dsohn7

This movie was a plotty fever dream of random sequence of events that have little to no apparent connection to character or theme. I also noticed a lot of excess dialogue that could've easily been left out that would've saved the animators a lot of effort. The script felt like an early draft, in the cringey stage full of kinks that should've been ironed out before they expensed all that effort to animate over it. There were a lot of familiar visual motifs that have become Ghibli bingo card staples, but rather than feeling anchored/motivated by the story/character, it felt like they were checking it off a list. Weird human/bird body transformation, check. Gross slimy goo, check. An overwhelming blizzard of paper, check. Evil manifesting as an amorphous blob with tendrils, check. Overall this was a confusing, disappointing watch.

This movie is absurd, demented, and surprisingly hilarious (I didn't know this was a comedy going into it) but I see the point of the movie's surreal nature, since we're seeing the world through the POV of a person with extreme anxiety. Beau's world is absolutely terrifying but it's so over-the-top, it makes us question what an objective reality would even look like. I can only imagine how stressed Joaquin Phoenix was filming this since Beau's fight-or-flight (more like flight or freeze) is engaged from start to finish.

On that note, this movie can be stressful to watch for the viewer because the passive protagonist isn't the driver of their own story and exercises little agency (same issue in Midsommar). That being said, I can totally see Beau is Afraid having longevity despite how polarizing it is (like A Clockwork Orange)

I wasn't sure if I liked the movie or not when it ended; it was so much to process, and I left the theater in a daze. And yet, the moments that stuck with me were the funny parts and I find myself smirking. I'll have to watch it again but I think I loved it...