Movie reviews: 'Beau is Afraid' often feels like a three-hour panic attack

'Wicked': 4 out of 5 stars Film critic Richard Crouse shares his take on newly-released movies including 'Wicked', 'Gladiator II' and more.

BEAU IS AFRAID: UNRATABLE

Magnificent and confounding in equal measure, "Beau is Afraid," a new, three-hour epic from "Midsommar" director Ari Aster and now playing in theatres, is a nightmarish trek through a mishmash of mommy issues, anxiety and tragedy. Imagine a paranoid "Lord of the Rings" style quest reimagined by Luis Buñuel with a darkly comedic "After Hours" vibe and a hint of Thomas "You Can't Go Home Again" Wolfe and you'll be on the road to understanding Beau's surreal journey.

Joaquin Phoenix plays the title character, a neurotic, over-medicated man whose father died at the moment of his son's conception. The loss forever coloured his life, leaving him lost in a sea of paranoia and uncertainty.

"I am so sorry for what your daddy passed down to you," says his overbearing mother Mona (Patti LaPone).

Beau's already chaotic life is forever changed by a missed plane, a new prescription and a home invasion. Set off on an odyssey to return home for his mother's funeral, circumstances continually keep him off track. First, he finds himself the reluctant patient of affable suburban caregivers Roger and Grace (Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan), their troubled daughter (Kylie Rogers) and a war vet with PTSD.

Then, a narrow escape finds him in the embrace of a travelling experimental theater troupe whose storytelling transports him into an animated folk tale of searching, struggle and solace.

Finally, bloodied and bruised, he arrives home to confront his past, face his fears and come to grips with the trauma that hangs over his life like a shroud.

"Beau is Afraid" is a complicated movie, laden with allegory and symbolism, that confronts the aftereffects of loss and grief. It's familiar terrain for Aster, whose previous films, "Hereditary" and "Midsommar," were also studies in intergenerational trauma.

But the new movie is anything but familiar.

It is a psychological dramedy that dives deep into how Beau's trauma has molded every aspect of his life and lead to a breakdown, one we witness from his point of view, in real time. It's a harrowing trip as Beau slowly loses his grip on reality, and his paranoia shapes the movie's narrative.

Aster is uncompromising in his portrayal of Beau's state of mind. His previous movies were more visually shocking, featuring images more aligned to traditional horror. "Beau is Afraid" has less overt horror. It's more concerned with the psychological, the confusion, fear and anxiety that drives Beau. To convey this, Phoenix, in an internal performance, plays the character as a shell. The movie revolves around him and his state of mind, but he is a reactive character, one who responds to, rather than instigates, the action. It's interesting, deeply felt work but the closed down, Chauncey Gardiner nature of the character makes him difficult to embrace.

Given the unsettled nature of the real world, audiences may understand, relate or sympathize with Beau's all-encompassing fear, but the absurdism woven into Phoenix's childlike performance, particularly in the film's second half, wears thin.

"Beau is Afraid" is the weirdest film on Aster's already proudly weird IMDB page. It may be the definition of a film that is not for everyone, but it cannot be faulted for its uncompromising vision. As a search for meaning in life, for closure from trauma, for freedom from fear, from relief from distended testicles (Yup! You read that right), it was never going to be a feel-good flick. So, instead, it swings for the fences, burrowing in on its grandiose emotional ideas even if it often feels like a three-hour panic attack.

Unpredictable, unexpected and ultimately, unexplainable, it's challenging cinema that connects on a subconscious level.

GHOSTED: 3 STARS

The action in "Ghosted," a new espionage comedy now streaming on Apple TV+, begins with a meet cute between Cole and Sadie, played by Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, and a question: Is it romantic or weirdly obsessive to follow someone you've only met once halfway around the world to ask for a second date?

Cole and Sadie meet at a country market where he's working a flower stall. It isn't exactly love at first sight. They get off to a bad start when he refuses to sell her a plant that needs lots of TLC, even though she is often out of town for work, frequently for months at a time.

"Who can be so indifferent to a living thing?" he asks.

Feeling guilty and rude, he catches up with her as she drives away and, then and there, they agree to go on a date. What begins as an afternoon coffee hook-up quickly turns into all night affair, leaving Cole convinced he has met his soulmate. He even took a selfie of her in bed, while she was asleep, so he could cherish the moment later.

When she doesn't return his texts, he decides to track her through the microchip on his inhaler, which he conveniently left in her purse the night before. Turns out, she's in London.

"She didn't ghost me," he says optimistically, "she just doesn't have an international calling plan."

Despite never having been out of the country—not true says his dad, "he was conceived in Ontario”—he jumps on a plane to rekindle the fire that sparked the night before.

But instead of being met with a shower of hugs and kisses, he is caught in a hail of bullets, when it turns out Sadie is CIA operative on a dangerous mission.

"I cannot believe you got me kidnapped and tortured after one date," he says.

She points out he flew across the ocean to find her after only knowing her for a few hours.

"That is not passive behavior," she says.

With Cole misidentified as a spy, cue the international intrigue, heavy artillery and some light romantic complications.

"Ghosted," which again pairs Evans and de Armas after "Knives Out" and "The Gray Man," is an action-comedy-romance in the style of "Romancing the Stone." A mismatched pair must rely on one another to survive, all the while falling in and out of love.

The movie works best when it doesn't take itself too seriously. By the time we get to the "protecting the people you love is never a mistake" sentiments, much of the fun of watching Captain America play against type—Cole's own sister calls him "smothering, needy, pathetic and delusional"—and de Armas in full-on action mode has wilted. Up until then, however, screenwriters Rhett Rheese and Paul Wernick—best known for writing the "Deadpool" and "Zombieland" movies—keep "Ghosted" fairly nimble on its feet, blending the action, adventure and romance into an appealing frothy confection.

During its two-hour running time "Ghosted" goes a little over the top with multiple MCU cameos, sets itself up for a sequel and slides by on the charm of its leads.

CHEVALIER: 3 ½ STARS

"Chevalier," a new biopic of composer and violin virtuoso Joseph Bolonge Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), now playing in theatres, begins with the 18th century version of a dance-off. The title character, the son of a wealthy, white slave owner and a Senegalese slave, bounds onstage, yelling: "Play violin concerto #5!" challenging Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Joseph Prowen) to a violin duel.

The two go at it "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" style until it becomes clear Bologne is the superior talent, setting up the movie's main premise—that he is the most talented musician of the Classical period you’ve never heard of.

Brought from the French colony of Guadeloupe by his father, the young musical prodigy is placed at a boarding school, where he excels at the violin and fencing. His competitive side sees him move through French society, despite the limitations placed on him by a racist society who appreciate his talent but, because of his skin colour, will never fully embrace him socially.

A performance for King Louis and Marie Antionette (Lucy Boynton) earns him some royal respect and the title Chevalier, the French equivalent of an English knight. The queen also challenges him and another composer to write an opera. Whoever does the best job will have the honor of not only performing their work at the Paris Opera, but will also be named director of the company.

In order to win the competition and the esteem of the French elite, Bologne becomes involved with singer Marquise Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving), despite the warnings of her violent aristocratic husband Marquis de Montalembert's (Marton Csokas) to keep her off the stage.

As the French Revolution looms, Bologne's ego and desires threaten his future.

"Chevalier" is melodramatic—imagine a soap opera about an opera—and takes considerable liberties with Bologne's life story, but the character is so compelling, the movie overcomes its shortcomings.

Harrison, last seen playing B.B. King in "Elvis," brings heaps of charisma and some very credible violin miming to the role. It's a performance that buoys the underwritten script, and helps the audience understand why Bologne cut such a path through French society. His bravado would ultimately be his downfall, but Harrison's beautifully rendered portrait creates empathy for a man who was afforded little in his real life.

Top-notch production design and more corsets than you can shake a violin bow at decorate the screen, bringing the time period to vivid life.

"Chevalier" is a period piece, but the story's exploration of the effects of racism feels very current.