Joaquin Phoenix will make you squirm in the Kafkaesque nightmare 'Beau Is Afraid'

"Every night and every morn/Some to misery are born."

So said William Blake, and he seemed to know what’s what.

Beau Wasserman is one such person in “Beau Is Afraid,” writer and director Ari Aster’s latest exercise in making an audience uncomfortable for extended periods (nearly three hours in this case). And it’s literally misery from birth. The film opens with Beau’s birth from his perspective, an unpleasant little prologue, his mother screaming in the background as doctor’s smack Beau into life.

It’s all downhill from there.

It’s not a bad film — it’s expertly made, in fact, with a disruptive visual style that sets the queasy tone. But it’s easier to admire than to love, or sometimes even like.

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When next we see Beau he is played by a frumpy, balding, miserable-looking Joaquin Phoenix. He’s in the office of his therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson). The two discuss Beau’s plans to go home to visit his mother the next day.

Then the therapist asks if Beau has ever wanted to kill his mother. Paging Dr. Oedipus.

The surreal world kicks in from there, as Beau sprints through a nightmarish scene to fight his way to his nightmarish apartment. He wants a good night’s sleep but is awakened constantly by someone sliding notes under his door telling him to TURN DOWN THE MUSIC.

Except Beau isn’t playing any music. He oversleeps, his keys and his bag get stolen and his mother is unreasonably upset over his missing his flight.

And then a chandelier falls on her head, killing her.

Aster, who also directed the excellent “Hereditary” and the somewhat less excellent “Midsommar,” has the audience where he wants it — off-kilter, uncomfortable, bewildered. It’s his comfort zone, but not ours. Whether you enjoy this kind of manipulation will go a long way toward deciding how much you like the film.

What is 'Beau is Afraid' about?

Beau has to get home for the funeral, where everyone waits impatiently. But how?

Therein lies a tale, one that involves being stabbed and then hit by a car while naked, recovering in the outwardly sunny home of a surgeon and his wife (Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan, both excellent). First impressions are deceiving, though their daughter Toni (Kylie Rogers), whose room Beau has taken while he recuperates, is angry through and through (and hilarious).

Beau makes his way (actually he flees) to a bizarre little community in the woods, a troupe of traveling actors who put on a play that rings remarkably familiar to him.

Along the way he recalls his childhood with his mother — his father died at the moment of his conception, which has had something of a deleterious effect on Beau’s psyche, to say nothing of his sex life, as one might imagine.

Young Beau (Armen Nahapetian) and his mother, Mona (Zoe Lister-Jones; Mona is played as an older woman by Patti LuPone) have experiences that are atypical for anyone not living in one of Aster’s movies.

Young Beau meets Elaine (Julia Antonelli) on a cruise and when he finally makes it to his mother’s house he will see her again as an adult (and played by Parker Posey, who is exactly quirky enough for the character). To say more about what happens as he arrives at the beautiful, cold home would probably spoil too much, but really, can a film like this be spoiled?

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Joaquin Phoenix's intense style is perfect for the film

Suffice it to say things get even more surreal and disturbing.

A straightforward narrative is by no means essential to a great film. I love Charlie Kaufman’s narrative freakouts like “Synecdoche, New York” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” which, if you programmed them along with “Beau Is Afraid” would make the weirdest film festival of all time.

Great! I love weird films!

But Kaufman’s films have heart, while “Beau Is Afraid” feels chillier, more like an intellectual exercise designed to test the audience’s limits. The cinematography boasts precision. The acting is intense, Phoenix in particular — of course he always is, but it’s perfect for this role, a character who seems like a human time bomb we’re just waiting to explode.

Hmm. Maybe I don’t like weird films as much as I just like Charlie Kaufman films. Actually, that’s not true. But “Beau Is Afraid” ultimately left me cold.

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'Beau Is Afraid' 3 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Ari Aster.

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan.

Rating: R for strong violent content, sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, April 21.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Beau Is Afraid' review: Joaquin Phoenix will make you squirm