Beau is afraid

Beau is afraid to review.

Beau is a paunchy, balding single man in his late 40s with a lattice of anxieties, allergies, neurosis and possibly psychosis in how he sees the world and reality around him. Unlike myself, a svelte wel,l adjusted 47 years of culture and savoir-faire…shut up! Beau is, first and foremost, afraid. But from the outset, that doesn’t seem unreasonable given the world and his situation. There is certainly a lot to be scared of.

Initially starting with a simple life in a city of chaos, Im is drawn to Beau as his most basic tasks are in a backdrop that reminds me of my first trip to the pub after about two years of mainly living lockdown life. I walked in with a mask, an aggressive man challenged me on it, and I walked straight out and didn’t try a pub for another six months. I still don’t like them.

Beau is supposed to make a flight for his father’s memorial, but a bunch of last-minute fears and grievances as he and confrontations escalate as he loses his flight, water, and apartment. And his mother within 24 hours.

This starts his pilgrimage, in a sense, to come home. In many ways, he is an honest abe, ineffectual and unresponsive, while the world seems to line up to blame him for the variety of misfortunes that avail him. It’s not natural, either. His fear, uncertainty, and reliance on being part of medicated America are littered throughout everyone he meets.

To call it a horror comedy would be too simplistic; it is a satire, yes, and the humour is gut-punching; it was the most dynamic experience I have had in a cinema this year and at home don’t know if I could manage the three-hour epic that it is. But from the post-nuclear family that seems to save him to the theatrical visitations in the woods, Beau brings as much chaos as he endures in some ways bringing his trauma with him in the form of an ex-army psychotic also adopted by the nuclear family. 

As personal revelations heap up on brutalist sensibilities and moral massacres, it becomes readily apparent if this is a film about grief and masculinity, it also ensures that of all the privileges a person can be attributed with. The worst could be seen to be; squandered.

In any other movie, Beau would go through a natural growth and healing process, albeit probably involving dressing up as a bat or shooting lasers out of his butt. But as people and groups fall by the wayside from his petty, selfish actions, you can’t help but wonder.

Is this a lack of agency or accountability that Beau is living in?

On a personal note. I see a lot in this character; I lost a parent in late 2020, and let’s be frank. In the last two years, no one had fun. I feel a certain grace and distance from being where Beau is, and I advise consideration of bereavement and middle-aged male ennui as it may be too close a reflection for some. For me, it’s a dark and distorted reflection to be that tripping.

Although, it gives the most realistic sex scenes I’ve seen in ages as he loses his virginity.

I was 38.

Shut up; you wouldn’t know her; she lives in America!

….Im 47.

Get stuffed!

And see this film