Late in Ari Aster’s subversive Oedipal odyssey, “Beau Is Afraid,” Joaquin Phoenix’s neurotic man-child enters a play in the woods as a momentary escape from his nightmarish existence. The 12-minute, predominantly stop-motion sequence — aptly titled “Hero Beau” — joyfully conjures an alternate reality of what might have been for Beau, free of his castrating mother (Zoe Lister-Jones and Patti LuPone), raising three boys on a farm, surviving a disaster, and living a full life.
Directed by Chilean animators Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“La Casa Lobo”), this movie-within-the-movie is exquisitely hand-crafted with the aid of some set design by production designer Fiona Crombie (“The Favourite”), evoking an unnatural world that’s as symbolically dreamlike as the rest of the film. It serves as Beau’s emotional high point and provides the impetus for the rest of his actions thereafter.
“The original plan was not for it to be animated...
Directed by Chilean animators Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“La Casa Lobo”), this movie-within-the-movie is exquisitely hand-crafted with the aid of some set design by production designer Fiona Crombie (“The Favourite”), evoking an unnatural world that’s as symbolically dreamlike as the rest of the film. It serves as Beau’s emotional high point and provides the impetus for the rest of his actions thereafter.
“The original plan was not for it to be animated...
- 4/24/2023
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
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