Dissolves genre until each image, scene, dialogue becomes a thing in itself. Still a big, charming fun. And most beautiful to look at.

Why exactly are we still interested in Ari Aster? His first two films worked as playful reimaginations of classic horror tropes, harsh, but also empathic towards its characters. "Beau Is Afraid" felt like Aster tried to make his first broad statement on the psyche of fragile masculinity, ending in the most tiresome plot I've seen in a while. This time he repeats his statement mode, totally neglecting characters and any interesting visual storytelling (even "Beau Is Afraid" had it in…