Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This piece was originally published in April.
We are recirculating it now thatBeau Is Afraidis available on digital.
Spoilers ahead for the plot and ending ofBeau Is Afraid.
Namely: Is writer-director Ari Aster okay?
And whats going on in the films crazy ending?
But Aster refuses to directly explain the events in the film.
How does he find out?
Beau runs into the forest and winds up in a back-to-nature theater troupecommune called The Orphans of the Forest.
And Beaus experience of watching the play begins to lay the groundwork for the final act of the film.
Beau begins to wonder ifthisman might actually be his father.
In the dream, young Beau asks about his father.
You know where Daddy is.
Mona, his mother, tells him.
This is when we realize that the cameras point of view is that of another person in the room.
Lets flash forward a bit, because this event is worth exploring.
After the recording ends, Beau tells Mona he wants to know the truth about his father.
Mona replies that she tried to keep that truth from him, for his protection.
She leads him to the attic stairs and then yells, ominously, That wasnt a dream.
That was a memory!
Upstairs, in the darkened attic, Beau looks around with a flashlight.
He sees a gaunt, debilitated, gray-haired, and bearded figure leaning against a wall.
(This man is wearing the same T-shirt that brave Beau was wearing in those flashbacks.
My boy … the penis monster rasps.
Just then, into the attic bursts Jeeves, who is, somehow, still alive.
So,wasthat Beaus father?
Was Mona impregnated by an enormous sentient phallus?
Like most of the film, it probably makes more sense to read this symbolically.
(Theres certainly a lot of Oedipal stuff going on.)
But there may be a simpler way of looking at this.
Beaus father has been absent all his life.
Dad might as well just be a huge dick, in all senses of the word.
But who is theotherman in the attic?
Is that … also Beau?
The braver version of himself he talked about to his shrink?
He holds out an empty cup or bowl, as if hes been starving forever.
This figure has had no love.
Hes only had giant-penis dad, who can conceive but cant nourish.
Later, Beau will be referred to as Monas sole surviving son.
Does the other son exist?Didthe other son exist?
He might be the most haunting image in the film.
We often hear water on the soundtrack and occasionally even see flashes of a darkened lake or ocean.
Water can be symbolic of a mothers love, which can be smothering and destructive, as weve seen.
It can also be denied, as retribution.
Think of the man in the attic and his empty bowl.
A further look around Monas house adds proof.
Framed photos and posters show how her company has grown over the years.
MWs motto seems to be Perfectly Safe.
Has Mona been using Beau as some kind of guinea pig?
Its terrifying, but also kind of touching an expression of how protectiveness can curdle into cruelty.
Beau has lived in fear all his life.
Hes quite relatable in this regard.
But attempts to protect ourselves from these fears wind up being counterproductive and deadly in their own regard.
Grace and Roger closed off their sons room after he died.
So what did their daughter wind up doing?
She has apparently been working for Beaus mom for years.
Was she always working for Mona?
Or did Mona bring her into the company to keep her away from Beau?
Were they all working for Mona, propping up a reality she had created for her son?
Beau has been struggling, and failing, his whole life to escape his moms sphere of influence.
While Beau looks at Monas funeral arrangement, Elaine arrives, a little tipsy.
Our hero is shocked to see her.
You worked for her?
I did, until last week.
After a couple more awkward exchanges, Beau kisses her.
She reciprocates and suggests they go inside.
As soon as they do, her attitude becomes very terse and businesslike.
She pulls out a condom.
But its too late.
I really felt that, Elaine sighs.
That was a lot.
You just blasted through that thing.
Beau is relieved to see that he has not, in fact, died.
But then Elaine achieves orgasm, and is immediately frozen stiff dead.
Its not the mans orgasm that kills; its the womans.
Could that be partly the source of Monas resentment toward Beau and his bloodline?
Either way, Beaus fears of sex and death have been realized.
It is at this point that Mona arrives in the bedroom.
Beaus mom is not only still alive, shes been watching all this.
You dont look too overjoyed to see me.
I was dead just a minute ago, she says passive-aggressively.
Servants come in and carry Elaines body away.
(In another absurdist touch, the body is frozen mid-straddle.)
Why did Mona fake her own death?
To find out just how little Beau cared for her, it seems.
She insists he was lying about losing his keys.
She then plays tapes of Beaus psychiatric sessions.
Cue the aforementioned attic scene with the giant penis-monster.
She claims that she spent every waking minute worrying about him, about whether he was safe and fed.
Beau, distraught, begins choking her and then, shocked, stops and lets her go.
Im sorry, he says.
He passes through a cave and into what seems to be a star field.
Suddenly, his boat stops, as if hes hit something.
(Seriously, Kafka would be proud.)
We see Beau feeding ducks and his therapists fish.
Meanwhile, Beaus hapless lawyer is thrown from his balcony and smashed against the rocks below.
Other reinterpretations follow as Mona grows increasingly furious.
And Beau never really sticks up for himself.
All of his explanations basically come down to one thing: He was weak and didnt speak up.
The kids pressured him.
He was afraid his mom would be upset with him for getting lost.
True to form, Beau yells that hes sorry.
His boat, which has begun to sputter, now catches fire.
Beaus legs are stuck and he cant move.
Suddenly, his face goes expressionless, almost as if hes accepted his fate.
All at once, the boat flips over and traps him under it.
It shakes and the water bubbles, signs of Beau struggling.
The audience begins to file out.
Eventually, the boat goes still.
So what the hell just happened?
Beau is a man who has watched the world pass him by.
Was it because he was afraid of what lay beyond his door and afraid of upsetting others?
Was his constant sense of guilt inborn, or something fostered by his mother?
In that trial, is Beau really just talking to himself?
Is it his mother accusing him, or is it the guilt in which hes always existed?
Mona and Beau are not unique; they are locked in an eternal dance that predates them.
His one act of defiance, his one act of independence, leads to his demise.
Did he just wait too long to break free, or was he always doomed?
As we (blurrily) saw him exit the birth canal, we heard his mothers screams and shrieks.
In other words,Beau Is Afraidis a journey from a mans first breath to his last.
In the end, like many of us, he went nowhere.
