A24 has released the first trailer for Beau Is Afraid, the third feature from critically-acclaimed Midsommar and Hereditary filmmaker Ari Aster. The film, which was formerly titled Disappointment Blvd., is the decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time, Beau, played by Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix.

Phoenix plays an “extremely anxious but pleasant-looking man who has a fraught relationship with his overbearing mother and never knew his father.” When his mother dies, he makes a journey home that involves some wild supernatural threats and will take him on a years-long adventure.

Though described as a surrealist comedy-drama, the trailer also hints at some more sinister, menacing undertones to the genre-bending and time-warping epic. The film also takes a mixed-media approach to its storytelling, with illustrative and cut-out styles of animation complementing the live-action cinematography.

Phoenix is joined by Zoe Lister-Jones, Armen Nahapetian (who plays young Beau), Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Hayley Squires, Denis Ménochet, Kylie Rogers, Parker Posey, and Pattie LuPone. Aster writes, directs, and produces the film.

Beau Is Afraid releases in U.S. cinemas from April 21st, 2023; no release date has yet been announced for the UK. Watch the first trailer below: