I think the whole point of the movie is that there is no reality outside of his perception. He never gets a moment where he knows what the world “really” looks like, so neither does the audience because what the world “really” looks like doesn’t really exist.
Yes... but films need a plot. And in order for a plot to exist, reality must as well. If his perceptions are made up, there must be a grain of reality in there somewhere because it's clear Beau is a real human living in the real world who exists in space. Consequently, this film really doesn't have a plot at all. Or at least a coherent one. This movie felt like a collection of images so much more than a real film. The images have meaning when examined individually, but when compiled are meaningless.
@@myles6235 I don’t disagree, but I’m not as negative about films without a plot. I used to be, but Tree of Life was amazing, so now I’m more open to the “tone piece” type of film. That said, Tree of Life is literally the only film like that which I have actually liked, so while I respect Beau is Afraid, it still failed to me. Side note: nobody seems to be talking about it, but conceptually it feels so similar to Bardo.
@@icebergthegamer The point the original commenter is making is that an agreed upon reality doesn't exist, so it wouldn't be possible to show any reality. Everyone has their own "reality" which is filtered through their own perceptions, so what we're experiencing through Beau's perspective is just as much reality as any other person's perspective in the movie. That's what I got from it, anyway
The way I interpreted the father in the attic was that Mona was so obsessed with creating a child that she used some man, not seeing him as a human, but a disgusting means to an end she had to face to have Beau, then discarded him.
I think she in a way passed down her distain for men to Beau who was so scared of having any sex because of it, implanting an irrational fear to get him to behave, like churches do. I don’t even think he ever even masturbated once because of it and that’s why his testes were engorged. The person in the attic was his brother, the phallic monster and resurrected ex-soldier dude were his imagination.
I saw that as well. Also, from my personal experience as a step-mother of two boys whose mom is not full blown narcissistic, but definitely controlling and manipulative as a result of her own fucked up parents, I couldn't help but see a reflection of how she tends to view my partner as this dick who won't just go away. She clearly hates him--even though she was the one who cheated and then left him during a medical crisis--and sees our relationship with her sons as a threat. We aren't real people to her. TMI?
I think Beau's relationship with water is the same as his relationship with his mother. He needs it, it gives him life, but also it can throw him around, smother him, kill him
Also creates a great image with the mirror of a womb! Like in the penultimate scene of Beau in the calm water (right before the trial is uncovered), water acts as his safety net. This is similar to the comfort his mother provided him in the womb - which later acts as a metaphor for her dangerous grip on him. What starts out as comforting and safe eventually seals his fate.
I haven’t seen anyone mention how Elaine chose for them to have sex to the song Alwaya be my baby, and of course she dies, but then his mother is the revealed to be alive. Instead of just a funny song, I took it more as relating to Mona’s relationship with Beau and that she’s always there with him. Literally embodying the lyrics of the song “oh boy, you know you can’t escape me. Oh darling because you’ll be my baby.” Another symbolism moment to describe Mona’s hold on Beau.
Damn yes! Listen to how sinister the lyrics are (in light of what happens next): No you'll always be a part of me I'm part of you indefinitely Boy don't you know you can't escape me Oh darlin' 'cause you'll always be my baby And we'll linger on Time can't erase a feelin' this strong No way you're never gonna shake me Oh darlin' cause you'll always be my baby Yikes.
I really enjoyed the background plot of the grieving family. I felt so bad for their girl who obviously needed present parents, but they're too wrapped up about their dead son, and they keep trying to replace him with sick people- when they have their own daughter. Paint scene broke me
I know Aster also has a short film about munchausen by proxy, and I feel like a lot of that shines through during that section. A parent getting controlling so the child can’t leave the parent
The daughter was simultaneously the most and least sympathetic character for me, she deserved her fate but still a deeply tragic situation that she made worse. The paint scene was also so absurd and extreme I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about it, I think I was laughing, but it wasn’t funny.
Man that paint scene reminded me way too much of people overdosing after living in broken families.. if you've never watched someone die I understand how it wouldn't affect you,. I thought it was traumatic tho.
So, my mom is super narcissistic. This movie reminded me so much of my relationship with her. It took me going no-contact- or killing the world she created for me to live in which leads to the death of the old self- to actually begin the healing process. I feel like this movie is a brilliant criticism of those relationships, but also a road map (including the meandering daydreams and gaslighting yourself that those daydreams of a better, simpler life could never work) to healing. I've been 1 year no contact and made so much progress. This film is the most I've ever felt seen or represented in this facet. Also the cave I think is more Beau's own mind. When you are trying to disconnect from a relationship like this, there is lots of litigation inside your mind where your mother's words will literally overrule your own thoughts. Beau in the boat fighting back and eventually begging to be released from the boat he's trapped in, felt appropriately symbolic. As for the crowd, I think it's more about Beau's perception of the world. I don't think it's indicting the world, as much as it's showing them how the mind works; perception is reality. Beau sees the entire world as being on his mother's side, or at the very least spectators and accessories to her work (many were even in the image on the timeline wall, all in Mona's employ). They see Beau as a sad pitiful joke of a man (in Beau's perception mind you), so they aren't in his corner. It's not until his mother's carefully crafted version of Beau dies that the majority of them leave the stadium. There is a lot to say about this and I'll write it up on Letterboxd.
I like this interpretation. I can’t wait for the Blu-ray with commentary. It had so much to say on mental health, and judging and misjudging people. His mom seemed to pass judgement on him using all the knowledge she ever gained while he was just still learning. And the different people he comes across who obviously know who he is often treat him with distain, one called him a prince (or the one worker in his building who obviously threw his keys away laughing at him and telling him he was f#cked, I don’t think that was Mona’s plan but someone jealous of what they think Beau has)
@@justinbondar2491 Not sure, but many people seek comfort in bath water as the warmth it provides is a facsimile for the warmth of human touch (and returning to the womb). Not consciously mind you, just it activates similar areas of the brain. Since Beau was trying to escape his thoughts/fears of…. really “other people/the world” it’s a symbolic representation of those fears seeping back in and overpowering his ability to seek a moment of comfort.
My interpretation is that Mona is dead, but Beau didn’t kill her directly. He choked her, but that wasn’t what killed her. It was the shock. She couldn’t process Beau finally, for once in his life, standing up for himself, and that bewilderment was so strong that she couldn’t take it, and her body gave out. Her coming back at the trial isn’t her literally coming back (though this world is so insane she might as well have), it’s that even when she is finally gone, and Beau has broken free, she still has that unshakable grip on his psyche that ends up leading Beau to his own ambivalent death. Also, in the picture with all the employees of MW making up Mona’s face, I’m pretty positive Nathan Lane is one of them, so it’s likely that whole segment was a test in some way.
At the very beginning, in the therapy session, there’s a weird cut where there’s the sound of the street outside growing louder and suddenly it cuts to the therapist standing up to go write the prescription for his pills where that ambient audio disappears out of nowhere. I’m genuinely convinced that THAT MOMENT is where the fantasy/thought experiment begins. I think the therapy session was really happening, the therapist asks him if he wants his mother dead then the break from reality begins (this being him performing a thought experiment of all his anxieties, fears and repressions). Notice also that when we hear the recordings of past therapy sessions later in the film, Beau almost sounds completely different. He sounds more confident, less shaky, he’s louder, he’s more direct and outspoken. I think within this therapy session where he’s dealing with all these issues, he’s also imagining himself at his most vulnerable and most complacent, the way he feels his mother really wanted him to be. A scared little boy who NEEDED her. So I think the birth scene, the first half of the therapy session, some aspects of the flashback scenes on the yacht, and the videos from Beau’s childhood that he feels guilty for during the trial are all in reality, everything else is in his mind.
I want to buy that so much. Because the movie would be so so so much better if this were true. All it would take is literally 1 frame of the therapist going "hello?" and Beau waking up at the end to validate the 3 hour slog fest we sat through.
@@celsojunior4224 The fact that you genuinly find a massive animated dick monster less stupid than an ending that makes sense i hilarious. Ari Aster fans are so delusional.
There seems to be a theme involving water as well. The birth, the bottled water, the flooded bathtub, the wave that separates the family, the scene in a boat at the end
These are some of my thoughts on the questions you posed: Water represents attention - you can die from too much or too little of it - neglectful vs controlling parenting. Beau’s life was destroyed by controlling parenting, and that’s why he ultimately drowned. Beau also finds comfort in water, he seeks the love and attention he needs, but because he never had a healthy relationship with water(love), he is killed by who and what he seeks comfort from. In the play, Beau is separated from his family by a flood - he is prevented from a fulfilling future by overbearing parenting. He is held back by waves of anxiety and depression, unable to trust or form intimate relationships with others. The imagery of the Virgin Mary and Jesus throughout may be a nod to how Beau was born without a father, and how his destiny is set for him. He’s born without the freedom to be independent of God, to be perfect, asexual, and obedient, to die for others’ sins, to die for burdens placed on his shoulders by his creator. It may also just represent for Beau the kind of motherly love he desires, to be held and protected, cared for, and raised to be a person who is actually able to be brave, and kind, and assertive. Mother Mary may be the idealised saint-like version of his mother he depends on seeing Mona as in order to love her. That’s why he gives the gift intended for his mother to a woman who actually shows him motherly love, in hope that she’ll be for her future baby what his mother wasn’t for him. I saw the end as a metaphor for how society treats mental illness as a spectacle. We watch with apathy as someone in need of help only gets punished, abused, abandoned, exploited, and do nothing about their obvious distress and mistreatment. Marginalised people are entertainment. Their breakdowns and crimes are for us to enjoy, judge and opine about. We watch someone die and just move on to the next thing, as if nothing of significance happened. This is foreshadowed at the beginning by the man filming and laughing at someone committing suicide. Those with the power to help others choose only instead to watch. The end invites us to question how our society treats people like Beau, how mentally ill people are punished for what’s out of their control, and to empathise with others the way we do with him.
The breaking the chain sequence was his mom showing him what would happen if he broke away from her. He would go his own way, have a family, own land, and then end up alone and depressed in the end. His only safe sanctuary was with mom because the rest of the world would only betray him in the end. That scene made sense to me.
That ending depiction of the tunnel being his moms womb again makes sense. At the first shot, he's leaving the womb, at the last shot, he goes back in. Basically showing Beau didn't die, he just finally gave in to submitting to his mother. Breaking
I thought the deranged man at the family’s house was actually their son but after he had a psychotic break. They refer to the previous version of him as dead.
I thought that, too. And the mother shouted at Beau when she found out that her daughter committed suicide: You replaced my son with a demon! Maybe she was not referring to Beau as the demon, but her "present" son is actually possessed by some evil force.
Personally, Beau strangling Mona only for her to dramatically die in an over-the-top gasp to me felt like she was exploiting his sudden burst of violence to make him feel more guilty. I don’t think she actually died here, but I can definitely see her acting like she died in order to make Beau feel even more guilty over her.
I actually love the ending and how it includes the viewer into the audience of beau’s trial. The audience isn’t participating necessarily, they’re just onlookers who only see the biased and skewed evidence presented. Think how often people walk by other people who may seem to be acting strange, and they don’t participate in a conversation or ask why they are acting strange, they just notice those few seconds they witnessed without any context and then walk away. In the movie, each individual viewer gets to see Beau’s internal reality which doesn’t really make much sense to them. You develop sympathy for Beau even though you’re still confused on what is real, what isn’t, and why he does and thinks the things he does. But at the end of it all, you still can’t change the outcome and you go back to living your own reality, getting up and leaving the theater and moving forward.
I think the water represents two things: -His mothers approval: he NEEDS to take his pill with water in order to not only feel good, but not suffer and die. -His mothers presence: he’s surrounded by water in the bathtubs, cruise ship, and little boat just as he’s surrounded by his mothers presence in day to day life. She makes all medicines for him, she makes foods and other technologies for him, she builds the apartment for him to live in, she watches him, and hires nearly everyone in his life to monitor and control him.
I think the twist with beaus dad could be a metaphor for beau being conceived by rape. From the mothers line that implies the act of conception as excruciating for her,why she lied to Beau,maybe why she doesn’t want beau to have sex and finally why she’s simultaneously loving and overly protective yet cruel and hateful towards beau. It explains a lot and adds a lot of nuance to Beau’s mom as a character.
My brother and I made a similar hypothesis although I think I agree with yours a bit more… I went through SA and it actually makes sense… I dont see the person who harmed me (who I once trusted) as a person anymore… all I see is what he DID to me. I think you even started a new conversation that I’ll partake with my therapist. 😅
Would have been nice if the film had established that. Good theory but obviously beau never had the answer to begin with, a frustrating but intentional choice. She could just have been your generic sex repulsed person and all the clues still fit.
Yeah I get the feeling Elaine and her mom were on the boat at Mona's behest. She wanted to create a standard for women that couldn't ever be recreated, and he would actually wait for her, thus submitting fully to Mona in reality, since Elaine wasn't even real.
i feel that, at the final shot, we are sitting on beau's "side" where his defense lawyer was. we sympathize with him but are unable to help, while watching the movie ruthlessly blame him for things that weren't his fault
Yeah. I think we're supposed to empathize with him, but from the audiences perspective (in the stadium) they discard Beau as a pathetic coward due to the narrative that is presented to them from his manipulative, narcissistic mother. I thought it was interesting how his mom's lawyer (or whoever) showed how Beau was being selfish in regards to running into his apartment and closing the door on the tatted homeless dude. From Beau's perspective, we can clearly see that he is 'afraid' of the vagrant and is trying to protect himself, but for a second it seemed like he was being selfish/mean by not helping the dude (mom's perspective). That really stuck with me and it reminded me of a dream-like scenario where you realize you could've been perceiving a situation incorrectly, only to understand that you were indeed right about the situation (or how you felt) and your mind was playing tricks on you.
@@svennarula129 yeah it is very well done imo in showcasing what anxiety feels like (beau being constantly, and often rightfully, nervous and scared of the world around him while everyone else acts like he's being irrational) and abusive parental relationships (the mother, the therapist etc all trying to guilt him for trying to have autonomy and distance himself from her, or ruining his life on purpose with the excuse of love). it's all played straight too despite being metaphora exaggerated to a sometimes comical degree which only makes us as the audience feel even worse for him.
Same! My partner and I were laughing throughout most the movie while almost everyone else was dead silent. Though I think we encouraged a few other audience members to start seeing the humor in it too.
We also need to mention the sudden leave of Elaine during the night, wtf was that? Mona definitely paid Elaines mother to push her away and not talk anymore to Beau.
The relationship between Beau and his mom seemed borderline incestuous to me and I half-expected the big reveal of the story to be that Beau is a victim of CSA from her hands. Also, the ending of a movie, where Beau's "lawyer" is pushed off the stage and falls on the cliffs below is a reference to "Midsommar", where the exact same thing happens with one of the elders.
To me it has a very S*xual A*sault undertone. Specially the boat sequence, the mother sleeping with him, talking about hownhe can be a good man for Elaine. I think it’s the real background of the relationship between Beau and Mona.
This! I'm surprised more people don't seem to be talking about the implication that Beau was sexually abused by his mother. To me, that seemed to be the very deeply underlying shame that tormented him throughout the film, and would explain the giant penis monster as a symbol of deeply repressed sexual shame.
i highly agree!!!! i was so sure that he was sexually abused by his mom from the start especially with the bath scene and her forcing him to take off his clothes.
Cool that you guys caught the cave being some kind of birth canal. I think every act of the movie is a progressive stage of un-birth, ending in an evil, inverse character arc where instead of overcoming his fear, he just releases it by slipping back into some less than conscious, newborn state, and then implodes back into fluid nothingness.
When I left the theater my immediate first thought was "This was all Beau's internal monologue during what is essentially him being on trial for assaulting his mother" There are many points in the movie where someone will secretly slip him a note, or a tip, the biggest one being "Stop incriminating yourself!", which the suburban mom gives him. There's also the scene with the TV, which I interpreted as him in real time watching video tapes they play during court to recount his actions (being prosecuted) and then later again the play (which is entirely positive and hopeful for Beau) being the defense trying to spin his story as a more sympathetic one, and also explains the line within said play about him "watching a play that was so eerily similar to the his life" Also, there's almost a constant droning noise in the background of the movie. The only time it isn't present is during the scenes in which Beau is entirely in his mind, or flashbacks. At certain points, this noise is almost decipherable as someone's voice speaking, but is unintelligible. I interpreted this as the voices of the trial happening. I could be completely wrong, but that's what I got out of it on top of everything that's been said about this movie already. Curious if anyone saw it that way too!
I can see that. The chain he breaks with an axe in the play symbolizing freedom can be when the chandelier broke from the chain and hit his mom? I’m not sure
I think it is supposed to be like Hamlet on two levels: a parallel story within a story, for the purpose of "catching someone's conscious" (exposing their guilt). Also, the theme of Hamlet is that Hamlet seals his tragic fate by his own inaction and procrastination, just like Beau.
TW: Sexual assault My girlfriend after the movie had a really interesting theory that beau is a child of r*pe. His dad being a giant dick monster reflects that to his mom he is nothing but a sexual monster. That she had to go through so much trauma to birth beau but got the greatest gift ever in beau. However late on she said she had to dig deep to get the love she gave to beau as you might subconsciously resent the product of your trauma. And the order she gave beau to not have sex and when he did he killed Elaine shows that she was like stay away from sex because it can hurt someone deeply and when he finally does he ends up killing her. And the trial is like his mother went through so much trauma and work to be a mother to beau and expected a perfect result to all her work and when she got imperfect results it’s like you’re on trial for I’ve suffered through so much and you haven’t made it worth it and this guilt of finding out his shortcomings and that he’s a child of r*pe pushes him to the point where he doesn’t take his foot out the boat and essentially kills himself out of the guilt and regret and shame in himself for what he’s done and what he is
Also the trial scene was difficult for me because watching himself slowing descend into the water,we can all feel like that in life. We feel when things are going downhill we just have to accept them and get ourselves out whereas Beau ultimately couldn’t. Huge anti sex movie too lmao Had I seen this growing up I’d be scared to bust
noticed the anti-sex in the start. When he gets into the bath, you can see his legs but also his enormous testicles. I was wondering if he had some form of testicle cancer, lol
I ended up crying sometimes in the movie because of this, many saw this as comedy but I just saw Beau get hit over and over it was depressing, it reminded me of how sometimes I just can't stand up for myself and I feel guilty about making everyone feel bad. It worked so well in that aspect
24:24 that’s how I feel about a lot of this film. Trying to be clever, and does create an interesting puzzle of metaphors and symbolism to reflect on, but ultimately is unenjoyable and tedious to watch.
Do you know how many people are battling what Beau is going through every single day. Wether it’s child trauma from a father figure or a mother figure. This is insight of what those people are going through every single day. This movie is ground breaking and inspiring to see what is happening in child generational trauma that’s passed on from family member to family member. Detaching from a father or mother figure or a family member is every day social issue in human connection. Depression anxiety mental health again is deeply ingrained in child trauma yet like in the end of the movie the audience just sits up and leaves as we do now today we don’t talk about it we just turn a blind eye and walk away. The movie is helping us understand mental health anxiety and trauma in a way that’s not socially judging it and putting it in a little pill and putting a label on it and letting it go and turning your back on it. I have been dealing with people in mental health for 15 years especially kids and you do not understand how a family figure especially a parent saying to their kid if you have sex you will die as a child can have a lasting trauma that is haunting them until they are alive. The fear that creates the anxiety the sense of I’m not good enough I am not worth anything creates huge internal deep to core trauma. It starts there and than just keeps growing and growing and growing until it eats you inside and spread like toxic waste in your thoughts.
As an anxiety-driven person who often daydreams about impossible scenarios, this movie becomes much more simple to me when I imagine that the whole thing is Beau envisioning one of those scenarios where everything that could go wrong about him going to his mother's funeral does. She is such a powerful figure for him that she couldn't possibly be dead in his mind, and so the whole movie from the moment that he finds out about her death becomes a very chaotic scenario in his head that ends up with him inevitably losing to his mother. Even when he gets the balls to stand up to her like when he chokes her and manages to escape into the sea, she manages to come back to him and ultimately judge him for his actions.
Mona used Beau to test medications on his entire life, and she still is by having the therapist give him new meds. He is one big experiment to her, she loves him, but more in the way of needing him in order to survive. She can’t live without him and he is terrified of a world both with her and without her. The crossroads for him is setup in therapy, does he want her to be dead? Or alive? He can’t make a choice so she makes it for him.
The boat ride through the cave definitely mirrors the opening birthing scene in my opinion. Beau believes he is escaping this world completely controlled by his mother only to discover a different world also controlled by his mother.
I think one subtle aspect as well is the lack of belonging to a place or to identify a place (city, country, continente, river, beach, wtv) as a real home, once you leave your parents’ house. when we reallocate, there is always the mixed feeling of wanting to get back to the roots and reconnect with family (even though most times it is uncomfortable and it remember us of traumatic events or the past versions of ourselves that used to live in that place), so he spends half of the movie trying to travel home but is constantly being distracted with some new places trying to find/build his personality apart from her mother and his early childhood experiences (even though he never finds peace in any place or acknowledges it like as a real true home)
I appreciate this breakdown lol. One thing I personally thought when I watched the film is during the beginning when he was surrounded by all this chaos that he almost existed outside of, and was the only one, it seemed that the way his whole city acted, Beau was a product of probably the same thing everyone else has, but he doesn’t show it on the outside. So it’s almost like the world surrounding his apartment is what he “should” be like but he swallows his emotion and doesn’t let it show
My take on the ending and the movie theater audience being a part of the trial is like a jab at how people will sit and watch someone get convicted of something, and while they may have their reservations or sympathy, there’s nothing they can really do besides sit and watch. Otherwise they’re subject to the same fate as Beau’s “lawyer” and Beau: death, or at least removal. It kinda has Roman Empire vibes as well. This big colosseum filled with people watching someone they know is going to die just for entertainment purposes (which is where we find ourselves as an audience at the end…we could leave the theater before we see him die, but we sit and watch knowing he’s got zero chance). Which I just realized is kind of the overall arc of the movie. Mona is like a Caesar…part of a larger societal system with ultimate power and control that you can’t escape even if you want to. Much like most countries…lol, I’m going to bed 😵💫🥴
Great review y'all, I wish more youtubers shared your enthusiasm and appreciation for this masterwork. The end, where we are all part of the crowd that watches him drown, is the manifestation of struggling against the systemic issues we can not individually change. We can watch and know, or we can walk away from it, but we are powerless to affect it. We are as much Beau as we are glad that we are not Beau.
This puts things really into perspective for me. I had a feeling that the play was kind of like a “what if” conceptual vision had he broken free from being afraid because of his mother’s influence. Gonna see it again this weekend.
I think the audience at the end connects to the reoccurring theme about the way we sublimate watching the suffering of others. We can’t fully recognize it or empathize on a day to day basis because it’s too much for our brains to take, so we wall ourselves off without realizing, root for the guy to jump off the building, ignore the crazy homeless people and just hope they don’t hurt us, film people without their permission to humiliate them, watch Beau with fascination in the arena as entertainment. To me it says something about humans’ inherent selfishness which functions as a practical survival mechanism for all of us. We refuse to acknowledge this selfishness because we want to view ourselves as good people, as opposed to people who fear, encourage, and enjoy the suffering of others for entertainment purposes, in many cases far more often than we actually help others. That was my reading of that reoccurring theme that shows up a few times, including the ending
Wow. I actually never comment on any social media post/video, but this video really deserves praise, great great analysis from both of you. Major respect.
I think Jeeves can be read as just mental illness incarnate. We send our troops out and the trauma they go through "kills them" and then when they return and their trauma is all that's left of them we celebrate them instead of lamenting what is lost. He also can be seen as beau's mental illness, even in a serene setting he is jumping up and down and running around similar to beaus anxiety. Even when Beau finds people who are like him, people he should be able to find solace in, Beau''s anxiety still prevents him from connecting to these people.
Yeah I agree. Using this logic, I think many of the characters are literal embodiments of mental health disorders. Beau is anxiety, Mona is narcissism, Jeeves is PTSD. Dick monster in the attic could be lust or SA. etc
I saw it a second time and my mind has been wandering on two things. 1. In the opening city scene when beau gets to his apartment he walks past a photo and said Hi Dad and it's a blurry photo but I'm pretty sure the guy who talks to him at the play who says he knows his dad is the guy in that photo. 2. Elaine is in Beau's dream , a girl is in a bathing suit similar to hers on the cruise and it pans to her in a green suit while she is doing beau's hair in the bath. Then beau looks at the other version of himself and when he turns his head it's his mom in a green dress similar to the green bathing suit. It's different than the outfit the mom had any other time they show that dream. Of course its revealed to be a memory not a dream, if that is the case what else was going on in that scene?
Thank you for the video. I'm complementing my interpretation with your view. Because to me, this is a story within a NIGHTMARE. Not that everything is a dream, but the FORMAT in which is told is nightmare-ish. The fact that it takes you to places without transition; or that everything feels real but in a bizarre way; or even the separation between acts, that came after a serious hit (which would make you wake up).
how i interpreted the water was how the only freedom beau will get is death. in certain instances the water shows promise like him on the cruise with elaine or him riding away on the boat at the end, but at the end of the movie beau drowns which also reflects the man who drowned in the pool on the cruise. both times his hope of being free gets tied with death. no matter what beau cannot stop the damage his mother did to him and he will have to live with it his whole life. the only time he will truly be free from her grasp is when he is dead.
The dad being a cock in the attic was actually point when the movie stated making more sense to me. Beau's father wasn't really dead , he died and was stored in the "attic" of Mona's memory because he didn't love her. So in Mona's mind he died and she projects that desperation for love from a partner in giving Beau a world view that he died for giving him life, and she was the only thing he could ever love safely. That's why instead of Beau dying when he came in Elaine, she died because she didn't love him the way Beau's father didn't love Mona. I think she faked her death to see if Beau even in at news of her death would do anything to prove his love for her by showing up to her funeral on time. But Beau's journey to his mother's house ends with what he really wants (another woman) and this is the ultimate betrayal to his mom. In the play Beau has 3 sons he loves with all his heart and would do anything to get back to but their mother doesn't exist and the fantasy ends because he realizes his fear of life never allowed him to get to where he wanted to be, which is having a happy loving family of his own. Beau always has flashbacks to his mom trying to put him in the bath , which is metaphor for her trying to drowned him with shame and guilt for not loving her and at the end Beau finally drowned in that guilty feeling because his mother died from seeing him love another woman.
I agree for the most part but I feel like what’s in the attic represents some great deep trauma the mother is bearing that’s supposed to explain why she is the way she is. I really don’t want to believe it’s something simple because then it would more of a big shocker instead of being symbolic of anything
@@napndash I'm not the best and understanding symbolism in movies , if you have deeper thoughts on it I'd like to know for sure, I'd like to understand it on a deeper level, I had to watch videos to explain Midsommar to me lol
Oh man, it's incredible the amount of symbolism you guys were able to pick up that I didn't even think about, while I was too busy trying to comprehend what was even happening, haha. Fantastic video guys!
I don't know if anyone pointed this out before, but the theatre scene seemed like the re-telling of this whole journey. He has everything, then a catastrophic flood destroys his home- that's the scene, when the street thugs occupied his apartment. Then, he goes for a journey to find his family - his whole family is his mother. He finds himself in a village when they falsely accuse him of spreading the plague - the suburban Home, when they accuse him of killing Toni... and they send a dog after him - that's Jeeves. At the end, he finds his family - I think that's when he finds his "brave self" in the attic. But his wife is nowhere - I can only guess with this, but could be his mother, Elaine, or just that feeling of 'imperfection'. That no matter how hard he try to heal himself, he will never be healthy and "'whole" again.
I think the ending is genius actually, like regardless of if you're sympathetic in the audience, nothing can be done to help beau. I think it's interesting too to see the differences between us and the people in the seats in the movie, because we've seen what beau went through, so we know who he is. They don't, yet they're the ones who are truly able to help. It's a great parallel to real life.
You touched on this but it’s interesting that the places where beau is in before going home - the city, the suburbs, the wild - consist of all of the place where people live. It’s as if beau was seeing, can I live anywhere outside of my mothers influence? And the answer is no: no matter where he goes, there she is. Physical location where he lives doesn’t play into it, he can’t escape.
kinda love how you guys weren't on the same page about your observations about the film and we got to hear you both argue your different views against the other
and I think we kind have access to parallel realities about this growing development experiences. for instance, when he is with the first family, he is being treated like a child with no autonomy, then with the girl we see him being peer pressured to smoke just like in high school and then he breaks free from the family and finds a community and the animation part begins (coming of age with all the existential questions) and then when he returns to his mom’s house, we see an older version of him in the attick
I feel like it’s being over shadowed that Beau is not of a sound mind. He was dropped and didn’t cry when being born. A poster in the moms house says he could have ADHD. And we see the movie from his perspective and obviously he has serious anxiety , maybe he even has actual hallucinations.
Only thing you guys missed is how once the waves wash his family away in the play every event from then mirrors the events of the movie and ends the same way.
I was imediatly connected to this film in the first scene and understood the rest of it. Like, literally. Freud says in one of his books (and is one of the few theories I actually agree with him on) that the moment we leave the womb, we spend the rest of our lives trying to return to that inanimate state of being in the confort of non-existence. If a mother is overprotective of her son, he will depend on her and her approval for the rest of his life. And right after he's born, she's already screaming at the doctors, demanding her son, almost as if she wants to push him back in so he isn't hurt by the world. So yeah, great movie. One of the best (and worst) I've ever seen, and I can't recommend it to anyone lol
I think that the audience responds in that way at the end because all they see on the surface are these terrible things that happen with him. And in reality, we don’t always see the inner workings of his psyche and we just see the facts. So we condemn him like everyone else without hearing out their defense. Or that their defense is inexcusable. That’s kinda what I took.
The scene at the beginning where the mother grabs her son and the toy boat flips over is foreshadowing the ending. Also the suicide jumper reflected in the glass when he buys the figurine is masterful.
Great insight into the substance of the film. One aspect not talked about enough in all the reviews about the film is the character of Elaine. I see it as a young reflection of Mona. Domineering, even manipulative. A few instances in the film she literally takes place of Mona: in the beginning of the full bath scene where Mona sends the other part of Beau to the attic; inside the Mona's house before the sex scene she rummages through and wears on Mona's stuff like her own. I think this points to the tendency of our psyche to get attracted and feel comfortable with partners that resemble our parents in behaviour and character. Not to mention that Elaine was literally pointed out by Mona on the cruise ship, commented on her character and that he's the right man for her. The whole cruise ship setup was a test by Mona. I think the work overall resembles the Greek tragedy, rather than any particular contemporary genre, in the fact that protagonist is pretty much doomed from the start and his fate is decided by gods in this case Mona.
I feel like the audience at the end does not represent us who are watching, but the people at Beau’s life who watched the abused commuted by his controlling mother and did not help.
Great analysis, guys! I've never seen your channel but this is the best video I've watched about this film. Your conversation os very thorough and cohesive for what seems like a largely incoherent flick. I'm subbed.
I interpreted the final scene to really cement the audience with beau rather than trying to make us pick a side or feel guilty because we are positioned on the side his defense was on. we’re left facing the prosecution and would be exactly where his defense (with no real voice in his world) would be, just as we the audience have no say in his perception of the world because of his mothers influence
The final shot made me think we are all going have to face our own final judgment at some point. It did make me reconsider some things regarding my own life I would say maybe the filmmaker was very subtly showing us a mirror.
2:00 with the many Wasserman brands, the add for housing is very disturbing: "big W housing: Caring for those who abuse our products". So it seems like the mother stuck Beau in low income housing for the addicts she created. And all the people are deranged from Beau's mom's drugs? It also reminds me of the Sackler family that promoted opioids in real life.
19:40 It’s heavily implied that his dad left when he was young because he couldn’t stand how controlling and overbearing the mother was, and as a result Beau was left without a father figure to model male independence for him. A common gaslighting tactic by overbearing controlling and emotionally manipulative mothers is to say things like “you’re just like your father” as a way to dehumanize the son. So what this scene is saying by making the dad represented by a phallice is essentially the mother guilting him for having sexual desires and treating the father like a deadbeat who was only good for one thing, and if Beau pursues other women then that’s all he’s good for. She’s making both his manhood and his desire for sexual independence feel grotesque and shameful. It’s really him confronting his repressed side because his mother messed up his sense of self worth as a man. 24:39 there’s a case to be made that it’s not about you the audience judging Beau but more so that the artist is revisiting his old wounds a bit and struggling to make that commercially viable in an entertainment industry that demands box office success. The body of Ari Aster’s work is about family trauma from Heredity to Midsommar to this and the coping mechanisms we use, and he’s saying with the final scene that his coping mechanism is making this film for any audience who will walk away from it either feeling something that sticks or feeling nothing and going back to their life. It’s also exemplified in the forest scene - it’s Ari Aster saying he discovered film as a medium that helped him escape to worlds and stories where he could find freedom and independence for a short time before going back to confronting the realities of his trauma, and in the end Beau’s story is meant to be that for us.
Loved the movie!! After watching it a few times... Watching a few reviews... i have concluded that the entire movie is a dream sequence that takes place during his birth.
I think the US comparisons are a bit of a stretch, at least in the terms of Iraq but I also don't know Aster's relationship with war. Once we get past the suburban part of the movie I felt a lot of redundancies and retreading but that stop in the journey is my favorite part of the movie. I think it is to show the flip side, Beau 'lost his mom' and they 'lost their son' and fervently honor him. Losing a family member or someone who you cared deeply for and nurtured is incredibly painful. Beau was shocked and stunned at the loss of his mother but has he properly grieved? I say he didn't because he had a feeling of being free but also anxiously believed his mother was still alive, even before the hints the suburban mom was giving him. He constantly looked to her for guidance for fear of her lashing out or being disappointed, he constantly struggles making his own decisions. Some will say this sequence was the test where he needed to stand up and demand he be taken to his mother's funeral immediately but I feel this was only part of the whole test. And the test was failed as soon as he missed his flight in the beginning of the movie. The new drug was possibly something to sabotage him, to make him late in the first place, test his resolve and see what lengths and hoops Beau would jump through for his mother.
The reason the flood happens is cuz when ever Beau makes a decision something horrible ends up happening. He decided to have a family so he loses them .
The flood is from the trauma from the bath tub scene when Mona puts the brother in the attic. The tub floods again in his apartment after the “crazy people” destroy his house. And the guy about him represents his “dad in the attic”
When they mention the conspiratorial aspect, I could feel that, like Mona is a face to a secret society and her/their kind of judgement is steeped and implemented into the society and punishing those they feel are deplorable is done so in a hidden camera reality television type why. Impractical Judgers. The way Mona is so powerful in the world itself let alone in beau’s mind and his own world led to so much confusion with plot and I love it.
My interpretation is Id probably need to know Ari Aster on a personal level to really get what he was going for. Besides that, the film means whatever tf you want it to mean. You can place just about any subtext you want in this film and find a way to make it work
The whole time, I was questioning whether he was dead or dying because he wrote a suicide note on the pill cap and after he went to sleep, he started to get those letters and things really started to get crazy. Maybe the violent way the mom supposedly died and him being pressured to be at the funeral was the guilt he felt for killing himself and knowing that he won’t be seeing his mother.
I think everything makes more sense if we see Mona's Truman showing Beau his whole life, including the Cruise, the trashy neighborhood(and everyone on that street), the Baby Suit Stabber is also instructed to punish Beau without giving him too serious of an injury
I think it's cool how the logo for the moms company is an m for mom but a w for her last name, but it can also be interpreted as m for mom but flipped into a w when shes his enemy or destructive to him
I think the ending was inner monologue, with Guilt being much louder than ”the truth”, to the point of drowning in it. Guilt for not being a good enough son for an overcaring mother being the theme for the movie.
regarding the opening scene of him being born, it's not just showing how terrifying the world outside the womb is, but also showing that from the moment he's born, his mother is already super controlling of everything, I don't know if him hitting his head was a legitimate accident that went wrong with his birth or just a way of showing that the mother is perceiving threats where there are none, because of how she's asking "why are you putting him upside down? why are you spanking him?!" this is something fairly common after birth, and yet the mother perceives it as something that is dangerous and shouldn't be happening. So I think that short opening scene is also to show how, from the moment he is born, his mother is already unhealthily protective of him in a detrimental way.
Elaine waas also an employee when she was on the cruise ship. You can see the child Elaine photographed in one of the ads on the timeline wall when Beau first gets home. That was, much like Truman Show, all staged to instill a fear in Beau because he is not allowed to escape.
During the trial segment of the movie, I got an entirely different feeling. Rather than feeling implicated, I felt as if I was one of the few who in the audience really connected with Beau and wanted him to break free. But my voice just couldnt reach him. Once the boat tipped and the audience walked out of the theater, the irl audience walked away too, but I stayed sitting in shock. I think that it was a moment to let the viewer marinate in what had just happened, to really drive home that feeling of hopelessness.
I just sat there too. I was in shock. I thought he was going to live but they let the mom win. People on the outside never actually see what's happening to you they just go off personal perception. People with moms like this understand exactly how this feels. It's like no one will believe you of how horrible they are. So they have the control.
The film isn't about Beau or making sense of why his mom can do this or that. Beau's journey is only there to help attach the different fears we all have, that are on display separately in the film. There isn't a reality in the film. There is the lead to help us see our fears: A boy in the street with an assault rifle. A spider crawling on the floor. Leaving your door unlocked means your home is robbed and destroyed. A man shows up and shoots up the theater. I think this film is specifically about a man in this world. The desire or fantasy to marry a woman, have children, build your own your home, live off the land, but being too afraid to take the risks or being able to make it happen, realizing you may not get to have that. Being too afraid of women, you may never have sex, fall in love, and get to have those boys you miss and who miss you. One day you realize your fears have kept your feet feel glued to a boat rocking in the water, and it feels like it's in front of a stadium audience of strangers judging u for the mistakes u repeat in your head, keeping u stuck from getting out. Never forgiving yourself for dumb kid things you've done, like letting those boys sniff your mom’s underwear or whatever embarrassing stuff u did a long time ago that u cant let go of. The father not being around is just a dick who provided semen and is a monster for not being around and likely also being a monster for the single mom, which she reminds u of. The mother demands the love from her son. Your mother or women u love; the fear of their control and demands to do specific things so they believe you love them. This film isnt about “well how did Mona control this?” It isn't The Truman Show. It is a bunch of dioramas or fears men are living with now. In this way it is a "horror" film. Things that really scare you. You're in the mind of all these daily and lifetime fears that end up drowning you if you cant get unstuck to be who you want to be.
You’re not in the audience for Beau. Youre in the audience of whether you are forgiving of yourself or letting yourself down with all the fears that keep u stuck. Or as Ari said, paraphrasing, “i want to put u in the mind of a loser.”
You’re not in the audience for Beau. Youre in the audience of whether you are forgiving of yourself or letting yourself down with all the fears that keep u stuck. Or as Ari said, paraphrasing, “i want to put u in the mind of a loser.”
In regards to the ending of this video and of the movie, it's way easier to tell someone else like Beau to not feel guilty, but if you're Beau in the sense that you relate to him a lot, is way harder to not feel guilty for yourself than it is to understand you shouldnt feel guilty, and i think that's what it was trying to say by ending in this mirror to yourself, you dont just understand Beau but you understand yourself.
I did like the ''mirror'' thing you mentioned at the end of the video that happend at the end of the movie, it simbolized that you're not only judging him, but you might be judging yourself along with the movie, for people who can relate to this movie a lot it might be like their own theraphy seasion and it's telling you not to be so critical of yourself in that regard because a lot of it is in your mind anyway, is about how you judge yourself in your own head and that's the porpuse of implicating the audience
Here is a take on the water: it's a comforting and destructive force that represent the motherly presence. Beau takes a bath after his appartment is wrecked in an attempt to find comfort, the same way he needs a bottle of water to feel safe about the medication. The problem is that water always comes with a threat, destruction or an overflow. With the bottle, the vendor threatens to call the cops if he doesn't fully pay his due, the same way the mother expects a full return on the love she gives. The bath overflows in the appartment, showing an invasive presence and imposing the reminder that comfort lies in the water, but in the end the bath is unsafe and the scene results in violence. The overflow of water is also present in the flashbacks when the bath overflows as the mother scolds the "twin". This destructive aspect is further rienforced in the animated sequence where a flood disrupts his family in the same way his mother would do anything to keep him away from creating other bonds. This ties well into boats as a symbol of freedom or the possibility of independence since boats are a way of dealing with the dangers associated to bodies of water, though as with the sea this safety is not complete and like the mother the water remains everywhere and all around. By the end, the boat is flipped and the mother truly drowns him in her devouring presence. I also want to add a point about the fact that this movie operates like a 40 years old man's world version of Alice in Wonderland. We can spend time looking for imperfect parrallels like who's the rabbit, who's the hatter, who's the catterpillar, etc. But the dream logic is similar, there's a strong use of drugs that modifiy reality and it ends with a Red Queen and a phony trial. It's by no means a one for one translitteration but there is strong correllation and I find it to be and interresting angle of analysis.
That knocking noise has been driving me crazy for the entirety of this video. Noticed it at 7:00 and I legitimately struggle with a lot of things similar to Beau (c-ptsd, agoraphobia, generational trauma, etc.) and I thought I was going crazy. Not sure if that was on purpose, but I hate it lol, I thought someone was knocking behind my room or something. Great video, still watching lol.
This is the only way I will accept that it was “all in his head” : The theme is guilt right? And the therapist asks him if he wants his mom to be dead. What if, Beau killed his mom at some point before the film when he found out that she had lied to him and hurt him his whole life by testing medication on him. He killed her and immediate felt guilty and anxious. He blocked that out, and thinks she is still alive. He lost his mind, so he’s in therapy and taking meds and everything. He doesn’t know who he can trust, and he feels like she is still controlling him. The therapist knows Beau will never visit his mother because she is dead. This same situation has probably played out in different ways several times. The therapist asks if Beau wishes his mom was dead, and that’s when Beau loses it. He tries to drown himself, and the whole rest of the movie is while he is underwater making the decision to live or drown. He makes decisions over and over again that show him either trying to get to her or trying to get away from her. The play scene is what his life may have been if she hadn’t made him afraid. When she “comes back” it’s him finally needing to confront what he did and make the decision of whether he actually wanted her dead or not. He relives finding out that she lied and hurt him by testing meds on him. Then he does kill her again (choking her) which means he made the choice that he wanted her dead. Then he knows that his guilt was rightful and that’s what causes him to decide to actually drown in the tub.
I saw a few days ago and my review keeps changing. The first part was so good as I live in high rise and I have dealt with the notes under door accusing me of something I wasn't doing. It was a perfect nightmare of missing flights and an aggressive mother and crazy neighbors. That alone was a movie. The middle Suburban section was the best because that was a real life situation and Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan sold the hell out of it. Another nightmare, so I guess that was the movie. It started to fall apart at end, but there was not one second I was bored. I loved HEREDITARY and MIDSUMMAR so I know I was watching something special. I will digest and see again in near future but when I think of some scenes I really think it was good. And I laughed a lot in theater but I was alone with that so not sure if I was getting it.
In regard to the very end, we are not judging him, but we are deriving fun and pleasure from all suffering. For me that’s what the parallel between the movie theater and the trial come from.
I think the whole point of the movie is that there is no reality outside of his perception. He never gets a moment where he knows what the world “really” looks like, so neither does the audience because what the world “really” looks like doesn’t really exist.
I kind of wish we got a little bit of reality. But I guess that’s the genius of this movie. I really have to watch it again.
Yes... but films need a plot. And in order for a plot to exist, reality must as well. If his perceptions are made up, there must be a grain of reality in there somewhere because it's clear Beau is a real human living in the real world who exists in space. Consequently, this film really doesn't have a plot at all. Or at least a coherent one. This movie felt like a collection of images so much more than a real film. The images have meaning when examined individually, but when compiled are meaningless.
@@myles6235 I don’t disagree, but I’m not as negative about films without a plot. I used to be, but Tree of Life was amazing, so now I’m more open to the “tone piece” type of film. That said, Tree of Life is literally the only film like that which I have actually liked, so while I respect Beau is Afraid, it still failed to me.
Side note: nobody seems to be talking about it, but conceptually it feels so similar to Bardo.
@@icebergthegamer The point the original commenter is making is that an agreed upon reality doesn't exist, so it wouldn't be possible to show any reality. Everyone has their own "reality" which is filtered through their own perceptions, so what we're experiencing through Beau's perspective is just as much reality as any other person's perspective in the movie. That's what I got from it, anyway
@@LotsaJelloChannel nah I get it. I just wish the movie gave us a hint of actual reality so we can see the contrast.
The way I interpreted the father in the attic was that Mona was so obsessed with creating a child that she used some man, not seeing him as a human, but a disgusting means to an end she had to face to have Beau, then discarded him.
That's exactly how I saw it too. His father was literally just a dick to give her a baby in her mind
I think she in a way passed down her distain for men to Beau who was so scared of having any sex because of it, implanting an irrational fear to get him to behave, like churches do. I don’t even think he ever even masturbated once because of it and that’s why his testes were engorged. The person in the attic was his brother, the phallic monster and resurrected ex-soldier dude were his imagination.
what about the hunt man trying to kill the father? I was confused by this
@@VeryBerryJuiceLPS That was the time traveler from the sequel/prequel Beau Is NOT Afraid.
I saw that as well. Also, from my personal experience as a step-mother of two boys whose mom is not full blown narcissistic, but definitely controlling and manipulative as a result of her own fucked up parents, I couldn't help but see a reflection of how she tends to view my partner as this dick who won't just go away. She clearly hates him--even though she was the one who cheated and then left him during a medical crisis--and sees our relationship with her sons as a threat. We aren't real people to her. TMI?
I think Beau's relationship with water is the same as his relationship with his mother. He needs it, it gives him life, but also it can throw him around, smother him, kill him
Yes and he has to rely on it.
Also creates a great image with the mirror of a womb! Like in the penultimate scene of Beau in the calm water (right before the trial is uncovered), water acts as his safety net. This is similar to the comfort his mother provided him in the womb - which later acts as a metaphor for her dangerous grip on him. What starts out as comforting and safe eventually seals his fate.
Even his name and the hometown "Wasser" means water in German.
I haven’t seen anyone mention how Elaine chose for them to have sex to the song Alwaya be my baby, and of course she dies, but then his mother is the revealed to be alive. Instead of just a funny song, I took it more as relating to Mona’s relationship with Beau and that she’s always there with him. Literally embodying the lyrics of the song “oh boy, you know you can’t escape me. Oh darling because you’ll be my baby.” Another symbolism moment to describe Mona’s hold on Beau.
Damn yes! Listen to how sinister the lyrics are (in light of what happens next):
No you'll always be a part of me
I'm part of you indefinitely
Boy don't you know you can't escape me
Oh darlin' 'cause you'll always be my baby
And we'll linger on
Time can't erase a feelin' this strong
No way you're never gonna shake me
Oh darlin' cause you'll always be my baby
Yikes.
Completely missed this. Gave me the chills.
WOAHHHHH
I really enjoyed the background plot of the grieving family. I felt so bad for their girl who obviously needed present parents, but they're too wrapped up about their dead son, and they keep trying to replace him with sick people- when they have their own daughter. Paint scene broke me
I know Aster also has a short film about munchausen by proxy, and I feel like a lot of that shines through during that section. A parent getting controlling so the child can’t leave the parent
The paint scene was outrageous and hilarious. Imagining someone crying from that 😅😅😅😂😂😂
The daughter was simultaneously the most and least sympathetic character for me, she deserved her fate but still a deeply tragic situation that she made worse. The paint scene was also so absurd and extreme I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about it, I think I was laughing, but it wasn’t funny.
Man that paint scene reminded me way too much of people overdosing after living in broken families.. if you've never watched someone die I understand how it wouldn't affect you,. I thought it was traumatic tho.
I really wish this movie focused more on that family there was so much going on with them!
So, my mom is super narcissistic. This movie reminded me so much of my relationship with her. It took me going no-contact- or killing the world she created for me to live in which leads to the death of the old self- to actually begin the healing process. I feel like this movie is a brilliant criticism of those relationships, but also a road map (including the meandering daydreams and gaslighting yourself that those daydreams of a better, simpler life could never work) to healing. I've been 1 year no contact and made so much progress. This film is the most I've ever felt seen or represented in this facet.
Also the cave I think is more Beau's own mind. When you are trying to disconnect from a relationship like this, there is lots of litigation inside your mind where your mother's words will literally overrule your own thoughts. Beau in the boat fighting back and eventually begging to be released from the boat he's trapped in, felt appropriately symbolic.
As for the crowd, I think it's more about Beau's perception of the world. I don't think it's indicting the world, as much as it's showing them how the mind works; perception is reality. Beau sees the entire world as being on his mother's side, or at the very least spectators and accessories to her work (many were even in the image on the timeline wall, all in Mona's employ). They see Beau as a sad pitiful joke of a man (in Beau's perception mind you), so they aren't in his corner. It's not until his mother's carefully crafted version of Beau dies that the majority of them leave the stadium.
There is a lot to say about this and I'll write it up on Letterboxd.
I had a similar experience. I've been no contact with my untreated bpd mom for a bit & this movie reminded me why.
What was up with the dude above beau in the bathtub??
my moms the same way. which is why i didnt like the movie. i can only imagine if my mom had those resources. how horrible it would be.
I like this interpretation. I can’t wait for the Blu-ray with commentary. It had so much to say on mental health, and judging and misjudging people. His mom seemed to pass judgement on him using all the knowledge she ever gained while he was just still learning. And the different people he comes across who obviously know who he is often treat him with distain, one called him a prince (or the one worker in his building who obviously threw his keys away laughing at him and telling him he was f#cked, I don’t think that was Mona’s plan but someone jealous of what they think Beau has)
@@justinbondar2491 Not sure, but many people seek comfort in bath water as the warmth it provides is a facsimile for the warmth of human touch (and returning to the womb). Not consciously mind you, just it activates similar areas of the brain.
Since Beau was trying to escape his thoughts/fears of…. really “other people/the world” it’s a symbolic representation of those fears seeping back in and overpowering his ability to seek a moment of comfort.
My interpretation is that Mona is dead, but Beau didn’t kill her directly. He choked her, but that wasn’t what killed her. It was the shock. She couldn’t process Beau finally, for once in his life, standing up for himself, and that bewilderment was so strong that she couldn’t take it, and her body gave out. Her coming back at the trial isn’t her literally coming back (though this world is so insane she might as well have), it’s that even when she is finally gone, and Beau has broken free, she still has that unshakable grip on his psyche that ends up leading Beau to his own ambivalent death.
Also, in the picture with all the employees of MW making up Mona’s face, I’m pretty positive Nathan Lane is one of them, so it’s likely that whole segment was a test in some way.
Yes I definitely saw his picture in there. Not sure what that’s about but I did notice it too.
What about the dude above beau in the bathtub???
yes. i agree. i bet if you look you will see everyone beau comes in contact with is in that picture. she hired them all to constantly scare beau.
Every single character we run into was on that photo
He kills his mother in this one as well? More whiny characters with mommy issues from Phoenix. Awesome.
At the very beginning, in the therapy session, there’s a weird cut where there’s the sound of the street outside growing louder and suddenly it cuts to the therapist standing up to go write the prescription for his pills where that ambient audio disappears out of nowhere. I’m genuinely convinced that THAT MOMENT is where the fantasy/thought experiment begins. I think the therapy session was really happening, the therapist asks him if he wants his mother dead then the break from reality begins (this being him performing a thought experiment of all his anxieties, fears and repressions). Notice also that when we hear the recordings of past therapy sessions later in the film, Beau almost sounds completely different. He sounds more confident, less shaky, he’s louder, he’s more direct and outspoken. I think within this therapy session where he’s dealing with all these issues, he’s also imagining himself at his most vulnerable and most complacent, the way he feels his mother really wanted him to be. A scared little boy who NEEDED her.
So I think the birth scene, the first half of the therapy session, some aspects of the flashback scenes on the yacht, and the videos from Beau’s childhood that he feels guilty for during the trial are all in reality, everything else is in his mind.
I want to buy that so much. Because the movie would be so so so much better if this were true. All it would take is literally 1 frame of the therapist going "hello?" and Beau waking up at the end to validate the 3 hour slog fest we sat through.
@@myles6235 that would actually be the stupidest thing ever and it would've ruined the movie
@@celsojunior4224 The fact that you genuinly find a massive animated dick monster less stupid than an ending that makes sense i hilarious. Ari Aster fans are so delusional.
@@myles6235 So you want the movie to just put stuff on a plate for you huh 😭
@@myles6235 Homie just go unwatch the movie
There seems to be a theme involving water as well. The birth, the bottled water, the flooded bathtub, the wave that separates the family, the scene in a boat at the end
@NewYorkPizza90 underrated look
These are some of my thoughts on the questions you posed:
Water represents attention - you can die from too much or too little of it - neglectful vs controlling parenting. Beau’s life was destroyed by controlling parenting, and that’s why he ultimately drowned. Beau also finds comfort in water, he seeks the love and attention he needs, but because he never had a healthy relationship with water(love), he is killed by who and what he seeks comfort from.
In the play, Beau is separated from his family by a flood - he is prevented from a fulfilling future by overbearing parenting. He is held back by waves of anxiety and depression, unable to trust or form intimate relationships with others.
The imagery of the Virgin Mary and Jesus throughout may be a nod to how Beau was born without a father, and how his destiny is set for him. He’s born without the freedom to be independent of God, to be perfect, asexual, and obedient, to die for others’ sins, to die for burdens placed on his shoulders by his creator. It may also just represent for Beau the kind of motherly love he desires, to be held and protected, cared for, and raised to be a person who is actually able to be brave, and kind, and assertive. Mother Mary may be the idealised saint-like version of his mother he depends on seeing Mona as in order to love her. That’s why he gives the gift intended for his mother to a woman who actually shows him motherly love, in hope that she’ll be for her future baby what his mother wasn’t for him.
I saw the end as a metaphor for how society treats mental illness as a spectacle. We watch with apathy as someone in need of help only gets punished, abused, abandoned, exploited, and do nothing about their obvious distress and mistreatment. Marginalised people are entertainment. Their breakdowns and crimes are for us to enjoy, judge and opine about. We watch someone die and just move on to the next thing, as if nothing of significance happened. This is foreshadowed at the beginning by the man filming and laughing at someone committing suicide. Those with the power to help others choose only instead to watch. The end invites us to question how our society treats people like Beau, how mentally ill people are punished for what’s out of their control, and to empathise with others the way we do with him.
The breaking the chain sequence was his mom showing him what would happen if he broke away from her. He would go his own way, have a family, own land, and then end up alone and depressed in the end. His only safe sanctuary was with mom because the rest of the world would only betray him in the end. That scene made sense to me.
That ending depiction of the tunnel being his moms womb again makes sense. At the first shot, he's leaving the womb, at the last shot, he goes back in. Basically showing Beau didn't die, he just finally gave in to submitting to his mother. Breaking
I'm pretty sure he died, his panic grew over the whole film until his heart murmur got him.
I thought the deranged man at the family’s house was actually their son but after he had a psychotic break. They refer to the previous version of him as dead.
Wow that would make sense as to Why the daughter felt so rebellious to her Parents
I thought that, too. And the mother shouted at Beau when she found out that her daughter committed suicide: You replaced my son with a demon! Maybe she was not referring to Beau as the demon, but her "present" son is actually possessed by some evil force.
Personally, Beau strangling Mona only for her to dramatically die in an over-the-top gasp to me felt like she was exploiting his sudden burst of violence to make him feel more guilty. I don’t think she actually died here, but I can definitely see her acting like she died in order to make Beau feel even more guilty over her.
I actually love the ending and how it includes the viewer into the audience of beau’s trial. The audience isn’t participating necessarily, they’re just onlookers who only see the biased and skewed evidence presented. Think how often people walk by other people who may seem to be acting strange, and they don’t participate in a conversation or ask why they are acting strange, they just notice those few seconds they witnessed without any context and then walk away. In the movie, each individual viewer gets to see Beau’s internal reality which doesn’t really make much sense to them. You develop sympathy for Beau even though you’re still confused on what is real, what isn’t, and why he does and thinks the things he does. But at the end of it all, you still can’t change the outcome and you go back to living your own reality, getting up and leaving the theater and moving forward.
I think the water represents two things:
-His mothers approval: he NEEDS to take his pill with water in order to not only feel good, but not suffer and die.
-His mothers presence: he’s surrounded by water in the bathtubs, cruise ship, and little boat just as he’s surrounded by his mothers presence in day to day life. She makes all medicines for him, she makes foods and other technologies for him, she builds the apartment for him to live in, she watches him, and hires nearly everyone in his life to monitor and control him.
I think the twist with beaus dad could be a metaphor for beau being conceived by rape. From the mothers line that implies the act of conception as excruciating for her,why she lied to Beau,maybe why she doesn’t want beau to have sex and finally why she’s simultaneously loving and overly protective yet cruel and hateful towards beau. It explains a lot and adds a lot of nuance to Beau’s mom as a character.
The sins of the father - plus all the religious imagery
Wow good point
My brother and I made a similar hypothesis although I think I agree with yours a bit more…
I went through SA and it actually makes sense… I dont see the person who harmed me (who I once trusted) as a person anymore… all I see is what he DID to me.
I think you even started a new conversation that I’ll partake with my therapist. 😅
Would have been nice if the film had established that. Good theory but obviously beau never had the answer to begin with, a frustrating but intentional choice. She could just have been your generic sex repulsed person and all the clues still fit.
Wow Good take
Young Elaine is on an advertisement at Mona's house pointing to her being a paid actress even as a child. It was another test for Beau.
I noticed that too.
there’s also that bit when she comes in to pay her respects where she says “she owed me money”
Yeah I get the feeling Elaine and her mom were on the boat at Mona's behest. She wanted to create a standard for women that couldn't ever be recreated, and he would actually wait for her, thus submitting fully to Mona in reality, since Elaine wasn't even real.
i feel that, at the final shot, we are sitting on beau's "side" where his defense lawyer was. we sympathize with him but are unable to help, while watching the movie ruthlessly blame him for things that weren't his fault
Yeah. I think we're supposed to empathize with him, but from the audiences perspective (in the stadium) they discard Beau as a pathetic coward due to the narrative that is presented to them from his manipulative, narcissistic mother. I thought it was interesting how his mom's lawyer (or whoever) showed how Beau was being selfish in regards to running into his apartment and closing the door on the tatted homeless dude. From Beau's perspective, we can clearly see that he is 'afraid' of the vagrant and is trying to protect himself, but for a second it seemed like he was being selfish/mean by not helping the dude (mom's perspective). That really stuck with me and it reminded me of a dream-like scenario where you realize you could've been perceiving a situation incorrectly, only to understand that you were indeed right about the situation (or how you felt) and your mind was playing tricks on you.
@@svennarula129 yeah it is very well done imo in showcasing what anxiety feels like (beau being constantly, and often rightfully, nervous and scared of the world around him while everyone else acts like he's being irrational) and abusive parental relationships (the mother, the therapist etc all trying to guilt him for trying to have autonomy and distance himself from her, or ruining his life on purpose with the excuse of love). it's all played straight too despite being metaphora exaggerated to a sometimes comical degree which only makes us as the audience feel even worse for him.
I couldn't believe I was the only one cackling in the theater. This movie was a trip that made me laugh & cry. Two thumbs up
I was laughing too lol
Fax I was dying of laughter during the whole movie
It was filled with humor! Intentional too, as laid out by Aster. Lots of laughs in my viewing
"Don't mind if I do!"
Same! My partner and I were laughing throughout most the movie while almost everyone else was dead silent. Though I think we encouraged a few other audience members to start seeing the humor in it too.
I’d also like to add that the Mona Wasserman logo is also present as a producer credit along with A24 for the whole movie in the intro
We also need to mention the sudden leave of Elaine during the night, wtf was that? Mona definitely paid Elaines mother to push her away and not talk anymore to Beau.
This movie was a masterpiece imo. I loved all of Ari Aster’s movies but I really loved this one.
As someone with GAD. I love everything about the first act of the movie. It’s almost exactly how anxiety actually feels
agreed
The relationship between Beau and his mom seemed borderline incestuous to me and I half-expected the big reveal of the story to be that Beau is a victim of CSA from her hands.
Also, the ending of a movie, where Beau's "lawyer" is pushed off the stage and falls on the cliffs below is a reference to "Midsommar", where the exact same thing happens with one of the elders.
To me it has a very S*xual A*sault undertone. Specially the boat sequence, the mother sleeping with him, talking about hownhe can be a good man for Elaine. I think it’s the real background of the relationship between Beau and Mona.
This! I'm surprised more people don't seem to be talking about the implication that Beau was sexually abused by his mother. To me, that seemed to be the very deeply underlying shame that tormented him throughout the film, and would explain the giant penis monster as a symbol of deeply repressed sexual shame.
i highly agree!!!! i was so sure that he was sexually abused by his mom from the start especially with the bath scene and her forcing him to take off his clothes.
Cool that you guys caught the cave being some kind of birth canal. I think every act of the movie is a progressive stage of un-birth, ending in an evil, inverse character arc where instead of overcoming his fear, he just releases it by slipping back into some less than conscious, newborn state, and then implodes back into fluid nothingness.
When I left the theater my immediate first thought was "This was all Beau's internal monologue during what is essentially him being on trial for assaulting his mother"
There are many points in the movie where someone will secretly slip him a note, or a tip, the biggest one being "Stop incriminating yourself!", which the suburban mom gives him.
There's also the scene with the TV, which I interpreted as him in real time watching video tapes they play during court to recount his actions (being prosecuted) and then later again the play (which is entirely positive and hopeful for Beau) being the defense trying to spin his story as a more sympathetic one, and also explains the line within said play about him "watching a play that was so eerily similar to the his life"
Also, there's almost a constant droning noise in the background of the movie. The only time it isn't present is during the scenes in which Beau is entirely in his mind, or flashbacks. At certain points, this noise is almost decipherable as someone's voice speaking, but is unintelligible. I interpreted this as the voices of the trial happening.
I could be completely wrong, but that's what I got out of it on top of everything that's been said about this movie already. Curious if anyone saw it that way too!
I can see that. The chain he breaks with an axe in the play symbolizing freedom can be when the chandelier broke from the chain and hit his mom? I’m not sure
I think it is supposed to be like Hamlet on two levels: a parallel story within a story, for the purpose of "catching someone's conscious" (exposing their guilt). Also, the theme of Hamlet is that Hamlet seals his tragic fate by his own inaction and procrastination, just like Beau.
I got so emotional during the animated / narration portion of the film. That was deeply moving until it turned sour lol
TW: Sexual assault
My girlfriend after the movie had a really interesting theory that beau is a child of r*pe. His dad being a giant dick monster reflects that to his mom he is nothing but a sexual monster. That she had to go through so much trauma to birth beau but got the greatest gift ever in beau. However late on she said she had to dig deep to get the love she gave to beau as you might subconsciously resent the product of your trauma. And the order she gave beau to not have sex and when he did he killed Elaine shows that she was like stay away from sex because it can hurt someone deeply and when he finally does he ends up killing her. And the trial is like his mother went through so much trauma and work to be a mother to beau and expected a perfect result to all her work and when she got imperfect results it’s like you’re on trial for I’ve suffered through so much and you haven’t made it worth it and this guilt of finding out his shortcomings and that he’s a child of r*pe pushes him to the point where he doesn’t take his foot out the boat and essentially kills himself out of the guilt and regret and shame in himself for what he’s done and what he is
Also the trial scene was difficult for me because watching himself slowing descend into the water,we can all feel like that in life. We feel when things are going downhill we just have to accept them and get ourselves out whereas Beau ultimately couldn’t. Huge anti sex movie too lmao
Had I seen this growing up I’d be scared to bust
noticed the anti-sex in the start. When he gets into the bath, you can see his legs but also his enormous testicles. I was wondering if he had some form of testicle cancer, lol
I ended up crying sometimes in the movie because of this, many saw this as comedy but I just saw Beau get hit over and over it was depressing, it reminded me of how sometimes I just can't stand up for myself and I feel guilty about making everyone feel bad. It worked so well in that aspect
24:24 that’s how I feel about a lot of this film. Trying to be clever, and does create an interesting puzzle of metaphors and symbolism to reflect on, but ultimately is unenjoyable and tedious to watch.
Do you know how many people are battling what Beau is going through every single day. Wether it’s child trauma from a father figure or a mother figure. This is insight of what those people are going through every single day. This movie is ground breaking and inspiring to see what is happening in child generational trauma that’s passed on from family member to family member. Detaching from a father or mother figure or a family member is every day social issue in human connection. Depression anxiety mental health again is deeply ingrained in child trauma yet like in the end of the movie the audience just sits up and leaves as we do now today we don’t talk about it we just turn a blind eye and walk away. The movie is helping us understand mental health anxiety and trauma in a way that’s not socially judging it and putting it in a little pill and putting a label on it and letting it go and turning your back on it. I have been dealing with people in mental health for 15 years especially kids and you do not understand how a family figure especially a parent saying to their kid if you have sex you will die as a child can have a lasting trauma that is haunting them until they are alive. The fear that creates the anxiety the sense of I’m not good enough I am not worth anything creates huge internal deep to core trauma. It starts there and than just keeps growing and growing and growing until it eats you inside and spread like toxic waste in your thoughts.
As an anxiety-driven person who often daydreams about impossible scenarios, this movie becomes much more simple to me when I imagine that the whole thing is Beau envisioning one of those scenarios where everything that could go wrong about him going to his mother's funeral does. She is such a powerful figure for him that she couldn't possibly be dead in his mind, and so the whole movie from the moment that he finds out about her death becomes a very chaotic scenario in his head that ends up with him inevitably losing to his mother. Even when he gets the balls to stand up to her like when he chokes her and manages to escape into the sea, she manages to come back to him and ultimately judge him for his actions.
Mona used Beau to test medications on his entire life, and she still is by having the therapist give him new meds. He is one big experiment to her, she loves him, but more in the way of needing him in order to survive. She can’t live without him and he is terrified of a world both with her and without her. The crossroads for him is setup in therapy, does he want her to be dead? Or alive? He can’t make a choice so she makes it for him.
The boat ride through the cave definitely mirrors the opening birthing scene in my opinion. Beau believes he is escaping this world completely controlled by his mother only to discover a different world also controlled by his mother.
I think one subtle aspect as well is the lack of belonging to a place or to identify a place (city, country, continente, river, beach, wtv) as a real home, once you leave your parents’ house. when we reallocate, there is always the mixed feeling of wanting to get back to the roots and reconnect with family (even though most times it is uncomfortable and it remember us of traumatic events or the past versions of ourselves that used to live in that place), so he spends half of the movie trying to travel home but is constantly being distracted with some new places trying to find/build his personality apart from her mother and his early childhood experiences (even though he never finds peace in any place or acknowledges it like as a real true home)
Plus the line where Beau's mom is like "Our home? Um, actually this is MY house"
@@holdingmyown that scene broke me. My narcissistic parents say that to me too: you are a guest in OUR house. The house I grew up in. 😢
I appreciate this breakdown lol. One thing I personally thought when I watched the film is during the beginning when he was surrounded by all this chaos that he almost existed outside of, and was the only one, it seemed that the way his whole city acted, Beau was a product of probably the same thing everyone else has, but he doesn’t show it on the outside. So it’s almost like the world surrounding his apartment is what he “should” be like but he swallows his emotion and doesn’t let it show
My take on the ending and the movie theater audience being a part of the trial is like a jab at how people will sit and watch someone get convicted of something, and while they may have their reservations or sympathy, there’s nothing they can really do besides sit and watch. Otherwise they’re subject to the same fate as Beau’s “lawyer” and Beau: death, or at least removal. It kinda has Roman Empire vibes as well. This big colosseum filled with people watching someone they know is going to die just for entertainment purposes (which is where we find ourselves as an audience at the end…we could leave the theater before we see him die, but we sit and watch knowing he’s got zero chance). Which I just realized is kind of the overall arc of the movie. Mona is like a Caesar…part of a larger societal system with ultimate power and control that you can’t escape even if you want to. Much like most countries…lol, I’m going to bed 😵💫🥴
Great review y'all, I wish more youtubers shared your enthusiasm and appreciation for this masterwork. The end, where we are all part of the crowd that watches him drown, is the manifestation of struggling against the systemic issues we can not individually change. We can watch and know, or we can walk away from it, but we are powerless to affect it. We are as much Beau as we are glad that we are not Beau.
This puts things really into perspective for me.
I had a feeling that the play was kind of like a “what if” conceptual vision had he broken free from being afraid because of his mother’s influence.
Gonna see it again this weekend.
I think the audience at the end connects to the reoccurring theme about the way we sublimate watching the suffering of others. We can’t fully recognize it or empathize on a day to day basis because it’s too much for our brains to take, so we wall ourselves off without realizing, root for the guy to jump off the building, ignore the crazy homeless people and just hope they don’t hurt us, film people without their permission to humiliate them, watch Beau with fascination in the arena as entertainment. To me it says something about humans’ inherent selfishness which functions as a practical survival mechanism for all of us. We refuse to acknowledge this selfishness because we want to view ourselves as good people, as opposed to people who fear, encourage, and enjoy the suffering of others for entertainment purposes, in many cases far more often than we actually help others. That was my reading of that reoccurring theme that shows up a few times, including the ending
Good analysis
Wow.
I actually never comment on any social media post/video, but this video really deserves praise, great great analysis from both of you. Major respect.
I think Jeeves can be read as just mental illness incarnate. We send our troops out and the trauma they go through "kills them" and then when they return and their trauma is all that's left of them we celebrate them instead of lamenting what is lost. He also can be seen as beau's mental illness, even in a serene setting he is jumping up and down and running around similar to beaus anxiety. Even when Beau finds people who are like him, people he should be able to find solace in, Beau''s anxiety still prevents him from connecting to these people.
Yeah I agree. Using this logic, I think many of the characters are literal embodiments of mental health disorders. Beau is anxiety, Mona is narcissism, Jeeves is PTSD. Dick monster in the attic could be lust or SA. etc
I saw it a second time and my mind has been wandering on two things.
1. In the opening city scene when beau gets to his apartment he walks past a photo and said Hi Dad and it's a blurry photo but I'm pretty sure the guy who talks to him at the play who says he knows his dad is the guy in that photo.
2. Elaine is in Beau's dream , a girl is in a bathing suit similar to hers on the cruise and it pans to her in a green suit while she is doing beau's hair in the bath. Then beau looks at the other version of himself and when he turns his head it's his mom in a green dress similar to the green bathing suit. It's different than the outfit the mom had any other time they show that dream. Of course its revealed to be a memory not a dream, if that is the case what else was going on in that scene?
I noticed that too. It 100% is the guy in the photo.
@@scottieblanton-sr6iz True but the photo isn't necessarily even his dad, just whatever photo his mom gave to him to hold onto.
Thank you for the video. I'm complementing my interpretation with your view. Because to me, this is a story within a NIGHTMARE. Not that everything is a dream, but the FORMAT in which is told is nightmare-ish. The fact that it takes you to places without transition; or that everything feels real but in a bizarre way; or even the separation between acts, that came after a serious hit (which would make you wake up).
how i interpreted the water was how the only freedom beau will get is death. in certain instances the water shows promise like him on the cruise with elaine or him riding away on the boat at the end, but at the end of the movie beau drowns which also reflects the man who drowned in the pool on the cruise. both times his hope of being free gets tied with death. no matter what beau cannot stop the damage his mother did to him and he will have to live with it his whole life. the only time he will truly be free from her grasp is when he is dead.
I need Ari Aster's mom to respond to Ari Aster right now.
The dad being a cock in the attic was actually point when the movie stated making more sense to me.
Beau's father wasn't really dead , he died and was stored in the "attic" of Mona's memory because he didn't love her.
So in Mona's mind he died and she projects that desperation for love from a partner in giving Beau a world view that he died for giving him life, and she was the only thing he could ever love safely.
That's why instead of Beau dying when he came in Elaine, she died because she didn't love him the way Beau's father didn't love Mona.
I think she faked her death to see if Beau even in at news of her death would do anything to prove his love for her by showing up to her funeral on time.
But Beau's journey to his mother's house ends with what he really wants (another woman) and this is the ultimate betrayal to his mom.
In the play Beau has 3 sons he loves with all his heart and would do anything to get back to but their mother doesn't exist and the fantasy ends because he realizes his fear of life never allowed him to get to where he wanted to be, which is having a happy loving family of his own.
Beau always has flashbacks to his mom trying to put him in the bath , which is metaphor for her trying to drowned him with shame and guilt for not loving her and at the end Beau finally drowned in that guilty feeling because his mother died from seeing him love another woman.
Solid plot analysis. Let's dig a bit deeper.
I agree for the most part but I feel like what’s in the attic represents some great deep trauma the mother is bearing that’s supposed to explain why she is the way she is. I really don’t want to believe it’s something simple because then it would more of a big shocker instead of being symbolic of anything
@@kendrojr what was the dude above beau in the bathtub about???
What did the dude above beau in the bathtub represent???
@@napndash I'm not the best and understanding symbolism in movies , if you have deeper thoughts on it I'd like to know for sure, I'd like to understand it on a deeper level, I had to watch videos to explain Midsommar to me lol
There are always crazy things you see in attics in both this and Hereditary.
Oh man, it's incredible the amount of symbolism you guys were able to pick up that I didn't even think about, while I was too busy trying to comprehend what was even happening, haha. Fantastic video guys!
Anyone else catch the Mona Wasserman symbol playing in the opening company credits?
I like the way that you guys connected a lot of things that I didn’t even think about after watching the movie. Great review thanks.
I don't know if anyone pointed this out before, but the theatre scene seemed like the re-telling of this whole journey. He has everything, then a catastrophic flood destroys his home- that's the scene, when the street thugs occupied his apartment. Then, he goes for a journey to find his family - his whole family is his mother. He finds himself in a village when they falsely accuse him of spreading the plague - the suburban Home, when they accuse him of killing Toni... and they send a dog after him - that's Jeeves. At the end, he finds his family - I think that's when he finds his "brave self" in the attic. But his wife is nowhere - I can only guess with this, but could be his mother, Elaine, or just that feeling of 'imperfection'. That no matter how hard he try to heal himself, he will never be healthy and "'whole" again.
I think the ending is genius actually, like regardless of if you're sympathetic in the audience, nothing can be done to help beau. I think it's interesting too to see the differences between us and the people in the seats in the movie, because we've seen what beau went through, so we know who he is. They don't, yet they're the ones who are truly able to help. It's a great parallel to real life.
You touched on this but it’s interesting that the places where beau is in before going home - the city, the suburbs, the wild - consist of all of the place where people live. It’s as if beau was seeing, can I live anywhere outside of my mothers influence? And the answer is no: no matter where he goes, there she is. Physical location where he lives doesn’t play into it, he can’t escape.
kinda love how you guys weren't on the same page about your observations about the film and we got to hear you both argue your different views against the other
This movie was absolutely beautiful and I loved the fact I left and was so confused
and I think we kind have access to parallel realities about this growing development experiences. for instance, when he is with the first family, he is being treated like a child with no autonomy, then with the girl we see him being peer pressured to smoke just like in high school and then he breaks free from the family and finds a community and the animation part begins (coming of age with all the existential questions) and then when he returns to his mom’s house, we see an older version of him in the attick
I feel like it’s being over shadowed that Beau is not of a sound mind. He was dropped and didn’t cry when being born. A poster in the moms house says he could have ADHD. And we see the movie from his perspective and obviously he has serious anxiety , maybe he even has actual hallucinations.
Only thing you guys missed is how once the waves wash his family away in the play every event from then mirrors the events of the movie and ends the same way.
I was imediatly connected to this film in the first scene and understood the rest of it. Like, literally. Freud says in one of his books (and is one of the few theories I actually agree with him on) that the moment we leave the womb, we spend the rest of our lives trying to return to that inanimate state of being in the confort of non-existence. If a mother is overprotective of her son, he will depend on her and her approval for the rest of his life. And right after he's born, she's already screaming at the doctors, demanding her son, almost as if she wants to push him back in so he isn't hurt by the world. So yeah, great movie. One of the best (and worst) I've ever seen, and I can't recommend it to anyone lol
This is probably the best analysis I’ve seen so far
I think that the audience responds in that way at the end because all they see on the surface are these terrible things that happen with him. And in reality, we don’t always see the inner workings of his psyche and we just see the facts. So we condemn him like everyone else without hearing out their defense. Or that their defense is inexcusable. That’s kinda what I took.
The scene at the beginning where the mother grabs her son and the toy boat flips over is foreshadowing the ending. Also the suicide jumper reflected in the glass when he buys the figurine is masterful.
Great insight into the substance of the film.
One aspect not talked about enough in all the reviews about the film is the character of Elaine. I see it as a young reflection of Mona. Domineering, even manipulative. A few instances in the film she literally takes place of Mona: in the beginning of the full bath scene where Mona sends the other part of Beau to the attic; inside the Mona's house before the sex scene she rummages through and wears on Mona's stuff like her own. I think this points to the tendency of our psyche to get attracted and feel comfortable with partners that resemble our parents in behaviour and character. Not to mention that Elaine was literally pointed out by Mona on the cruise ship, commented on her character and that he's the right man for her. The whole cruise ship setup was a test by Mona.
I think the work overall resembles the Greek tragedy, rather than any particular contemporary genre, in the fact that protagonist is pretty much doomed from the start and his fate is decided by gods in this case Mona.
I feel like the audience at the end does not represent us who are watching, but the people at Beau’s life who watched the abused commuted by his controlling mother and did not help.
Great analysis, guys! I've never seen your channel but this is the best video I've watched about this film. Your conversation os very thorough and cohesive for what seems like a largely incoherent flick. I'm subbed.
I interpreted the final scene to really cement the audience with beau rather than trying to make us pick a side or feel guilty because we are positioned on the side his defense was on. we’re left facing the prosecution and would be exactly where his defense (with no real voice in his world) would be, just as we the audience have no say in his perception of the world because of his mothers influence
The final shot made me think we are all going have to face our own final judgment at some point. It did make me reconsider some things regarding my own life I would say maybe the filmmaker was very subtly showing us a mirror.
2:00 with the many Wasserman brands, the add for housing is very disturbing: "big W housing: Caring for those who abuse our products".
So it seems like the mother stuck Beau in low income housing for the addicts she created. And all the people are deranged from Beau's mom's drugs?
It also reminds me of the Sackler family that promoted opioids in real life.
19:40 It’s heavily implied that his dad left when he was young because he couldn’t stand how controlling and overbearing the mother was, and as a result Beau was left without a father figure to model male independence for him. A common gaslighting tactic by overbearing controlling and emotionally manipulative mothers is to say things like “you’re just like your father” as a way to dehumanize the son. So what this scene is saying by making the dad represented by a phallice is essentially the mother guilting him for having sexual desires and treating the father like a deadbeat who was only good for one thing, and if Beau pursues other women then that’s all he’s good for. She’s making both his manhood and his desire for sexual independence feel grotesque and shameful. It’s really him confronting his repressed side because his mother messed up his sense of self worth as a man.
24:39 there’s a case to be made that it’s not about you the audience judging Beau but more so that the artist is revisiting his old wounds a bit and struggling to make that commercially viable in an entertainment industry that demands box office success. The body of Ari Aster’s work is about family trauma from Heredity to Midsommar to this and the coping mechanisms we use, and he’s saying with the final scene that his coping mechanism is making this film for any audience who will walk away from it either feeling something that sticks or feeling nothing and going back to their life. It’s also exemplified in the forest scene - it’s Ari Aster saying he discovered film as a medium that helped him escape to worlds and stories where he could find freedom and independence for a short time before going back to confronting the realities of his trauma, and in the end Beau’s story is meant to be that for us.
Well said.
Loved the movie!! After watching it a few times... Watching a few reviews... i have concluded that the entire movie is a dream sequence that takes place during his birth.
I think the US comparisons are a bit of a stretch, at least in the terms of Iraq but I also don't know Aster's relationship with war. Once we get past the suburban part of the movie I felt a lot of redundancies and retreading but that stop in the journey is my favorite part of the movie. I think it is to show the flip side, Beau 'lost his mom' and they 'lost their son' and fervently honor him. Losing a family member or someone who you cared deeply for and nurtured is incredibly painful. Beau was shocked and stunned at the loss of his mother but has he properly grieved? I say he didn't because he had a feeling of being free but also anxiously believed his mother was still alive, even before the hints the suburban mom was giving him. He constantly looked to her for guidance for fear of her lashing out or being disappointed, he constantly struggles making his own decisions.
Some will say this sequence was the test where he needed to stand up and demand he be taken to his mother's funeral immediately but I feel this was only part of the whole test. And the test was failed as soon as he missed his flight in the beginning of the movie. The new drug was possibly something to sabotage him, to make him late in the first place, test his resolve and see what lengths and hoops Beau would jump through for his mother.
The reason the flood happens is cuz when ever Beau makes a decision something horrible ends up happening. He decided to have a family so he loses them .
The flood is from the trauma from the bath tub scene when Mona puts the brother in the attic. The tub floods again in his apartment after the “crazy people” destroy his house. And the guy about him represents his “dad in the attic”
When they mention the conspiratorial aspect, I could feel that, like Mona is a face to a secret society and her/their kind of judgement is steeped and implemented into the society and punishing those they feel are deplorable is done so in a hidden camera reality television type why. Impractical Judgers. The way Mona is so powerful in the world itself let alone in beau’s mind and his own world led to so much confusion with plot and I love it.
My interpretation is Id probably need to know Ari Aster on a personal level to really get what he was going for. Besides that, the film means whatever tf you want it to mean. You can place just about any subtext you want in this film and find a way to make it work
The whole time, I was questioning whether he was dead or dying because he wrote a suicide note on the pill cap and after he went to sleep, he started to get those letters and things really started to get crazy. Maybe the violent way the mom supposedly died and him being pressured to be at the funeral was the guilt he felt for killing himself and knowing that he won’t be seeing his mother.
Suicide note? He wrote a message for his mother on the base of the statue he bought her. I don't recall any suicide note.
I think everything makes more sense if we see Mona's Truman showing Beau his whole life, including the Cruise, the trashy neighborhood(and everyone on that street), the Baby Suit Stabber is also instructed to punish Beau without giving him too serious of an injury
I think it's cool how the logo for the moms company is an m for mom but a w for her last name, but it can also be interpreted as m for mom but flipped into a w when shes his enemy or destructive to him
I think the ending was inner monologue, with Guilt being much louder than ”the truth”, to the point of drowning in it. Guilt for not being a good enough son for an overcaring mother being the theme for the movie.
regarding the opening scene of him being born, it's not just showing how terrifying the world outside the womb is, but also showing that from the moment he's born, his mother is already super controlling of everything, I don't know if him hitting his head was a legitimate accident that went wrong with his birth or just a way of showing that the mother is perceiving threats where there are none, because of how she's asking "why are you putting him upside down? why are you spanking him?!" this is something fairly common after birth, and yet the mother perceives it as something that is dangerous and shouldn't be happening.
So I think that short opening scene is also to show how, from the moment he is born, his mother is already unhealthily protective of him in a detrimental way.
I love your guys's take on things fun to listen to and its cool to see the different interpretations of things in the comments as well
Elaine waas also an employee when she was on the cruise ship. You can see the child Elaine photographed in one of the ads on the timeline wall when Beau first gets home. That was, much like Truman Show, all staged to instill a fear in Beau because he is not allowed to escape.
was very proud of myself for noticing nathan lanes face within the employee photo that made up monas face. everyone was in on it!
During the trial segment of the movie, I got an entirely different feeling. Rather than feeling implicated, I felt as if I was one of the few who in the audience really connected with Beau and wanted him to break free. But my voice just couldnt reach him. Once the boat tipped and the audience walked out of the theater, the irl audience walked away too, but I stayed sitting in shock. I think that it was a moment to let the viewer marinate in what had just happened, to really drive home that feeling of hopelessness.
I just sat there too. I was in shock. I thought he was going to live but they let the mom win. People on the outside never actually see what's happening to you they just go off personal perception. People with moms like this understand exactly how this feels. It's like no one will believe you of how horrible they are. So they have the control.
@@ImmortalKombatPanda True. My mother is a covert, altruistic narcissist and almost nobody believes me😢
The film isn't about Beau or making sense of why his mom can do this or that. Beau's journey is only there to help attach the different fears we all have, that are on display separately in the film. There isn't a reality in the film. There is the lead to help us see our fears: A boy in the street with an assault rifle. A spider crawling on the floor. Leaving your door unlocked means your home is robbed and destroyed. A man shows up and shoots up the theater. I think this film is specifically about a man in this world. The desire or fantasy to marry a woman, have children, build your own your home, live off the land, but being too afraid to take the risks or being able to make it happen, realizing you may not get to have that. Being too afraid of women, you may never have sex, fall in love, and get to have those boys you miss and who miss you. One day you realize your fears have kept your feet feel glued to a boat rocking in the water, and it feels like it's in front of a stadium audience of strangers judging u for the mistakes u repeat in your head, keeping u stuck from getting out. Never forgiving yourself for dumb kid things you've done, like letting those boys sniff your mom’s underwear or whatever embarrassing stuff u did a long time ago that u cant let go of. The father not being around is just a dick who provided semen and is a monster for not being around and likely also being a monster for the single mom, which she reminds u of. The mother demands the love from her son. Your mother or women u love; the fear of their control and demands to do specific things so they believe you love them. This film isnt about “well how did Mona control this?” It isn't The Truman Show. It is a bunch of dioramas or fears men are living with now. In this way it is a "horror" film. Things that really scare you. You're in the mind of all these daily and lifetime fears that end up drowning you if you cant get unstuck to be who you want to be.
You’re not in the audience for Beau. Youre in the audience of whether you are forgiving of yourself or letting yourself down with all the fears that keep u stuck. Or as Ari said, paraphrasing, “i want to put u in the mind of a loser.”
You’re not in the audience for Beau. Youre in the audience of whether you are forgiving of yourself or letting yourself down with all the fears that keep u stuck. Or as Ari said, paraphrasing, “i want to put u in the mind of a loser.”
I like this one
In regards to the ending of this video and of the movie, it's way easier to tell someone else like Beau to not feel guilty, but if you're Beau in the sense that you relate to him a lot, is way harder to not feel guilty for yourself than it is to understand you shouldnt feel guilty, and i think that's what it was trying to say by ending in this mirror to yourself, you dont just understand Beau but you understand yourself.
The mother is not the antagonist. She suffered from her mother as well. It's the intergeneraional trauma that's the antagonist.
Hey you two are awesome! =) A hug from Mexico! Keep making this reviews =) I loved watching the film, and also loved listening you after that!
I feel like studying attachment theory literally right before watching this helped it make sense lol
I found the defence lawyer (his self talk) hilarious
I did like the ''mirror'' thing you mentioned at the end of the video that happend at the end of the movie, it simbolized that you're not only judging him, but you might be judging yourself along with the movie, for people who can relate to this movie a lot it might be like their own theraphy seasion and it's telling you not to be so critical of yourself in that regard because a lot of it is in your mind anyway, is about how you judge yourself in your own head and that's the porpuse of implicating the audience
this is the best and realest analysis ive seen yet.
you guys have made a new loyal subscriber in me! love your POV.
Here is a take on the water: it's a comforting and destructive force that represent the motherly presence. Beau takes a bath after his appartment is wrecked in an attempt to find comfort, the same way he needs a bottle of water to feel safe about the medication. The problem is that water always comes with a threat, destruction or an overflow. With the bottle, the vendor threatens to call the cops if he doesn't fully pay his due, the same way the mother expects a full return on the love she gives. The bath overflows in the appartment, showing an invasive presence and imposing the reminder that comfort lies in the water, but in the end the bath is unsafe and the scene results in violence. The overflow of water is also present in the flashbacks when the bath overflows as the mother scolds the "twin". This destructive aspect is further rienforced in the animated sequence where a flood disrupts his family in the same way his mother would do anything to keep him away from creating other bonds. This ties well into boats as a symbol of freedom or the possibility of independence since boats are a way of dealing with the dangers associated to bodies of water, though as with the sea this safety is not complete and like the mother the water remains everywhere and all around. By the end, the boat is flipped and the mother truly drowns him in her devouring presence.
I also want to add a point about the fact that this movie operates like a 40 years old man's world version of Alice in Wonderland. We can spend time looking for imperfect parrallels like who's the rabbit, who's the hatter, who's the catterpillar, etc. But the dream logic is similar, there's a strong use of drugs that modifiy reality and it ends with a Red Queen and a phony trial. It's by no means a one for one translitteration but there is strong correllation and I find it to be and interresting angle of analysis.
That knocking noise has been driving me crazy for the entirety of this video. Noticed it at 7:00 and I legitimately struggle with a lot of things similar to Beau (c-ptsd, agoraphobia, generational trauma, etc.) and I thought I was going crazy. Not sure if that was on purpose, but I hate it lol, I thought someone was knocking behind my room or something. Great video, still watching lol.
This is the only way I will accept that it was “all in his head” :
The theme is guilt right? And the therapist asks him if he wants his mom to be dead.
What if, Beau killed his mom at some point before the film when he found out that she had lied to him and hurt him his whole life by testing medication on him. He killed her and immediate felt guilty and anxious. He blocked that out, and thinks she is still alive. He lost his mind, so he’s in therapy and taking meds and everything. He doesn’t know who he can trust, and he feels like she is still controlling him. The therapist knows Beau will never visit his mother because she is dead. This same situation has probably played out in different ways several times. The therapist asks if Beau wishes his mom was dead, and that’s when Beau loses it. He tries to drown himself, and the whole rest of the movie is while he is underwater making the decision to live or drown. He makes decisions over and over again that show him either trying to get to her or trying to get away from her. The play scene is what his life may have been if she hadn’t made him afraid. When she “comes back” it’s him finally needing to confront what he did and make the decision of whether he actually wanted her dead or not. He relives finding out that she lied and hurt him by testing meds on him. Then he does kill her again (choking her) which means he made the choice that he wanted her dead. Then he knows that his guilt was rightful and that’s what causes him to decide to actually drown in the tub.
Yes, I felt awful during the ending. I think that’s how Aster wants us to feel though.
Did you notice many of the characters said 'I'm so sorry' to Beau.
I saw a few days ago and my review keeps changing. The first part was so good as I live in high rise and I have dealt with the notes under door accusing me of something I wasn't doing. It was a perfect nightmare of missing flights and an aggressive mother and crazy neighbors. That alone was a movie. The middle Suburban section was the best because that was a real life situation and Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan sold the hell out of it. Another nightmare, so I guess that was the movie. It started to fall apart at end, but there was not one second I was bored. I loved HEREDITARY and MIDSUMMAR so I know I was watching something special. I will digest and see again in near future but when I think of some scenes I really think it was good. And I laughed a lot in theater but I was alone with that so not sure if I was getting it.
I think you just had a bad crowd. I had a very reactive crowd so I wish you were with my audience!
What analysis bros! Probably the most accurated and rich approach for understanding the movie. Now the things become a little more clear for me kkkkk
In regard to the very end, we are not judging him, but we are deriving fun and pleasure from all suffering. For me that’s what the parallel between the movie theater and the trial come from.