Beau

One of Ari Aster's early short films offers a brief glimpse of what would later be realized in Beau Is Afraid. What we have here is a short experience full of tension from the perspective of a neurotic man. Beau is a man who suffers from so much tension and insecurity that his sanity plummets. There are very absurd situations that are hard to believe are real and are probably products of Beau's imagination. The pacing and tension are well done for a low-budget short film. From the first minute, the tension is captivating and it remains so until the absurd moments arrive to take the seriousness out of the matter. More than anything, what is witnessed is the wild delirium of an unstable man mixed with his irrational fears. Here, Ari Aster was already showing his dark sense of humor and psychological horror style that would be seen in his films. Although Beau is not a great short film due to its amateurishness and exaggerated performances, it at least served as a starting point for Ari Aster to materialize one of the best surrealist films. My final rating for this movie is a 5/10.

This is a big improvement on Herman's Cure-All Tonic (2008), with Beau being an overall very good short film from Ari Aster. It's like the first quarter of 2023's Beau is Afraid, but condensed into only about seven minutes. I feel like if I had watched this before seeing Beau is Afraid, my one complaint would've been wanting it to be longer... but then Beau is Afraid comes around with a 179-minute runtime, and it might've felt like a case of "Be careful what you wish for."

I liked the mix of absurd and mean-spirited comedy with a constant sense of anxiety. It builds well, but unfortunately doesn't seem to know how to end well - I do think that might be another criticism, beyond wishing to see this play out over a few more minutes.

But it's still good. I think it's roughly as effective as a short film as Beau is Afraid was as a very long film. Both feel as though they're worth checking out.