Beau Is Afraid(2023)

Submitted by Jeremy

Beau Wassermann ((Joaquin Phoenix) is a neurotic middle-aged man who lives alone in a rundown apartment in a crime-filled city. He has a complicated relationship with his controlling mother, Mona (Patti LuPone), a successful CEO, and businesswoman. Beau misses a flight to see Mona, and he later learns that Mona has apparently been killed in a freak accident.

In his attempts to return home for the burial, Beau encounters a number of strange events, including being kept in the home of a couple, Roger and Grace, with their bratty teenage daughter Toni and a mentally unstable veteran named Jeeves. After Toni kills herself, Beau is blamed, and Grace sends Jeeves after him. Beau ends up with a traveling theater troupe that gets attacked by Jeeves.

Beau eventually manages to make it home and meets his childhood love, Elaine. They make love, but Elaine dies mid-climax. Mona then reveals that she was alive and had always been watching Beau, making him think he was a bad son who didn’t love his mom. She puts him in the attic of her home, where it is revealed that Beau’s biological father is a giant penis-shaped monster that kills Jeeves when he attacks the house. After being guilt-tripped by Mona again, he appears to strangle her and tries to escape. Mona and her lawyer, Dr. Cohen, trap Beau in an arena to put him on trial and make him look guilty for being a negligent son. Beau realizes he is trapped to the boat that he tried to escape on, and he dies when the motor on the boat explodes and capsizes the boat with him stuck to it.