The actor from ‘As bestas’ who has played the craziest role of his career with Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Beau is afraid’

You’ve seen him being interrogated by Christoph Waltz in the prologue to ‘Inglourious Basterds’ and facing off against an intimidating Luis Zahera in the rural thriller ‘As bestas’, but you have never seen Denis Ménochet as in ‘Beau is afraid’, the strangest and most surreal film of the year.

The recent winner of the Goya for Best Actor appears in the new Ari Aster film alongside Joaquin Phoenix, yes, but perhaps you haven’t even noticed because his role is somewhat… Peculiar. ‘Beau’s Afraid’ is the weirdest movie you’ve ever seen on a movie screen, and surely one of the weirdest movies of the 21st century. We are talking about a level at the level of David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky, Yorgos Lanthimos or Charlie Kaufman. So weird. A psychedelic trip (Joaquin Phoenix already warned you not to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms before seeing it) and unpredictable in which you never know what will happen next, and many times You also don’t quite believe what is happening even though you have witnessed the facts facts.

In ‘As bestas’, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film based on true events, Ménochet played a French immigrant who tried to resolve an important dispute with his neighbors in a Galician village through dialogue and common sense, although Luis’s characters Zahera and Diego Anido were not very up for the job. In ‘Beau is afraid’, however, his role is very different. Ménochet is a former combatant of the North American army who, traumatized by the guerrilla war in Caracas (Venezuela), constantly thinks that he is besieged by the enemy..

Next come slight spoilers for ‘Beau is afraid’ to better explain the character, but nothing of great importance.

jeeves (which is the name of Denis Ménochet’s character) lives in a motorhome on the porch of the family that hosts Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) after being run over (and stabbed) in an accident. Roger (Nathan Lane) and Grace (Amy Ryan) are a seemingly happy married couple, grieving in silence over the loss of their son in combat. His son served in the army alongside Jeeves, and Roger and Grace took him in after being traumatized in the ambush that killed his partner.

Virtually no dialogue, with a menacing stare from behind the window or hiding in the bushesJeeves teams up with Roger and Grace’s daughter, teenage Toni (Kylie Rogers), to drive Beau out of the house.

Jeeves ends up being key since, in his eagerness to hunt down Beau, he steals his car and uses it to get to his mother’s house, where he spends the entire final part of his eventful trip.