Beau (2011) User Reviews (3)

Pretty good for a (very) short film.

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 1 October 2023]

This is a big improvement on Herman's Cure-All Tonic (2008), with Beau being an overall very good short film from Ari Aster. It's like the first quarter of 2023's Beau is Afraid, but condensed into only about seven minutes. I feel like if I had watched this before seeing Beau is Afraid, my one complaint would've been wanting it to be longer... but then Beau is Afraid comes around with a 179-minute runtime, and it might've felt like a case of "Be careful what you wish for."

I liked the mix of absurd and mean-spirited comedy with a constant sense of anxiety. It builds well, but unfortunately doesn't seem to know how to end well - I do think that might be another criticism, beyond wishing to see this play out over a few more minutes.

But it's still good. I think it's roughly as effective as a short film as Beau is Afraid was as a very long film. Both feel as though they're worth checking out.

Beau is afraid!

[Fernando-Rodrigues · 8/10 · 7 December 2020]

Although it has its flaws and limitations, it has some kind of creepy atmosphere. It's ending (a homeless invades Beau's apartment, tries to stab him, but loses his finger instead. Beau calls his mother and we get to see what she looks like: a bigfoot/werewolf weed smoker?) it's the best part.

Very strange, very hilarious

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 3 March 2019]

"Beau" is an American live action short film from 2011 that runs for slightly over 6 minutes and was written and directed by Ari Aster, the filmmaker who had a huge breakthrough with the Toni Collette movie Hereditary last year. Before that he made a handful of short movies and this is one of his very early career efforts from almost a decade ago. It is the story of a Black man, although his skin color is kinda irrelevant and every interaction he has with other people in this film goes horribly wrong for whatever reason. Be it the bumping in somebody on the hallway, or what happens when he takes a look outside after hearing a woman screaming or when he calls the police, it all goes awry. Or eventually, when he calls his mother, I mean she must be there to help hikm and willing to pick him up right? I thought the comedy here was really up my alley. And I laughed quite a bit, so that I am even tempted to five this a higher rating. Oh well why not come on lets do it, raise it to 4 out of 5. These moments were so much in your face and still did not feel fake somehow that the film deserves the upgrade on my rating list. You could also wonder if he had just some kind of disease or neurological or psychological disorder, but seeing the mother at the very end made me think that he is not really the person to blame here. There is something really strange, most likely inexplicable going on here. It is difficult to put into words really, but as I was not really that big on Hereditary, while also not disliking the film, I am a bit baffled how much I enjoyed this short film we got here. Lets me hope we will see a comedy film by Aster in the next couple years. This one here also reminded me very slightly of Get out at times, where the main character is also brought into a restrained world of make-believe with a dark secret hiding underneath. But lets not go into further detail about that one. As for this one here, I liked it. A lot. All of it. Including the protagonist's performance. Highly recommended, one of the finest short films of 2011.