. Ari Aster's psychoanalytical film Beau Is Afraid. The little 50 year old something boy named Beau is so utterly paranoid and lacking self worth, the entire world morphs into an extended torture scene. Since everything is told from the first point of view (POV), there is a lingering uncertainty of what is depicted real.
Ari Aster quickly becomes one of the more interesting film-makers out there. And this is sad, because his 2 latest movies were commercial disappointments, while being excellent pieces of film-making. I already reviewed his anxiety epic Beau Is Afraid, which was a flop, while being a stellar piece of mastery over tension. And with Eddington ( which also flopped ) I'm starting to think that Aster has a marketing problem.
On the very basic surface level it could be read as a horror film. It is slashery in nature. It has very gruesome body mutilation scenes. But the film feels less of a horror and more of something like Nicolas Winding Refn's film Only God Forgives. Only this one has Ari Aster written all over it.