Nasty Baby

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Sebastian Silva/Starring: Kristen Wiig, Sebastian Silva, Tunde Adebimpe, Reg E. Cathey, Mark Margolis, and Alia Shawkat

Director Sebastian Silva's Nasty Baby kind of plods along; unhurried and un-urgent, until it takes a grisly turn; which, in a movie of this ilk, seems very contrived and absurd. But until it reaches that narrative turnpike, it doesn't seem to be about anything except a gay couple trying to have a baby with the help of their close female friend, who expects to share parenting chores.

Silva plays Freddy, a performance artist who, with his life-partner Mo (Tunde Adebimpe), is hoping to become a parent with the help of their friend Polly (Kristen Wiig). Unfortunately for the three would-be parents, tests have proven Freddy to be infertile. Impregnating Polly falls on Mo's shoulders, who expresses his reservations about being the donor.

While the three cope with fertilization and the prospect of parenting, Freddy develops a performance piece for a gallery relating to babies, which entails being curled up on the floor, making various infant sounds.

Another problem arises when Freddy and Mo's mentally unstable, downstairs neighbor; known as The Bishop (Reg E. Cathey), begins operating his leaf blower at an unreasonably early hour. Though Mo is able to endure the noise, Freddy becomes exasperated. He shouts imprecations from his apartment window, which go unheard in the blower's din. But The Bishop's disruptive behavior isn't relegated to leaf-blowing, for he begins sexually harassing Polly on the street and directing hate-filled, homo-phobic comments at Freddy. Bishop's behavior becomes more threatening until a cop is later forced to intervene. The cop assures Freddy and the other neighbors that The Bishop's apartment is to be sold in a matter of days, which will effectively end the torment he visits on the residents. But Freddy's next encounter with The Bishop leads to a violent confrontation and a tragic mishap before a more drastic act rids Freddy and the community of their problem. More shocking (or what is supposed to be) is Freddy's subsequent act of self-preservation, which involves not only Mo and Polly but another neighbor as well.

Silva lulls the audience into complacency and near boredom in the first half of the film to create a jarring contrast with the pivotal scene which follows in the second. The shock value should be considerable only it is hard to accept what happens when it feels as though Silva is prodding the story in a direction that seems implausible. That Freddy is driven to a violent exchange makes sense, as does the subsequent life-threatening injury to The Bishop but what follows seems more grand guignol than the realism the story embraces before. I know Silva would like us to think about the irony of three people eager to bring life into the world suddenly taking it out but its a fascinating idea that requires a story that works. I couldn't help but roll my eyes though what happens to The Bishop satisfied my curiosity about where such a deliberate but seemingly directionless story might go. For me, the dramatic shift seemed too outrageous. For the sensational plot turn to work, we have to believe the characters are capable of what Silva suggests. I'm sorry; I just couldn't believe.

The film is a nice effort but it falls short. After the climactic scene, I lost complete interest in the story and waited impatiently for it all to end.

Silva is a talented director; a claim substantiated by his 2009 effort The Maid, but this film, though a miss, nevertheless earns plaudits for its narrative ambition.

Nasty Baby isn't as nasty as it would like to be but it tried. In showing Freddy and his friends writhing on the floor, uttering baby noises, Silva would like us to draw a connection between our infantile nature and adulthood though I'm not completely sure what statement he is trying to make. He may be saying that we are always subject to uncontrolled, infantile impulses, which carry into adulthood. Interesting idea; not so interesting film.