'Nasty Baby' A Review

Nasty Baby is a drama about a gay couple, Freddy(Sebastián Silva also writer/director) and Mo(Tunde Adebimpe), trying to have a baby with their friend Polly(Kristen Wiig). Interwoven within the main plot is Freddy's work on a video performance piece also entitled Nasty Baby(which depicts adults in diapers acting like babies) as well as numerous confrontations with a mentally unstable homophobic man in their neighborhood.

The most aggravating thing about the movie is its seeming lack of interest in telling a cogent story. All three plots are, at various times, given center stage(pregnancy, art piece, crazy guy) but each is only briefly touched on, underdeveloped, then abandoned. There are also smaller ideas and characters that are introduced which beg for further explanation or exploration but are ignored. The third act takes a dramatic, illogical, and confounding turn which might have some kind of an effect if it wasn't so preposterous. In short, the "narrative" is sloppy, viscous, and unsuccessful.

Another major issue are the characters- entitled, oblivious, self-involved- they almost unilaterally garner no sympathy. Freddy, the defacto protagonist, is grating, single-minded, self rightous, and vain. Silva's portrayal is wooden, presentational, and spends an inordinate amount of time on shots of himself in deep contemplative(contrived) thought. Wiig does a fair job as Polly but the character is manipulative, petulant, and two-dimensional. The only bright spot is Adebimpe as Mo, kind, graceful, and grounded, totally lost in the impotent mess of Nasty Baby.

Pretentious, apathetic, and artificial. Surpasses Jurassic World for worst movie of the year.

Don't See It.