I Saw A Movie

hey everyone Anthony fantano here internet's busiest music nerd I hope you're doing well and it's time for a thing on this channel that I almost never do and that's a movie review straight off the Dome my thoughts on the new re Astor movie Beau is afraid uh starring Joaquin Phoenix as well as Nathan Lane who when I first saw him on screen uh I [ __ ] lost it but uh if you guys are unfamiliar with the writer and director Ari Astor's work which you should be if you're into film at all but uh he's had some hits with a24 in the recent past a hereditary [ __ ] love that movie also obviously mid-summer which is uh kind of a cultural force of sorts some consider it to be one of the best cult themed movies of all time I prefer hereditary to it but the one thing I will say about mid-summer is I think a lot of the cinematography and the outfits and the color palettes across the movie are fan fantastic never have I seen a movie with so many horrible things going on in it that is so colorful and is so bright and in a way is so warm now the massive success of those two films at least you know relative to a24 is typical output has clearly put the production company and Ari in a position where he's kind of their Golden Child at least up until now he could pretty much do no wrong it seems that a24 had allowed him to pretty much just do whatever the hell he wanted uh the third time around here let me tell you this movie is absolutely insane they dumped 35 million dollars into it and I don't think there's ever going to be another movie like it not just because I I don't think there's going to be another director out there like Ari that there's going to be another thought coming out of even a similar director's head that aligns with what we see here in this film oh man on top of it to have the budget on top of it to execute something that's massive and indulgent and over the top uh yeah that's kind of a star's line moment that we're probably only going to see one time in this instance Right Here Right Now the film again if you have not seen a massive budget especially for an a24 film it is three entire hours long and essentially Works in four sections now if you go throughout YouTube You'll see no shortage of reviews that essentially function as a synopsis for the film I don't know how much at this point that would really be of service to anybody clicking on a video such as this as you may already know by now the film essentially Works in four parts much of the first two parts are spent kind of giving the audience different angles and Sensations having to do with the main character played Again by Joaquin Phoenix Bo we're getting a lot of scenes dialogue interactions and plot points that essentially illustrate his depression his anxiety disorder I don't want to spoil too many details of what exactly goes on in the film because I think part of the movie's appeal and what makes it hit in the way that it does is kind of the element of surprise that it has in a lot of cases and when I say that I don't mean Justin kind of like a horror sense because don't go into this film assuming it's a horror piece like hereditary or even you know kind of creepy or shocking in the way that um Midsummer was while there are many and many shocking parts of Beau is afraid uh many of those shocking parts are actually absurdly and outlandishly funny which is I guess what I want to get more into how this film made me feel I've seen a lot of movies over the course of my lifetime both in in the theaters and at home and I've never been to a film or experienced one that simultaneously had me so freaked out and on edge but at the same time also had me laughing as loud and as consistently as I was a lot of that may come down to whatever your personal sense of humor is but like when some absolutely crazy batshit insane stuff would go down on the screen that's completely unforeseen I would just lose it because like what is this why is this happening like it's complete pandemonium for scene after scene after scene after scene and of course there are some moments where things kind of like calm down and uh Ari kind of eases up on the gas and pumps the brakes a little bit but that's only to set you up for something even more horrible coming down the pipe I guess a way of explaining this device and this progression of things without spoiling what occurs in the movie would be to say that Bo obviously as somebody who's suffering severely severely with anxiety issues with self-esteem issues is constantly in this mindset of what is the worst thing that could happen in any given moment which if you are the type of person or you know uh the type of person who is constantly seeing things in that way of viewing things constantly in a negative you know how those thoughts feel or how they can impact yours or somebody else's decisions like oh I might not do this or not do this because what if this horrible thing happens or what if this other horrible thing happens and so on and so forth like imagine that but those things are actually happening and actually coming to life in the world that Beau is immersed in and not only are they happening but they're magnified times 10 in terms of how bad they actually are they're magnified to the point where they're just beyond imagination like nothing in this man's world goes right and as the film goes on obviously there are a lot of hints and a lot of points and a lot of nods and suggestions that much of this comes back to his childhood and the fact that he is such a demure kind of person he is passive he's not only passive in general he's passive in his own life in terms of like what controls him and what influences him he essentially has no spine yes this is sort of a choice to a degree but also he was kind of reared and raised to be this way as well somebody who is easily manipulated and controlled the first two chapters of the film are really just like a freaking Thrill Ride in terms of just all the insane stuff going on it's it's really outlandish and non-stop to the point where it's difficult to pull together a literal storyline out of it because it all feels like a completely surreal nightmare going on at all times it's just a total [ __ ] roller coaster and within the span of time you're getting like a normal movies amount of stimulation there's still so much more to go from here I'll say these first two chapters of the film account for maybe the most intense movie going experience that I've ever had and that alone like makes going to see this or even you know popping in with it when it eventually hits streaming worth it beyond that we hit the third chapter which is where I've seen most of the criticisms of this film crop up in terms of like the reviews that I've caught it's this very colorful theatrical dream sequence whose you know images is and Aesthetics are a total switch up from the rest of the film takes me out of the movie a little bit but it's still very engaging and beautiful and compelling this portion of the film lasts a very long time and I in some ways I think it's pretty significant because it draws so many parallels with what you've seen up until that point and for the character Beau himself it's an attempt at sort of illustrating here's what your life would be like or could be if you you know actually like decided to live your life rather than you know just kind of exist in it passively or just live in a state of constant fear now again this portion of the movie is very long it's like really another epic part of the story but at least within the storyline what we what we can understand of the storyline because it's so crazy and fragmented and there's so little going on that we could interpret as literal from what we can tell this whole thing this whole experience variance just happens within one single evening so it's not like this crazy Journey that like you know totally upends the entire progression of the story or anything like that it's just kind of like a whole Cinema of the Mind thing happening within the head of the main character and it's just more for the audience to kind of see and experience as far as like you know further understanding uh the film's message in terms of uh you know anxiety fear self-esteem and a whole host of other things regardless of any criticisms of uh this portion of the movie being too long or unnecessary or annoying which you know could be valid to a degree it is a very lengthy movie at three hours and you know a lot of people frankly don't want to sit down for a three hour film I personally don't find myself going to the movies that often generally and when I do go out to the movies it's usually because I'm super into a particular director or I've heard second hand uh that the experience of a certain film was kind of unique or weird or off B and I just kind of want to get into the theater and see whatever the heck that is I'm usually not going to you know the movies for kind of a a regular experience I'm not taking myself out regularly to see like you know the new uh Fast and Furious movie or Transformers movie [ __ ] that call me pretentious but I don't give a [ __ ] it is long and it does add a lot of length to the film however uh if you took it out or if you cut it back you would lose a lot of eye candy in the movie honestly and I found a lot of the scenes and a lot of the visuals throughout this portion to be some of the most emotionally impactful in the entire film and I I don't know if um you know I would rather they be gone I feel like they added to my movie going experience overall I don't know so much of everything that you see in the movie feels like a nightmare to some degree anyway there's so many things about the world that Beau exists in where uh you know every moment every setting every person just seems a little bit off and just not really in touch with reality truly what is it to go into a dream sequence in the midst of a nightmare sequence anyway plus the chapters of the film surrounding this sequence for the most part are just really unnerving and disturbing and hilarious and dark and ridiculous it's nice to have this little Oasis of sorts in the midst of the film where even though it is a weird theatrical Motif or passage um you know things almost kind of like make sense here you could kind of get your grasp of things through this epic Hero's tale of sorts in in this portion of the film I think it I think it does add to the overall experience again but beyond here we take a very dark turn in the last chapter where Beau essentially faces down um you know his uh uh mother his childhood just everything that has happened up until this point who kind of made him the person he is that battle if you could call it that does not have the most optimal outcome I mean you know without uh saying too much in terms of like literally what happens I remember when the film ended one of the first things I heard when the credits started to roll was this lady and her friends got up behind me and started walking out of the theater and she had said well that was depressing and that was the other thing like there was one woman who I'm pretty sure just like pieced out an hour into the movie and just like walked out of the damn thing even though the theater was not packed I could like really feel over the course of the film everybody collectively getting more tired and more traumatized by everything that they were seeing on the screen and while there were a lot of points even toward the end of the film where I was like laughing and kind of losing my [ __ ] how outlandish some of the stuff I was seeing was uh it it felt weirder and weirder continuing to laugh at some of this stuff because like you know I was hearing fewer people in the theater laughing and hearing and seeing more like proclamations such as like what the [ __ ] as there were just a lot of people there who couldn't believe what they were seeing on the screen one other thing I'll say about this movie is even though it was intense and disorienting and in a lot of respects jarring I can't say there was anything in the film that one reflecting back on it and there was a lot to reflect on that made absolutely no sense whatsoever and let me clarify this I don't mean everything I was seeing on the screen was like a sensible presentation of actions and events obviously that's not the case what I mean is there is so much subtext to the movie and everything occurring does add to the overall message of the film even if it does make sometimes the narrative difficult to follow because that's kind of the thing while this movie does have a narrative of sorts if you're looking to grab onto that and simply hold on to it to carry you from the start to the end of the film and kind of like a you know safe and predictable way you're going to be severely disappointed the message and the subtext of the movie if you're going to get anything out of this film and if you're going to you know have like uh even a good time watching it and have some you know important takeaways from it it's going to be more more about kind of latching onto that this movie is just drowning in subtext at all points subtext is just oozing from every corner of it when you're seeing something on the screen it's not really a question of uh what does this mean for the storyline or how does this progress us to the next point it's really more about what does this say about anxiety what does this say about fear what does this say about being manipulated what does this say about not being able to overcome various mental adversities and traumas what does this say about being like a passenger in your own life when you're feeling those things and experiencing those things uh what drives you into that space What are the the negatives and the cons the punishments for uh you know being that way or having that mindset I don't know if I want to kind of get into uh you know the details of this film anymore because I think if I do I'll be spoiling too much but uh I'll I'll leave this saying I loved the movie I loved it I would like to watch it again maybe in chunks I don't know if I would immediately jump back into the full three-hour experience I think I would like to watch the first portion and then stop it and kind of take it in and sort of like see how I feel about it or see if there's anything I didn't pick up the first time around then maybe a little while later pick up the second chapter put it down and kind of approach it like that but again loved the movie one of the most impactful experiences I've had in the theater however I have a hard time like making the jump to recommending it in a way because I feel like the act of recommending this movie is like you know actively recommending people undergo like potentially a triggering experience because like there were a lot of people in the theater who had a bad time watching this like very like very clearly it's hard uh sort of you know of knowingly recommending something that I think people are going to have bad time experiencing with an album you could always kind of turn it off or kind of skip a track if you feel like something sucks or you're not into it or whatever you know going out to the theater and sort of subjecting yourself to like a whole three hour film uh just filled with all these like shocking traumatic images and like weird freaky scary but also funny um you know occurrences and scenes it's a lot I'm like really asking uh for people to really put themselves through something uh if I'm if I'm to kind of jump on here and say yeah go go see this movie yeah go go see this crazy ass movie which I guess at the end of the day just by virtue of saying that I loved it and I thought it was great and I'm always going to remember this movie I I am kind of doing that but I mean you know I think I I would hope I've given you guys an a fair warning in terms of like what this is and what is in it so that you kind of know what you're getting into if you decide to you know go ahead and uh put some time toward experiencing this movie and if you are somebody who has you know experienced some of the the feelings and the emotional struggles that I've kind of described Beau is having in this film I think this movie is really going to speak to you and say a lot to you maybe more than you're kind of like willing to um deal with or process in that moment but uh you know ultimately when you finally kind of Wade through the muck and the insanity of what the film throws in front of you uh it might be something that you get a lot out of and yeah I guess I can leave it there not so freaking film Ari not so not so film your nutty guy

Channel: fantano

Views: 224,860

Keywords: music, anthony fantano, needle drop, beau is afraid, ari aster, joachin phoenix, film, watched, reaction, review

Id: 9kWNyg8bY1E

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Mon May 29 2023