Modern society, for all its luxuries and technological miracles, can be terrifyingly inhospitable. That seems to be one takeaway of Beau Is Afraid, the third feature from writer-director Ari Aster, who has rapidly established himself as a cinematic enfant terrible in recent years. Aster’s previous two films—the excruciatingly predictable Hereditary (2018) and the pointlessly lurid Wicker Man pastiche Midsommar (2019)—were both directed with formidable style, but their insipid storylines failed to display that same creativity.
Guy Denton is a writer based in Washington, D.C., and the co-host of "The Wrong Stuff" podcast with Matt Lewis.
