The master of anxiety – Ari Aster – helps Joaquin Phoenix deliver his best performance to date. Aster masterfully brings the psyche of what anxiety looks like from generational trauma. With the film shaping up to be quite divisive already, I only hope for people to witness this story and be willing to have conversations afterwards.

I couldn’t finish Aster’s previous films – Hereditary & Midsommar – due to how much it ignited my anxiety for me and messed with my emotions; however, I can still respect a filmmaker who can bring the audience into a film like that, so I was actually open and excited to seeing this. Now after seeing it, I have no regrets.

This is probably one of the best movies that I have seen about anxiety, and it even hit a little close to home at times. It also helps Phoenix deliver his best performance. The amount of commitment for this nearly 3 hour runtime should not go unnoticed. I can truly see why he had panic attacks while playing this role. While the movie can appear to be crazy and unrealistic, it’s taking us through the viewpoint of Beau. It shows why he has so much anxiety and the negative thoughts that go through his head. As much as he wants what is best for others, it has lead him to a life of ruin that will be difficult for him to get out of. Also, the part where the film plays out like a dream-sequence play has got to be one of the best scenes of the year by far for movies.

The weaker points of the film are within some plot points. There is a family introduced that act as a surrogate family for Beau. They seem great, but just like his mother, they have hidden secrets that can make the counterpoint of them not being great. As much as I enjoyed Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane in these roles, adding in the mix of the daughter just really didn’t do anything to enhance the story, which is really the weakest point of the whole movie. The story can get a little lost with what it wants to convey at times such as this. There is even a point where Beau goes to the attic of his family home that literally did not do anything and almost made me check out from the rest of the movie.

I do have mixed feelings on the ending. I can appreciate the metaphor behind it. The audience that is watching and judging for themselves if Beau is bad or good is essentially the viewers, including me, watching it and making the determination on what happens to him. When the crowd leaves on screen as the credits roll, we are also doing the same, but at what cost? Did we not care what happened to this character enough to do something more? I think it really asks this question to see if we really cared and symphonized with this relatable character through his mental illness. Furthermore, it asks if we just leave to go to our normal lives or do we feel impacted enough to begin making a difference. What I didn’t like about the ending is how characters and aspects of the story were introduced that didn’t do much for the story, and it ended in a way that can be hard to accept if you are dedicating your time to its runtime.

Overall, I really think people should this if they have the opportunity. The marketing has been quite vacant and seemed to only really begin at the beginning of the month. For perspective, there were probably no more than 20 people in my theater with me watching this. The last time that happened was during Babylon, and they both came out opening weekend and we all know how Babylon turned out financially. I like the idea that ideas can be challenged through an artistic form like this. Whether you think it’s bad or good, you were certainly have an interesting conversation with others about it.

Aster hasn’t won me over as a fan yet, but I can appreciate his work enough in this to be intrigued in what he does next.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)