Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is going to visit his mother for the anniversary of his father’s death, a man he never met. However Beau suffers from crippling anxiety and guilt so his trip to his mother’s is an odyssey through his mind whilst everything that could go wrong does go wrong. 

Beau Is Afraid is a visual representation of an anxiety fuelled mind where nothing that we see can be trusted as being real. The story is meandering and occasionally feels aimless as we wander through a series of obstacles that slow his journey. Each of which seems to be punctuated by some huge physical injury to Beau. 

The film opens with him negotiating problems with his day to day life. He sees his therapist and when he returns to his apartment he has to race inside as it is almost like a war zone with a dead body in the middle of the road and all sorts of chaos happening outside. Later after sustaining an injury he is seemingly helped by a couple played by Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan. But every time he tries to leave there is another reason for them to make him stay. Later he encounters a travelling troupe of actors where he seemingly enters the play which also introduces a partly animated aspect of the film. 

Beau has mummy issues, father issues and a fear of just about everything. And over the course of three hours writer/director Ari Aster (Hereditary and Midsommar) bombards you with a series of imagery and metaphor that veers between opaque and transparent and everything in between. 

The film is reminiscent of similarly symbolism riddled horror movies Men and mother! But Beau Is Afraid is the least approachable of these! 

Personally I was intrigued whilst watching although not necessarily because I was enjoying myself and suspect I will never revisit this again. An example of artistry over enjoyment and approachability.