Beau Is Afraid Contains A Subtle Reference To A 90s Ray Liotta Movie

The title of “Corrina, Corrina” is itself a reference to an old country blues song. The story involves Ray Liotta’s character, a widower, hiring Whoopi Goldberg’s Corrina Washington to be a nanny for his daughter.

Released in 1994, “Corrina, Corrina” billed itself as “a romantic comedy-comedy,” which might seem like a strange and utterly random choice for a “Beau Is Afraid” Easter egg. However, part of the reason Liotta’s character turns to Corrina for help is that his daughter has become mute and withdrawn in the absence of her mom. With lines like, “When your mother’s gone, growing up can be tough,” it makes a certain kind of sense for “Corrina, Corrina” to find its way into the background of “Beau Is Afraid” (which makes a case for itself, anyway, as a strange and utterly random sort of film).

In his interview with Vox, Ari Aster also discussed the joy of working with production designer Fiona Crombie and “making sure that the world was dense with detail” in “Beau Is Afraid.” One thing’s for sure: “Corrina, Corrina” isn’t the only chicken fat to be found in the film, and judging by some of the other mixed reviews for “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster maybe could have stood to use fewer eggs and trim some of that fat from his three-hour film. Whatever you do, just don’t watch the movie on mushrooms, if Joaquin Phoenix has anything to say about it.

“Beau Is Afraid” is in theaters now.