The aggressively seedy world-building in writer-director Ari Aster’s surreal psychodrama Beau Is Afraid is a true jolt to the senses. Following an immersive birthing sequence, a violent and incredibly noisy introduction to Beau Wasserman’s (Joaquin Phoenix) apartment and neighbourhood effectively places the viewer in the mind of an anxiety-ridden middle-aged protagonist who is dealing with some serious mummy issues. Beau has just received news that his mother (played at different times by Patti LuPone and Zoe Lister-Jones) has died and he must make the journey back home for her funeral, along the way passing through his lusty desires, subconscious and pivotal memories.

Aster is known for his intricately detailed and intense depictions of the deepest recesses of human emotion. In Hereditary he plunged Toni Collette’s miniaturist into overwhelming grief, and in Midsommar used folk horror to send Florence Pugh’s American student on a nightmarish journey through trauma. His latest venture places Phoenix firmly in the centre of a humiliating Kafkaesque odyssey that daringly switches tone and genres, even shifting to entrancing stop-motion animation at one point.

Beau Is Afraid is darkly funny, often surprising and imaginatively directed, but at times, similar to the man at the centre, loses its way and veers into tedium. Still, there’s much to admire in a film that boasts Martin Scorsese as a huge fan. Phoenix’s physical performance is hilarious as he injects slapstick energy into tasks as simple as purchasing a bottle of water, and his ability to convey Beau’s confusion, sadness and fear of absolutely everything splendidly complements Aster’s skill to whip up an ambience of gonzo mayhem. 

Beau Is Afraid is in cinemas from Friday 19 May.