Beau is Afraid (BIA) is outrageously bad. I’ve watched Ari Astor before, I’ve liked Hereditary. However, BIA is his worst piece yet. The writer director instructed audiences to ignore details - so when surrealism, which naturally invokes questions, begs the question, Ari Astor instead basically says “don’t worry about it”. If I’m told not to pay attention to details, why pay any attention to the rest of the movie? If I can’t ask myself questions about details because details don’t matter, then 2h59m of a movie is an entire waste.
Without providing spoilers, BIA involves an excellent amount of set up, but fails to address the set up - as the writer director himself says to ignore such details.
I am not surprised this was a box office fail.