Nasty
Baby (2015/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B
The
indie film scene has been a toothless joke for years with few new
artists or challenging works emerging, mostly phony garbage with no
point except the makers are desperate to show us how smart they are
and turn a quick buck. It has been a big waste of time and money,
yet good films (not counting documentaries, which are really a
separate subject) about something are all too rare, so when one comes
along, it becomes its own event. Sebastian Silva's Nasty
Baby
(2015) is on of the most important films to come out of the scene in
a long time. At least a minor American classic and as bold as it is
subversive, it has much to show and tell about the world we live in
today and that is why it is being ignored intentionally by those too
scared it will rock the boat.
Silva
plays a guy who wants to launch an art exhibit called 'Nasty Baby'
that shows the infantilization of adults and regressive behavior
meant to be weird, creepy and disturbing (much like this film at
times) as a multi-media show with human participation in New York
City, He lives there in a nice place with his boyfriend (Tunde
Adebimpe) and his best friend (Kristen Wiig in a smart dramatic turn
with odd humor) wants to get pregnant, but has no boyfriend, so she
wants her art friend to 'contribute' to her so she can. Too bad this
keeps failing.
That
becomes metaphor for everyone and everything in the story, people who
cannot totally connect, who do things they shouldn't do, no one can
seem to grow up here including the local mentally ill pest who runs a
leaf blower too early (enabled by a mother who apparently is a local
judge) in a neighborhood changing thanks to subtle gentrification it
likely does not need versus much poorer or distressed neighborhoods
that could use some investment. Even when actual babies show up, it
is not in the best environment and all seem trapped by a fake world
that can be traced back to the early years of Reaganomics, political
correctness and the loss of individuality or the loss of an original
thought to get anything fun or exciting done that would be original
that would lead to actual happiness.
Everyone
here is a victim of an unspoken groupthink that is killing America
and the American Dream, so all follow accordingly in doing stupid
things and that the characters are not part of the white,
heterosexual mainstream is a purposeful move to state that this
syndrome knows no bounds. No one is happy, racism is here subtly,
homophobia more explicit, but both seem oddly played out as bad as
they totally still are. I had heard a few things interesting about
this in advance, but Nasty Baby makes a big statement about
people and a culture adrift and doomed by an apathetic nightmare of
its own making and one where even smart people make stupid decisions
and lose control of things. They are still responsible for their
actions, but the world they live in (or have been born into) is so
ill, sick and diseased, finding an alternative, happiness and a
better future seems inconceivable. Asking more questions than it
needs to answer, it is one of the most important works of our time
and one that is highly recommended.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is an HD-shoot with a
consistent look that is just a shade off of regular light and color,
playing to the narratives advantage and with few flaws achieving a
visual density that might not be immediately apparent but works,
while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 is as well recorded as expected for
a dialogue-based work.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track with Silva, Wiig &
Adebimpe, a Behind The Scenes featurette and a Photo Gallery.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
