Your Daily Film

Beau Is Afraid is a 2023 Canada/Finland/US comedy horror drama by Ari Aster
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey and Amy Ryan

Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.

Update: Thanks to Ben:

I saw the film at an early/preview screening in the UK with a BBFC 15 black card etc. It seems uncut to me. All the following possible cut scenes in your entry were included on-screen.

[ Spoilers! hover or click text below]

• drinking paint

• building-jump suicide (implied - it cuts straight to the aftermath of a corpse - seems a directing choice though)

• extended/strong sex scene with a decent amount of nudity

• 3 uses of cunt

The extra 50s could be distributor logos - given all the above, the UK version seems uncut.

Thanks to Scott:

The IFCO have passed the film with a running time of 178m 52s, practically the same as the NZ OFLC's 178m 50s. The BBFC have it at 178m 2s. It almost certainly is cut. The BBFC's website still doesn't list any cuts, however this could be a similar case to The Invisible Man in 2020 where cuts info was only added to the site once the film had been released.

US parental guide sites mention that the film contains several suicide scenes, including someone drinking paint and another person jumping from a building, with their head smashing open upon landing - the BBFC don't mention suicide at all in their short insight, so quite possibly this is what's been cut. The sex scene responsible for the Aussie R18+ sounds quite strong too, yet the BBFC have buried the mention of it in the middle of their short insight, so this is another candidate for cuts. Additionally, the film apparently contains several uses of the c-word, however the BBFC haven't mentioned very strong language in the short insight - it could be that they didn't have space for the phrase very strong given how much else is listed, which previously happened with Promising Young Woman, although this is very rare.

When the BBFC publishes its extended insight the situation will become clearer, but at the moment this looks to be a proper 90-style hack job, cut to bits for no reason. If it really is missing almost a minute I won't be wasting my time seeing it.

Versions

uncut run: 178:52s pal: 171:43s	Ireland	Ireland: A longer version has been passed 16 uncut for Strong violence and language throughout. Graphic injury detail portrayed. Some explicit scenes of a sexual nature. Use of illicit and legal drug and impact portrayed. 2023 cinema release
short version run: 178:02s pal: 170:55s		UK: Passed 15 for strong threat, violence, sex, drug misuse, language, nudity, injury detail: 2023 cinema release

Beau Is Afraid is a 2023 Canada/Finland/US comedy horror drama by Ari Aster
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey and Amy Ryan

Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.

Refused-classification.com reports that on 17 March 2023, a 179-minute Australian cinema release for Ari Aster's BEAU IS AFRAID was passed with an R18+ (High impact sex) rating.

On 4 April, it was resubmitted for cinema and again was rated R18+, with the same running time and consumer advice.

Refused-classification.com speculated that maybe Roadshow Films made minor cuts to the sex in the hope of securing a more commercial MA15+. Instead, the censorship was insufficient to make a difference for the Classification Board who awarded the same rating. If this is the case, by 20 April, expect either an appeal to the Classification Review Board, more cuts in search of an MA15+ or a cut or uncut R18+ release.

On 5 April, Roadshow Films received an R16 (Violence, sexual violence, offensive language and content that may disturb) rating in New Zealand. Unlike the Australian Classification Board, their OFLC provides an exact running time of 178:50s.

Meanwhile back in the UK the film has been passed 15 without BBFC cuts for strong threat, violence, sex, drug misuse, language, nudity, injury detail. The BBFC noted a rather short sounding running time of 178:02s.

There are no suggestions of BBFC cuts, but as there is a possibly a cut version knocking round then possible this could correlate to the shorter running time. Of course it is more likely that the discrepancy is down to distributor logos or running time rounding algorithms....but if anyone know differently then please let us know.

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