paranoid states, isolation, naive trust in unreliable sources, and especially endless time spent in a psychiatrist’s office frame the everyday and indeed the entire life of an unhappy middle-aged man, Beau Wasserman (Joaquin Phoenix). Everything negative, which he is bound to until his death, stems from his childhood and is directed towards a single person – his mother Mona (Patti LuPon). In the most sensitive period of his life, she showed him more than an unhealthy image of what real and never-ending maternal love should look like. Director Ari Aster after four years since the premiere of the psychological horror Midsummer (2019) once again brought an unconventional concept of human fragility captured on film. This time, he combined so many genres that it was simply necessary that his latest branch should have an incredible 179 minutes – unfortunately, this decision was a big step aside, and for the untrained viewer it can even mean the danger of gradually losing attention. Even so, however He is afraid (2023) is one of the most interesting films that will visit our cinemas this summer.
Beau is about to visit his mother, but the night’s event turns into a non-stop series of unpleasantries for him. In the middle of a seemingly endless night, he receives messages from a neighbor who accuses him of disturbing the night’s peace. A sleep-deprived man wakes up late in the morning in a dilapidated apartment building and unsure if he will catch his flight at all, he places his suitcase right in front of the apartment along with the keys in the door, but in a moment of inattention both objects miraculously disappear. As if that wasn’t enough, the water is turned off in the hostel and the situation connected with it is not at all in his favor at the moment: he swallowed anxiety medication without drinking it, which his psychiatrist expressly forbade him to do.
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