One of 2023’s most mysterious movies just got much less mysterious, as A24 has debuted the brand-new trailer for “Midsommar” and “Hereditary” director Ari Aster’s latest film, “Beau Is Afraid.”
Up until now all we had were snippets of information – Aster himself described it as a four-hour-long “nightmare comedy” back in 2020, and it was described as being a decades-spanning epic set in an alternate version of modern-day America. Oscar-winning star Joaquin Phoenix was said to go on a decades-spanning odyssey battling demons both psychological and literal. And now that the official trailer for the movie has dropped, well, yeah, that all checks out.
The 2.5-minute spot certainly teases that “nightmare comedy” tone, with the bits shown of co-stars Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane being just left-of-center enough that sweetness reads as sinister. We also see Phoenix’s Beau age and de-age, enter different dimensions and even walk alongside an angel? What’s it all mean? Well, your guess is as good as ours.
Formerly titled “Disappointment Blvd.,” the cast for “Beau Is Afraid” is appropriately stacked, featuring Lane, Ryan, Patti LuPone, Parker Posey, Michael Gandolfini, Zoe Lister-Jones, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Richard Kind. Aster’s regular DP Pawel Pogorzelski also returns, along with Aster’s producer Lars Knudsen (their production company Square Peg co-produced “Beau Is Afraid”).
“Beau Is Afraid” will be released on April 28, 2023. Watch the first trailer above.
