Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid has been playing commercially since last Thursday night — more than enough time for the NY and LA chapters of the HE community to have seen it. So what’s the verdict?
I said a few days ago that it’s imperfect and deranged but more masterful than not — a crazy movie made by a crazy man, and fascinating for that. Excerpt: “Even when Beau Is Afraid isn’t fully working, it’s a brilliant tour de force on a Fellini Satyricon level…hoo-hoo and cuckoo…through the looking glass & down the white rabbit hole…a truly no-holds-barred, psychologically warped Wizard of Oz mescaline nightmare, unleashed and unloosed…a fine madness…demonic, crazy-ass shit and much of it half mind-blowing and half-hilarious.”
Variety‘s Rebecca Rubin is reporting that Beau Is Afraid has “scored the [year’s] biggest indie box-office opening…having grossed $320,396 on four screens in New York and Los Angeles. Those ticket sales translate to a sizable $80,099 per location, the biggest screen average of the year. It’s also the second-best per-screen-average for A24 after Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems.”
