Nasty Baby (2015)

So far, every film review I've written has been a positive one. This one: not so much.

The story: Freddy (portrayed by the director himself, Sebastian Silva), a visual and conceptual artist, lives with his partner Mo (Tunde Adebimpe, Rachel Getting Married), a carpenter, in a spacious appartment in a gentrified neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Freddy's best friend, Polly (Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids), a medical nurse, wants to have a baby. Since Freddy's sperm is too weak, they both try to convince Mo to offer his. There's a crazy guy, Bishop (Reg E. Cathey, House of Cards) who frequents the neighbourhood annoying the people living there, especially Freddy. There's a neighbour, Richard (Mark Margolis, an Aronofsky regular), an older gay looking out for the couple. Also playing a part are Freddy's younger brother, Chino (Agustin Silva, the director's actual brother) and Freddy's assistant, Wendy (Alia Shawkat).

My opinion: the film looked promising on paper. The director is an indie darling, the film went the festival route, the cast was trustworthy. A point of worry was the mixed response it got from the critics: some loved it and others hated it.

I'm somewhere in the middle: the film is watchable. Its problem, however, is that it's really three different films that don't quite gel. One is a dramatic comedy concerning the different approaches people have to parenthood. One is a satire of a certain subset of New Yorkers. And one is a morality tale of how a random act of violence can affect the people participating in it, as perpetrators or enablers. None of it actually works.

Even though the actors do their best with the material that they've been given, it doesn't amount to much. It's people that we have not been made to understand or care for, saying and doing uninteresting things. Why should we bother? Mo is the least fleshed out of them all. Why have no idea why he does what he does. The fact that he has zero chemistry with the actor playing his partner doen't help. Polly is more of a plot device than a real person. Freddy is just annoying: a childlike person with major anger management issues, he is the nasty baby mentioned in the title. The script feels like it was based on improvisations that should have lasted much longer. The writer/director tried to emulate Cassavetes, but it didn't quite work out for him.

The same goes for the irritatingly shaking hand-held camerawork, the washed out colors that make everyone look ugly and the choppy editing. As for the surprising (?) twist near the end: we wait to see the repercussions on those involved, but then the film suddenly... ends???

Grade: 6/10

Trailer: