‘Beau Is Afraid’ Trailer, Cast, Release Date: What We Know

You would think Beau would be afraid of IBS after subsisting on TV dinners and prescription medications. But he’s got bigger problems than a “Best of Hawaii & Ireland” TV dinner consisting of frozen seaweed, peas, mangos, and probably mashed potatoes and pharmaceuticals. Beau (played by Joaquin Phoenix), lost in recollections of family vacations aboard a picture-perfect cruise ship, is on his way to see his mother. But the universe is conspiring against him. “I’m so sorry for what your dad passed down to you, but I wanted a child,” she tells him when he’s a kid, lit by only a blood-red light. “The greatest gift of my life.” He must have sustained some mommy issue–related mental injuries: His therapist appears most on his call log alongside Moviefone, the landlady, the pharmacy, and his mother. After absconding from his rundown apartment to make the date with his mom, he encounters chaos on the streets and gets run over by some lady (Amy Ryan). The doctor (Nathan Lane) holds him hostage until he makes his great escape — an odyssey through a surrealist forest that promises his “adventures will continue for years and years.” Beau Is Afraid, the new thriller from Hereditary and Midsommer director Ari Aster, arrives in theaters April 21.