A24 has released the first trailer for Beau Is Afraid, confirming it will be released in theaters on April 21. Ari Aster's third feature after Midsommar and Hereditary, the "nightmare comedy" as the filmmaker has previously described it certainly looks every bit as bonkers as his past work and very weird.
Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) plays the movie's lead from childhood right through to old age, and a logline from last year may offer some clues as to what's happening here. It described Beau Is Afraid as "a decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time."
Now, that's been followed by a relatively unrevealing synopsis that reads, "A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved new film from writer/director Ari Aster." With those and this eerie first footage, we could attempt to figure out what's going on, but something tells us this ride will be best enjoyed on the big screen.
Along with Phoenix, the movie stars Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen Mckinley Henderson, Hayler Squires, Denis Ménochet, Kylie Rogers, Armen Nahapetian, with Parker Posey, and Pattie Lupone.
All signs point to it being based on Aster's 2011 short movie Beau, and we anticipate this effort finding just as much success as Midommer ($47.9 million) and Hereditary ($82.5 million) at the box office. Yes, it may look a little too odd for some people's tastes, but if nothing else, expect many moments from this trailer to live on as GIFs for the foreseeable future!
As noted, Beau Is Afraid arrives in theaters on April 21.