SnoopyStyle 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.

Steve Pulaski Nobody can say writer/director/actor Sebastián Silva lacks creativity and ingenuity as a young filmmaker. His film Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus, while being frustratingly quirky and an overall unpleasant experience for me years back, did show that Silva had a talent for concocting pretty bizarre scenarios with an ethereal vibe in their cinematography. Silva's latest directorial effort, Nasty Baby, comes very close in giving off the same kind of young, upstart filmmaking tendencies of Jay and Mark Duplass, but it's a film that gets bogged down by a serious sense of misguided direction in its third act that almost makes the film's pillars collapse under the weight of its incredulity.Spoiling the film would be criminal, so expect me to dance around the events with great detail. The story revolves around a European immigrant named Freddy (played by Silva, who also wrote the film, as well) and Mo (Tunde Adebimpe), a gay couple who are trying to have a child of their own and enlist in the help of Polly (Kristen Wiig) to be their surrogate mother. This wouldn't be such a chore, but due to Freddy's low sperm count, his numerous attempts to impregnate Polly have resulted in nothing but frustration. Freddy is also a prolific actor and starving artist, and his latest project is a short film titled "Nasty Baby," which will show him portraying a screaming infant (just when I thought Mark Duplass's role in Creep that had him making a video for his unborn son to enjoy was the peak of strange).The bane of the trio's existence comes in the form of a mentally ill neighbor they know as "The Bishop" (Reg E. Cathey). Despite their acts of kindness, "The Bishop" continuously bothers them with his erratic and unpredictable behavior, going as far as almost sexually assaulting Polly in broad daylight. "The Bishop," while initially seeming like a petty character in the lives of these three, consistently finds himself being a common problem as they try to go about their daily lives unbothered, especially given the stressful circumstances they're currently facing.Nasty Baby is a film that works largely because it's free-form and unwilling to conform to a discernible plot for much of its runtime. It admirably rejects form, and that makes it easy to believe that this is a film about three realistic characters that are simply going about their days. The vibes the film gives are so natural and nuanced that even the quirkiness of Freddy making a video of him acting infantile is a believable inclusion, despite its most illogical entrance into whatever remnants of a plot this film bears.Nasty Baby's issue comes when it decides to introduce a plot - a considerably dark and sad one, at that - late in its third act. It's as if, in that very moment in his screen writing, Silva forgot to really introduce a bigger, more identifiable conflict for his characters, and as a result, the final twenty minutes of the film feel very forced and rushed in attempting to introduce, remedy, and eventually solve the newly introduced problem for their characters. Had Silva stopped dawdling with the screenplay and introduced this conflict earlier, maybe at the fifty-minute mark, this film could've been the best of both worlds - a largely free-form exercise in indie, LGBT filmmaking, in addition to a compelling black comedy/drama.Instead, this feels like a film that doesn't really find its very real problem or identity until it's too late to really leave a meaningful impact. The overall effect of introducing such a huge and potentially life-altering situation to the characters with only about twenty minutes left in the film not only is unfair to the film's characters, but the audience members, who will undoubtedly emerge feeling a sense of disconnectedness and discomfort thanks to a film showcasing such a monumental event before solving it and cleaning it up like it was nothing at all.With all that in mind, Nasty Baby is just sporadically funny enough to be deemed a comedy, and wisely punctuated by enough sadder or more dramatic moments to also fittingly earn the title of a drama. Silva's quirky narrative, for the most part, doesn't get the best of him, and the trio of performances from the main cast is particularly strong, with the standout being Wiig in another performance that needs just the right amount of eccentricity and humanity to make it work (see Adventureland and The Skeleton Twins for her other strong performances at playing smart, if disconnected). This is a film that works marginally well for the most part of its runtime, teetering on the edge of silliness and sophistication until the point where it reaches its climactic arc, which should've been its second major conflict throughout. At that point, we see that Silva has been piloting a ship that he knows how to operate but doesn't really know how to steer and doesn't find out until the ship has sailed well past it's destination.Starring: Sebastián Silva, Tunde Adbimpe, Kristen Wiig, and Reg E. Cathey. Directed by: Sebastián Silva.

visualandwriting Nasty Baby, Sebastian Silva's an independent movie presents contemporary urban drama. This film undertakes a story of homosexual partners Freddy and Mo and their female friend Polly. This trio tries to conceive a child. For men, this is a need and a disturbance in one. Freddy, an artist, to become a father creates a piece of art. A multimedia performance is imitating his and others behavior as newborns – they cry, play in front of the camera. During the process of conceiving, Freddy learns that his donation isn't as good as he, though. Mo must be a biological father, but he doubts the idea of having a child. Polly is consistent and eager to be a mother, she pushes forward the prenatal test and persuades the man for the action. The more to the story unravels the more tensions rises. Not just between trio but in Silva's creative work as well. This conflict resonates in the neighborhood. Bishop, a mentally troubled neighbor, invades the space of the trio and pushes their boundaries to the edge.Silva starts his story using close-ups to revoke the parochialism of emotions between the trio. We see from the beginning the inner world of friendship, their dynamics, that is very progressive yet holds an unspoken truth. Mo and Freddy seem to be an average couple of men in their 30 ties. Understanding, communicative, loving. They share an apartment in Brooklyn. Mo is secretive, more aloof; he isn't sure if he wants a child. On the other hand, Freddy is an energetic, emotional man, more of a rover. His friendship with Polly is deep and unusual. From the first scenes, Polly seems determined and controlling. For her having a baby is natural and unquestionable. You might have the feeling that they are a couple, the drive towards each other is intense. The closeness is disturbing, personal boundaries are invisible and needs a compliment. The relation questions the urge to procreate with Mo, not willing to have a child with Polly. There is a scene; that best portrays the relationships. After a family dinner, the friends spontaneously decided to procreate a child. Freddy masturbates Mo and Polly waits on a bed, ovulating with legs over her head ready to take the donation.Freddy's inability to create a piece of art that is appreciated and his procreation potential is questionable. An art gallery owner dismiss the piece, and his life couldn't go worse, but it does. The tension between characters slowly rises and spreads to the neighborhood. The Bishop, a psychologically troubled man with his action, annoys the community. He regularly invades the space of the trio, at night he stocks them, in a day he makes noise on the street. The more story unravels the hyped his instability become. It bothers the neighbors especially the homosexual couple. His consequence and invasion take frustrated Freddy to the edge. His instability denudes the real face of the Brooklyn's trio. The tension rises and the police intervene making a proper movie climax that contradict the intentions of the charters. Puts them in a serious life threatening situation to show that one need the life create a life comes with a contempt of the others.In Silva's film core of attention is paid to the characters rather than production design or insane stunts. Nasty Baby is an intimate drama, a story of a group that is complicated and diversified. This movie is a progressive though questioning the parenthood urge and devaluate life. Silva encircles the story by grotesque thought provoking scenes, characters poor behavior to the situations. He confronts the point of view characters with their ability. Weirdness and the feeling that something off comes out through a movie. The events go smoothly supported by the actors. Kristin Wiig after watching her in numerous comedies where her workshop is limited, here she presents a more serious approach to the character, and her actors skills flourish. All performances in the film at a good level. Silva's and Mo presentation is well balanced, yet they have an adversarial approach. Dialogs are well written and up to a point. Silva's camera work observes silently and quietly the events. There is ease of the Silva's style. He uses close-ups and firm plans a lot of natural setting and natural pace of the film. Nasty Baby is a substantial artistic and contemporary drama that through a challenge to the viewer.Read more on www.visualandwrting.com

bob_meg Grotesque (Noun) - A distortion of reality, often comic or satiric in nature.Sebastian Silva has a knack for making films that mask simmering malice, danger, and outright evil in a playfully subversive manner. "The Maid" featured a long-time servant out to make mischief for her callous employers. "Magic Magic" detailed the slow crack-up of an innocent and naive California blonde as she's dragged deep into the bowels of South American ethnicity (read: Reality).Silva himself stars in this latest excursion into unwanted reality, one his character, Freddy, seems just as terrified to face: that of fatherhood. Freddy lives in an airy Brooklyn apartment with his partner Mo (Tunde Adebimpe). He's a visual and performance artist who's got a child's attention span (and general life attitude): flighty, not overtly responsible or aware of other's feelings, and prone to fits of rage that mask an underlying self-hatred and nonacceptance. Throw into this emotionally thick stew Freddy's fixation on getting his best friend Polly (Kristin Wiig) pregnant with Mo's sperm (as Freddy's isn't up to the task - ouch), an obsession with an oddly self-conscious performance art piece that articulates his own fear and loathing, and a crazy neighbor who's becoming more and more aggressive in his assaults. There's enough TNT here to detonate the most stalwart brownstone.Most of Freddy's fears and neuroses are down-played in Nasty Baby, just as Juno Temple's were in "Magic Magic" and Silva is good at this. Mo, Polly, and even Wendy, Freddy's assistant (the sparkly Alia Shawkat, who also produces here) can see the cracks and the film does a good job at slowly turning up the seismic rumble under the surface.Reg E. Cathy (miles away from his displaced Barbecue chef on House of Cards) is an effectively unstable menace who constantly pushes Freddy's self-hatred buttons with homophobic slurs and taunts. Does Freddy really want a child? Or is it something he feels he must do to complete some kind of bohemian ideal or even his latest performance piece? Nobody around him seems sure, even his elderly gay neighbor (the superb Mark Margolis) who's seen his share of battle wounds from just being himself.Nasty Baby eventually erupts in an unexpected and nasty way that I won't spoil. It's satisfying though not in a real audience-pleasing manner, but you can see the terror and dread in Silva's face up until the end. It's anything but light entertainment, but like all of Silva's films it will make you think and will hold up over repeat viewings. The iTunes commentary, with Silva, Adebimpe, and Wiig is a hoot, by the way.