Bo is afraid ★★★
THRILLER (2023)
Directed by: Ari Aster
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane.

One of cinematic horror’s most exciting young creators, Ari Aster (Legacy, Midsummer Day), is signing his most ambitious yet uneven film to date, always under the auspices of the marvelous production studio A24. Starring the great Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Bo, a middle-aged man suffering from phobias, more like an elementary school student.

Anxiety is initially a feeling that captures the viewer, who gradually remains passive in the surreal paranoia of everyone who passes the screen.

With panic attacks and general paranoia, Bo prepares to visit his beloved but judgmental mother when, on the eve of his departure, he learns that she has been brutally murdered. In total desperation and on the verge of madness, he sets off to her funeral, on a journey that will prove to be absolutely chaotic both on the real road and in his own mind.

Given perhaps complete freedom of expression from his producers, Astaire embarks on a nightmarish study adventure in all the various guises of human fear. His character, Bo, is like an antenna, capable of picking up every kind of horror as well as creating just as much of his own. Anxiety is initially a feeling that captures the viewer, who, however, gradually submerges passively into the surreal paranoia of everyone who passes by the screen. And that’s a lot; so much so that Joaquin Phoenix (constantly excellent) changes three different “ages” along the way – plus one more, childhood – to cover all the memories and alternate histories that Bo conjures up.

In fact, it is not always clear when we are talking about fantasy and when we are talking about reality. On the contrary, Aster seems ready to erase the boundaries between them, using various expressive means (for example, animation) to do this.

In addition, in the marathon film (three hours), completely wasteful in terms of storytelling, but at the same time charming in its own way, there is also a lack of humor, obviously black. And the conclusion that we and our friends are the basis of all horrors is rather banal, but also absolutely appropriate, at least for our protagonist, who goes through everything to get to this point.