Ari Aster is without a doubt one of the greatest directorial discoveries with his horror films Horrible Legacy and Solstice received a lot of audience attention In both cases, it was the most atmospheric genre film of recent years, which certainly did not suit everyone. And since it was a solid success in both cases, the award-winning company A24 decided to make him happy for the third time and let him film his dream project. He is afraid thus embarks on a completely different genre path, and Aster wants to show his huge ambitions and endless directorial talent in it. And he added the never-failing Joaquin Phoenix to the party. But did the director really score as in the case of his previous pieces?
As Spooner sees it:
One of those movies where I don’t know what to think even a few days after the screening. He is afraid is a film that is difficult to describe and recommend to someone, but at the same time it cannot be said that it is a bad act. On the contrary, there’s a hell of a lot to praise, especially in the first two hours. Here, Ari Aster proves once again that he belongs to the most talented directorial discoveries of the last decade with a clear author’s vision, which he is not afraid to uncompromisingly sell in every compositionally polished shot. In the wanderings of the anxious Beau, he works excellently with the atmosphere, skilfully plays with the tension of individual scenes, in which he is not afraid to really surprise the viewer. And in addition, he presents us with a picture of a very bizarre society and functional humor full of absurdities and many other strong motives. Joaquin Phoenix then supports the director’s efforts with another exceptional performance, and at first this experimental play looks good.
But then comes the last act of this three-hour journey and with it a total mindfuck, which once again shows that giving the author complete freedom on the set does not always pay off. Under the onslaught of bizarreness, the film thus turns into Aster’s creative masturbation, in which he absolutely spits on the viewer and simply shoots what he wants. Which, of course, no one takes away from him, but because of his ego and puffiness, a nicely constructed piece falls apart like a house of cards and leaves a person with very contradictory impressions. I can imagine viewers who will be fine with this extremely uncompromising style even in the finale, but I can also imagine 90% of the audience cursing Astera when they leave the cinema.
How To_Od sees it:
Viewers familiar with Ari Aster’s work probably won’t be too surprised when I say that his new movie He’s Afraid is once again a directorial masterpiece with so many audio-visual delights that almost halfway through the footage I thought I’d have to give it a nine or ten again , because with similar brain and eye stimulation, I simply cannot do otherwise. However, I deliberately write about halfway through, because as soon as the almost three-hour (!) picture has shifted to the second, the whole thing starts to collapse like a house of cards. A horror construction about a character whose wildest fears are constantly materialized around her suddenly turns into a kind of abstract trip to childhood and relationships with her mother, while increasingly bizarre scenes begin to appear, which even the most open-minded viewer simply did not have what to catch.
The finale then offered one more, albeit highly provocative, but in my eyes still satisfactory redemption option, which Aster did not use, and instead sent the whole thing to such a meta level that I felt like spitting when the closing credits rolled. He is afraid, in any case, is a giant multi-genre colossus with the phenomenal Joaquin Phoenix, but once again it comes down to the fact that its creator was given too much free rein and too much trust, without being able to correct himself where it was needed. I expect walkouts and very, very mixed reviews from both audiences and critics.
