“All the fears of Bo”: they spoke according to Freud

There is such a warm-up exercise for screenwriters. It’s called Make It Worse. The rules are simple: you need to take some ordinary everyday situation and gradually worsen the position of the character, inventing more and more misadventures for him. In the course of the training, it turns out that a truly creative personal hell is obtained only if you really know the character well. Without a doubt, director and screenwriter Ari Aster (Solstice) knows everything about his hero.

Bo (Joker star Joaquin Phoenix) just wants to see his mom. He is under 50, he is a loose neurotic, living as a biryuk in a tiny apartment in a criminal area. Everything is ready for the trip – a plane ticket has already been bought, an alarm clock has been set. But the whole universe seems to be conspiring against it. Neighbor noise disturbs sleep, and Bo nearly wakes up the flight. He still manages to get ready, runs out of the house, is only distracted for a second – and at this time someone steals the keys right from the door, also taking the luggage. There is nothing to do – you need to call your mother, apologize, make excuses, then listen to her painful incredulous silence on the phone. But Bo still does not suspect – the main nightmares are ahead.