![“Because I’m Afraid” is Kogel-Mogel psychoanalysis. Hard to swallow [RECENZJA]](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201024%200'%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The lover gives birth to cries that never stop. The cacophony of thoughts is his buddy, he drinks dirt with nervousness, while your brother suffers from anxiety-compulsive disorder. One might say: this is a postmodern man. Anyone familiar with previous Ari Aster films, in which traumatized people who bear the burden of shivering daily lives are constantly lost to the devil, the world, and of course another human being, won’t be surprised by Poe’s pessimistic diagnosis of the condition.
Or maybe it is not about ostentatious doomsday and not some insightful conclusion about the universal mental state of a forty-year-old, but an element of introverted artistic research with the help of an extroverted form. For though it would be somewhat simplistic to describe the film in question as explosive psychoanalysis, Aster unquestionably binds the protagonist, and at the same time us and himself, to the sofa, regardless of the fact that it soon becomes Midgean’s bed.
Gutek Film, A24/press materialsJoaquin Phoenix in “Because He’s Afraid”
“Hail devil @#$%pope,” graffiti screams in the rickety staircase in the old corner of the house where Bo lives. It’s hell: madmen, drug addicts, and murderers roam the streets with no purpose other than to wreak havoc. The film’s first act, when the hero struggles with exaggerated phobias and the nonsense of life itself, is a mixture of violent slapstick and utterly accurate, though deliberately exaggerated character characterization, is its best and perhaps the only successful part.
Then, when Beau is hit by bad luck and unfortunate coincidences after successive scenes by Aster – although it must be admitted that he’s usually brilliant – type scenes in which his backstory and introduction to his traumas are fleshed out and diagnosed, he vacillates between existential fears and an inability to make any sense. Of which. choice, as well as the movie itself. It’s absurd and unrealistic, sometimes touching a dark fairy tale, and again in a nightmare with very kitsch. Of course, this is Aster’s method, but the question is how well the screen will accommodate this perceived insanity, carefully polished for hipster taste. It turns out that not all.
Gutek Film, A24/press materialsJoaquin Phoenix in “Because He’s Afraid”
Truly Freudian fantastical fantasies, led by the Oedipus complex, the paralyzing sense-consuming guilt and shame, and the difficult path leading from boy to man, where maternal love becomes toxic, find an outlet here. The film’s non-fictional character brings him closer to a psychedelic nightmare, as Aster intended, but he’s a psychoanalytic muggle, covered in addition to dirty, scaly feet; Difficulty swallowing.
Joaquin Phoenix is the savior here, perhaps the only one Constants; The lover has a big role. He is a trembling man, confused and completely surprised by what is happening to him. He is like a big independent child and a dependent adult, a pathetic and tragic figure at the same time, for whom life is torture. Aster brings him further torture, both physical and mental, giving him no respite or shadow of chance, and what is always good is a pipe dream.
It is as if he wanted to say that only the way to Calvary and the last breath of rest on the cross awaits a person, and that happiness is not a state of promise. Thus, he approaches a true nihilist confession—shouts? —of faith, emotionally beautiful, cinematic and solemnly fulfilling, but at the same time, for honest, slightly penetrating self-reflection.
“Because I’m Afraid” is out April 21 in cinemas.
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