Ari Aster is a director who suffers from a bad case of David Lynch envy. His previous two features, Hereditary and Midsommar, were unusual enough to appeal to those with cultish tastes, but Beau is Afraid is more Twin Peaks than Twin Peaks. Alas, multiple peaks also entail multiple troughs, and this film lingers most of the time at the bottom of the scale.
Joaquin Phoenix’s Beau is 48 years old (Phoenix’s real age) but he appears a good 20 years older. Takashi Seida/A24 via AP