Beau Is Afraid Trailer: Ari Aster Teams Up With Joaquin Phoenix For A Tragicomic Nightmare

When it was teased that Ari Aster's highly anticipated third feature was going to be a "nightmare comedy," a ton of questions obviously surfaced. Will this new film mark a shift away from the eerie horror of "Hereditary" and "Midsommar?" Will the movie actually be four hours long as he claimed? What even is a nightmare comedy? Well, it looks like those questions will be answered soon, although several more will likely be asked in the process. That's because A24 has officially unveiled the first look of Aster's third film, "Beau is Afraid" (previously "Disappointment Blvd."). 

Obviously, not a ton of footage was shown, but we do know that Joaquin Phoenix is playing a world-renowned entrepreneur plagued by mysterious and tormenting forces. There has been a lot of unintentional comedy scattered throughout his previous two films, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out in this supposed nightmare comedy. Between Phoenix's character, Toni Collette's Annie in "Hereditary," and Florence Pugh's Dani in "Midsommar," Aster just loves to make his main characters the most tortured people ever, huh? We're not complaining, though.

Much like Ari Aster's previous films, we don't know a ton about "Beau is Afraid" as of yet. Even with this new footage, it's hard to gauge what the movie is about, but that just makes it all the more intriguing. What we do know, however, is that it will follow the life and troubles of Joaquin Phoenix's character in a terrifyingly hilarious way.

But who else will join Phoenix on this rollercoaster of life? Well, names like Patti LuPone, Parker Posey, Zoe Lister-Jones, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Michael Gandolfini, Armen Nahapetian, Hayley Squires, and Richard Kind, of course! It's a real who's-who of character actors, and given how Aster helped fuel some of modern horror's best performances thanks to his direction, we could see all of these actors at the top of their game. McKinley Henderson previously described Aster and Phoenix's collaboration as "So simpatico ... their way of working together was like they were really old friends," during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "They could get upset and make up in the span of seconds, it seemed, but the work was always the better for it." What that looks like, we'll have to wait and see.

In addition to directing the film, Aster also wrote "Beau is Afraid." He will further reunite with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski for the fourth time on the film — the duo previously worked together on "Hereditary" and "Midsommar," as well as Aster's controversial 2011 short "The Strange Thing About the Johnsons."

"Beau is Afraid" will arrive in theaters on April 21, 2023.