trend of shrugging off any semblance of realism: he gets hung but it’s clear by that point that he will survive with movie immunity. (And to think I once had issues with ‘Die Hard’ coz I didn’t think it was realistic that they could hug just after he had surely savaged his back by swinging through a window.) When the impossible thing occurs in ‘No One Lives’ happens, it’s hilarious in its audaciousness; when audaciousness is the default here, the surprise and humour wanes. The early minefield game-of-wits stays just the right side, even with the mine-frisbee (that’s funny), but by the end our guy would be dead twenty time over at least. The impossibility of it all and the outrageousness is good for a few chuckles, and we are not expecting total allegiance to plausibility, not at all, but when it becomes apparent that nothing is really at stake, we’re left just with Nazi-bashing and minimal investment.

 

But it’s done really well, and that’s the thing. There’s Helander regulars Jorma and Onni Tommila, with the former holding it all together with a relentlessly stern gaze in place of dialogue. Although Aksel Hennie does match him as a memorable Nazi visage. Kjell Lagerroos’ cinematography is excellent; the pacing is steady instead of frenetic; it’s gleefully pulpy. Not quite as dumb-hijinx as, say, ‘Mad Heidi’, not quite as daftly po-faced as John Wick, but in the same playpens: somewhere between the horror genre’s outrageousness and the action genre’s foregoing of realism. And, despite the tagline, he's not avenging anything, really - although it gets "golden" in there - as he's just killing for the shiny stuff.

 

It’s good-looking fun, at least.

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Directors – Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Writers – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dave Callaham

2023, USA

Stars - Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac

 

 

And then, when it gets tired of dazzling, it kicks in with the narrative fully. Sometimes its speed is so frantic and A.D.D. that if you blink, you’ll miss something. Everything is possible: slapstick with nemesis Spot, other Spider-man films, Lego, Donald Glover, a needle-drop… Spider-cats … Nothing is off the table, it seems. And yet, with everything and everyone, it never loses its focus on Miles. But only a second watch and a pause button will fully reveal all the Easter Eggs and the marvel of the animation. Firstly, just gawp at the variety of art styles on display.

 

Its focus on outsiderism and “I Can Do Anything” are at the heart of super-hero narratives, with all the teen angst and coming-out and intergeneration conflict are all deftly handled. The struggle for friendship, acceptance, achievement, self-acceptance, etc, is more convincing and moving than most. Although the chief magic ingredient is that Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is such a likeable protagonist – though not to undervalue the work done to enhance Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). The animation is fantastic with Miles’ expressions and body-language. And then the narrative really kicks in, expanding on details set out in ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ and even having time for a few twists. It’s a film that is always spiking something new and resonant, whether it’s an art style or something quieter, like an upside-down invisible Miles thinking Glen has turned around for possible kiss.

 

 

Even if its pace and metaverse kaleidoscope will turn off those not used to or interested in keeping up with or engaging with such narratives, for comic book fans it’s a superlative treat. These Miles Morales animated films are proving to be something special, tuned in to the short attention-span but emotional depths of a young modern audience, and formally bold, anarchic yet reverential and seemingly free to do what they want.

 

Exhaustingly gorgeous and thrilling. You could freeze-frame it anywhere and get a spectacular visual. Probably the definitive animation to capture the joyousness of comics.