Nasty Baby

Sebastian Silva's Nasty Baby is a movie that features a tonal shift so abrupt you find yourself questioning the likelihood of the behaviour you are witnessing. It seems forced and unrealistic, as though the writer, director and star (all Silva) knew he had this destination in mind, but didn't really know how to get us there. He's done tonal shifts before, and much better, in Crystal Fairy, for example, which was a kind of quirky comedy until an absolutely poignant moment toward the end almost had me in tears. In Nasty Baby, the shift is handled with a plot device we've all seen before, so it feels like the movie wants to move into thriller territory without warning. Perhaps because it feels so unrealistic it's hard to take seriously as anything other than typical-for-that-genre fare. It finishes with the trio - two bearded gay men and a woman, trying to get pregnant - needing to dispose of a body. They didn't mean to kill him, but it happened in self defense. Why doesn't the Silva character call the police as soon as it happens? "He'll get deported," his boyfriend says. Is he an illegal immigrant? He must be the only one who also has a job as a trendy artist. Most illegal immigrants work for peanuts. If he is worried about deportation, why is he in such a high profile career? Nasty Baby starts like a Nicole Holofcener drama, with quirky, believable characters trying to work out with what they want for themselves and each other. Silva should have watched one of Holofcener's movies to see that that would have been enough: perhaps he thinks an abrupt tonal shift is required of him now. It doesn't look like the movie believes it either. Another thing: why on Earth is the elderly gay neighbour so efficient at disposing of corpses? He almost seems to smile when he sees the body. What is up with *that*?

Chilean director Sebastián Silva's Sundance premiered sixth feature NASTY BABY is an oddity in queer cinema, it ostensibly starts to tackle with a topical issue of gay couples, after homosexuality has been reckoned more or less as a normalcy in America, - parenthood, but rounds off with a shark-jumping bang. Freddy (director Silva himself) is an European immigrant, from Spain, one divines, he is a performance artist lives in New York with his black boyfriend Mo (Adebimpe, leading singer from TV on the Radio). Freddy and his bestie Polly (Wiig) are both broody: Freddy is caught up in his new project named "Nasty Baby" which involves adults imitating baby behaviours, it is absolutely nonsensical both on paper and in its eventual form, while Polly, at one point is joked by Freddy as a"semen vampire", she is not young anymore, so timing is also crucial for her whether she could ever become a mother. Naturally, they decide to having a baby together, only to their dismay that Freddy's sperm count is too low. So Freddy is egged to persuade Mo as the sperm donor, and the latter eventually caves in. Meanwhile, a mentally impaired vagrant Bishop (Cathey) lives nearby begins to wrack the trio firstly by leaf-blowing in every early morning across the street of Freddy and Mo's apartment, then physically pestering Polly several times and constantly hurling homophobic abuse at them, anyway he is cuckoo, and Silva ascertains that the aversion to Bishop is plain vicarious. Time goes by until a mood-shifting third act happens on the day when Polly phones Freddy that she is not pregnant with Mo's semen whereas the truth is otherwise, she only wants to give him a surprise later to cheer him up after knowing Freddy's Nasty Baby is cold-shouldered by the gallery owner initially shows interest but backtracks. On his way to his apartment, a tetchy and smouldering Freddy encounters Bishop again, and this time, there will be blood! The film changes its gear bluntly from a blanched mumblecore to a noirish thriller saturated with consternation and fumbles (a hallmark deer-in-the-headlight will arrive later as an over-obvious metaphor). It is a wayward move notwithstanding, but what Silva brings home to audience is the elemental homicidal urge resides in those carefree hipsters, whom we are half-heartedly rooting for until that crunch. The trio is going to become parents of a mixed race baby, but a callous truth is that not only they have no instinct to save one when they can, they also unanimously chooses the other way around, on a deceitful ground that man is a scourge, despicable and expendable, yet, he is still an egalitarian human being, when bringing a new life into this world and extinguishing an old one (assumably with the same skin color) has been juxtaposed in that fashion, it electrifies viewers to jump on that cynical old question: how can we keep our inner demon at bay and raise a child free of such contamination? That's my takeaway of this unorthodox indie fare when being steeped in the catchy closing-credits anthem: Ida Corr and Fedde Le Grand's LET ME THINK ABOUT IT. There is some food for thought left, but also one cannot help feeling being short-changed.

Directing and acting are definitely the strong suit of the film, the dark comedy is sharp and on point in terms of timing and rhythm. Nasty Baby looks into the lives of young artist Freddy (played by Sebastián Silva), his boyfriend (Tunde Adebimpe), his best friend (Kristen Wiig), and some of his other cool hipster buds. The trio are trying to have a baby, but end up having to deal with some darker things than baby names and homophobic families. What the film lacks in coherent storytelling it excels on being quirky and stylish, with very hip aesthetics and modern liberal themes supported by great acting. Not your typical Hollywood comedy, but a good funny film.

Freddy (Sebastián Silva) and Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) are a gay couple in NYC. They're trying to have a baby with friend Polly (Kristen Wiig). Freddy discovers that he has low sperm count. Mo is reluctant to contribute. Freddy is a performing artist making a short of adults acting like babies. The group gets harassed by local homophobic unstable Bishop (Reg E. Cathey). This is a rambling indie at first. The starts as a low-budget mumbling gay lifestyle artsy New York indie. It sprinkles in some darker tones and then it takes a completely different dark turn. It's intriguing although it doesn't completely work.

Annoying, racist, liberal degeneracy. Clueless and entitled characters, drifting through meaningless lives. Obviously barely scripted or directed. You will end up after watching it not caring one bit about these characters, and regretting wasting your precious time.

Two gay men are trying to have a baby with a female friend. One of their neighbours is a homophobe and has mental health issues, resulting in him harassing them but them having no recourse, as the police realise that, due to the mental health issues, nothing will come of a complaint. A confrontation is inevitable. The central plot - the conflict between the gay couple and the mentally ill neighbour - was reasonably interesting. However, this story in isolation isn't enough to fill up an entire movie, so we have sub-plots and other padding that draw out the film and make it fairly dull. Some of the padding is more than dull, it's irritating and pretentious, e.g. the adult-as-a-baby photoshoot. Once the confrontation occurs you expect things to ramp up but even then things just progress in a sluggish, unfocussed, way. The ending is very disappointing as there was heaps of room to make something of where the plot had progressed to.

I watched it as I saw Kristen Wiig was in it. I knew if she chose to be part of an independent film than it was going to be worth watching. The depth and imperfections in each character were beautiful. There is no doubt that everyone who performed in this movie believed in it and did it for the art and beauty of a great film. I am unfamiliar with most of the other actors in the film but I loved them all. I will keep an eye out for more of these passion projects as they are worth the time to see. There was nothing Hollywood about this movie. Nothing looked like set, wardrobe or hair and make up. It truly looked like I was part of the lives of the characters, which I do not often find. Everyone who took part in this film should be very proud as it's a great work of art.

Wow. Just... wow. I don't think I've seen more than five films in my life that take such an unpredictable, wild turn and tonal shift like this did. I had no idea what it was about, and the first hour or so was great on itself. Engaging characters, well-acted, very humane in its storytelling. What prompted the filmmakers to do what they did? Well, it helps to bring up questions of what the "everyday" person would do in that scenario. Do I buy it? Well, I don't "not buy it". I can definitely say that I didn't dislike its execution. One doesn't really know what they would do in such a scenario. Of course, everyone would like to say "I would have done the right thing!", but we just don't know. This is the troubling question that this film wants us to answer, and honestly, I think it did an amazing job of it. In real life, everything is normal, everyone can be normal... until it's not. What DOES happen when the "stuff hits the fan"? What WOULD we do? There are many different ways that the film could've posed these questions, and sure enough many other films that I've seen have posed them in different ways, but I think the unorthodox unpredictability of this really hits those points home. I think that first normal hour is needed for this reason, and why no one should read anything about this film going into it. I can totally see why it may not have worked for so many people, but I think the execution was on point. For better or worse, the filmmakers took a huge, giant risk here (like, I cannot stress enough how HUGE that risk was), and they didn't want this film to be forgotten lightly. For my money, I left it feeling like it had made me think about a lot of different things, along with being a highly intriguing, engaging film.

Personally I'm at a loss for words to write about this movie. I love Sebastián Silva film's but this one left me a bit empty and confused. I have no doubt there is a serious message flowing throughout this story but this time it went right over my head. The central character is Freddy. He's an artist and this story is about him preparing to film or rather video his entry to an art exhibition. His art project is to record himself dressed and acting like an infant, a baby in diapers! Throughout this story there is an elderly man who taunts, harasses, and belittles Freddy because Freddy is gay. Freddy and boyfriend Mo ignore this hatred coming from this man. Freddy and Mo get on with their lives. Then one evening the hate filled neighbor follows Freddy while walking home. The hate filled man continues his harassment of Freddy and Freddy has had his fill of this grotesque man and strikes back. At this point the story suddenly changes. It becomes dark and fearful and almost neutralizes the previous hour or so of story. I wondered what is Sebastián Silva doing to this mostly benign story. I will not describe what happens because the viewer must determine what the statement is for themselves. For me this movie is about innocents. Freddy as an artist is innocent in his creative quest, the baby is innocents. Freddy & Mo just want to live their lives and not cross the paths of others. The elderly hate filled man is the world once innocents is abandoned. Freddy is forced to abandon his innocents by the hate filled man who represents society in which innocents tries to survive. At movies end we see Freddy and friends are admiring an infant in a stroller. Here we see the same movements and sounds that Freddy created for his art project as a baby in diapers. We are left wondering what is the future for this real little infant. At what points will it's innocents be forced out of him as it was forced out of Freddy.

Greetings again from the darkness. Many indie films receive positive responses during a film festival run because most festival goers are frequent movie watchers, and really appreciate the unique and brave approach taken by the rebellious and up-and-coming filmmakers. Writer/director Sebastian Silva lulls us into the comfort zone of a "friends" story and then stuns us with a third act that could seem out-of-the-blue, if one weren't paying close attention along the way. Mr. Silva also stars as Freddy, a media artist who is working on a video project (entitled Nasty Baby) that features himself (and others) imitating infants. He lives in Brooklyn with his boyfriend Mo, played by TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe (so good in Rachel Getting Married, 2008). They are part of a trio of friends completed by Polly (Kristen Wiig), who is addressing her biological clock by relentlessly pursuing artificial insemination from her two friends. While it's easy as a viewer to get complacent watching the interactions of these three mostly likable people in various elements: together, separately, at work, with other acquaintances, and especially with neighbors; the script offers many subtle hints along the way about the make-up of each. The supporting cast is excellent and includes Reg E Cathey ("House of Cards") as a mentally-shaky neighbor, Mark Margolis ("Breaking Bad") as a more level-headed neighbor, Alia Shawkat (underutilized here, but very talented) as Freddy's assistant, and Neal Huff as the eccentric gallery owner. Normal seems like a pretty straightforward term, but the film shows that normal really doesn't exist, since it's always changing. The relationship of this trio of friends, their plan for child-rearing, and the family dinner at Mo's parent's home … all examples of how normal has shifted. And to top it off, the film's third act can't be considered normal by any standard of story-telling, and you will question how you missed the true character of the main players … and maybe even how you would react, if you found yourself in this spot. If nothing else, the film might make you a bit more tolerant of your annoying neighbor that has caused you so many negative thoughts over the years.