There is a brief scene in the arresting and spectacular “Beau is Afraid,” Ari Aster’s fearless, labyrinthine and wickedly immersive third feature, when the ink of an uncooperative pen runs out as the film’s hypersensitive protagonist tries to scribble “love”. It’s both a hilarious moment and a heartbreaking one in a bottomless film overflowing with similar emotional gulfs, with sadness and laughter erupting frequently, often within the same instant.
The scene is funny because, by the time it arrives, we have already learned a great deal about the misfortunes of Beau, played with a startling level of vulnerability by a soft-spoken, gloomy-eyed Joaquin Phoenix, both enigmatic and translucently bare.