--- title: "Beau Is Afraid: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/beau-is-afraid/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/beau-is-afraid" critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 16 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Beau Is Afraid (2023): what the critics said Critics' score 67 from 16 reviews: 9 positive, 4 mixed, 3 negative. The critics are split, and widely. Most admire the ambition: Aster has made a three-hour black comedy about a frightened man trying to reach his mother, and the warmer reviews call it bold, original and frightening in new ways, with praise for Joaquin Phoenix’s lead performance recurring in almost every notice, favourable or not. The production design and the early set-pieces draw the kindest words. The reservations cluster on length and shape. Even admirers say the film sags in the middle, with Time Out naming the stretch with the theatrical troupe as the weakest, and several find the second half drifting into fantasy it cannot control. The harsher reviews go further: The Times calls it a tedious, self-indulgent dud, and Film Comment finds a film about guilt with little empathy for anyone but its hero. Little White Lies dissents on Phoenix too, calling the performance one-note. The mixed reviews agree it is exhausting by design and disagree on whether that excuses it. ## IndieWire — David Ehrlich Rating B+. 10 April 2023. Aster's delirious three-hour guilt trip expands his obsessions into surreal shapes and may be his scariest film, boldly exploring the horrors of unconditional love and inherited trauma. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/beau-is-afraid-review-ari-aster-1234827032/) ## Radio Times — Patrick Cremona Rating 4/5. Aster delivers an ambitious three-hour black comedy that is original and cements his reputation, with wicked humour and a viscerally uneasy tone throughout Beau’s surreal odyssey. The indulgent length and unconventional storytelling may test some viewers’ patience. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-dkiogf/beau-is-afraid/) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 11 April 2023. Aster’s audacious third feature is hailed as a stunning exploration of mother issues and a superb showcase for Joaquin Phoenix, blending tension, humour and pathos with meticulous tonal command. The epic odyssey structure and vivid production design create a nightmarish yet nuanced world. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/beau-is-afraid-review/5180774.article) ## Time Out — Ian Freer Rating 4/5. 5 April 2023. Aster’s ambitious black comedy is praised as ballsy filmmaking anchored by a superb Joaquin Phoenix, delivering unpredictable dark vignettes and new emotional notes. The middle section with the theatrical troupe is noted as the weakest stretch in an otherwise thrilling, original odyssey. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/beau-is-afraid-2023) ## Empire — John Nugent Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 11 April 2023. Aster's film is a viscerally anxious, gallows-humour odyssey of Murphy's Law gone nightmarish, with standout set-pieces and Phoenix's exceptional performance. The second half loses its way in surreal fantasy, but the overall result remains a jaw-dropping, if uneven, trip. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/beau-is-afraid/) ## The AV Club — Jordan Hoffman Rating C+. 11 April 2023. The exhausting three-hour slog is juvenile and abrasive with some great individual moments and committed acting, but ultimately irritating by design and lacking stakes. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/beau-is-afraid-film-review-joaquin-phoenix-1850309546) ## Little White Lies — Hannah Strong Rating 3/3/3. 11 April 2023. The review calls the film an ambitious but scattered psychodrama undermined by a one-note lead performance and excessive length. It praises the premise involving Joaquin Phoenix’s anxious journey but finds the execution uneven overall. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/beau-is-afraid) ## Film Comment — Genevieve Yue Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 20 April 2023. The critic views the film as a torturous solipsism centered on guilt, mother-son dynamics, and paranoia, with some sharp jokes but little empathy or social depth beyond Beau's neuroses. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/mother-knows-best-beau-is-afraid-ari-aster-review/) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 15 May 2023. The critic finds Aster’s third feature an overlong, episodic fantasia that fails to generate momentum or psychological depth despite its surreal elements and length. Phoenix’s performance as the guilt-ridden protagonist and the production design provide some pleasures amid the scattershot approach. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/beau-afraid-ari-asters-overblown-fantasia) ## The i Paper — Christina Newland Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2023. The film is a building panic attack of absurd misfortunes and blackly funny discomfort, anchored by a strong Phoenix turn. Its self-indulgent three-hour bloat and lack of structure in the second half disappoint fans expecting tighter horror. [Read the review](https://inews.co.uk/culture/beau-is-afraid-review-ari-aster-fans-disappointed-hereditary-midsommar-2349814) ## Los Angeles Times — Justin Chang 14 April 2023. Aster’s raging Oedipal phantasmagoria centers on a wholly committed Joaquin Phoenix as a guilt-ridden loner on an odyssey. The film confirms the director’s talent but also reveals his limitations in a guilt trip to nowhere. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-04-14/review-beau-is-afraid-ari-aster-joaquin-phoenix) ## Slant Magazine — Derek Smith 11 April 2023. Aster traces tragedy to birth itself in this wildly inventive, deeply personal absurdist odyssey, with mesmerizing stylistic flourishes and a spectacular meta finale that pulls the threads together. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/beau-is-afraid-review-joaquin-phoenix-ari-aster/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw 21 May 2023. The film is an amusingly patience-testing shaggy dog story about a hapless man's tortuous journey to see his mother, full of Oedipal angst and surreal episodes. Parts are hilarious while others sag or feel insufferable. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/21/beau-is-afraid-review-ari-aster-joaquin-phoenix-a-patience-testing-shaggy-dog-story) ## The Hollywood Reporter — David Rooney 10 April 2023. Aster's ambitious dark comedy is a bold, uneven but impressive Freudian odyssey fueled by anxiety and Oedipal angst, with standout committed performances from Phoenix and LuPone. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/beau-is-afraid-review-joaquin-phoenix-ari-aster-1235369262/) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis 12 April 2023. Ari Aster’s supersized tale follows a terminal sad-sack who endures a long, eventful journey to visit his monstrous mother. The critic finds the three-hour head space claustrophobic, assaultive and ultimately enervating despite some respect for the filmmaking craft. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/movies/beau-is-afraid-review-ari-aster.html) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★☆☆☆☆. 19 May 2023. Aster has produced a dud that is a tedious, self-indulgent mess abandoning cerebral horror for navel-gazing introspection. Joaquin Phoenix's neurotic performance and the film's absurd, dream-like elements fail to engage. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/beau-is-afraid-review-a-tedious-self-indulgent-mess-tx5m7v5vf) ## Variety — Peter Debruge 11 April 2023. Joaquin Phoenix plays a simpering man-child in Ari Aster’s runaway arrested-development epic. The indulgent three-hour running time reflects what happens when a technically gifted artist receives too much creative freedom. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/beau-is-afraid-review-joaquin-phoenix-ari-aster-1235577518/) ## Collider — Ross Bonaime Rating A-. 19 April 2023. The critic finds the film a bold, ambitious, and highly original experiment that blends a personal metaphorical exploration of a mother-son relationship with dark comedy and surreal elements. They single out Aster's writing and direction for creating an unpredictable, entertaining, and confounding journey full of stunning imagery and humor. [Read the review](https://collider.com/beau-is-afraid-review/) ## The Wrap Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2023. Aster's fearless, labyrinthine third feature is a stunning, unknowable and immersive opus that is both great art and a great artifact. Phoenix gives one of his best performances as the guilt-ridden protagonist on an epic journey full of emotional gulfs, weirdness and invention. [Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/beau-is-afraid-review-ari-aster-joaquin-phoenix/) ## /Film — Chris Evangelista Rating 8/10. 10 April 2023. The critic praises the film's ambitious, surreal, chaotic world and Joaquin Phoenix's performance, calling it big, weird, and kind of wonderful, while noting its length and Freudian themes. [Read the review](https://www.slashfilm.com/1250425/beau-is-afraid-review-joaquin-phoenix-ari-aster/) ## NME — Paul Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2023. Aster delivers his most divisive and uncompromising work yet—an overstuffed, feverish fever dream of anxiety, Freudian symbolism, and dark humor that is weird, scary, funny, and life-affirming in its ambition. [Read the review](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/beau-is-afraid-review-joaquin-phoenix-3445540) ## Deadline — Pete Hammond Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2023. The film is an overlong, exhausting and sometimes indulgent three-hour odyssey through the protagonist's anxieties and mommy issues, structured like a Kafkaesque novel. Phoenix delivers a fearless, uninhibited performance in a divisive movie bound to become a cult favorite for Aster fans. [Read the review](https://deadline.com/2023/04/beau-is-afraid-review-joaquin-phoenix-ari-aster-1235321342/) ## Den of Geek — Don Kaye Rating 2.5/5. 20 April 2023. Aster's ambitious but undisciplined three-hour epic is a slog that fails to connect emotionally despite strong cast moments and surreal elements; it leaves viewers distant from Beau's plight. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/beau-is-afraid-joaquin-phoenix-mommy-issues-problems-ari-aster/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/beau-is-afraid.md