Varie

Freddy is an artist whose desire for a baby has become something of an obsession. He surrounds himself with photographs of his childhood and is working feverishly on a fresh piece about newborns. He and his partner Mo have even managed to persuade their best friend Polly to have their baby. However, after numerous failed attempts to conceive, this proves to be more difficult than they first envisaged. Freddy’s planned video installation also turns out to be rather more complicated than he thought. And then, when the ‘Bishop’, their rather deranged neighbour, begins tormenting them with his serious chicanery, their hitherto carefree existence starts to go dangerously awry. A series of surprising events brings their frustrations to a head and before long, Freddy and his friends begin to lose their grip on reality.
Sebastián Silva’s savagely satirical film is an angry portrait of a group of presumptuous and self-absorbed bohemians. The director himself plays the role of Freddy, infusing his performance with the complacency, doggedness, ignorance and egomania of a social circle which is in the process of becoming estranged from their original visions and dreams. (Berlinale)

CRITICA:

“…Sebastián Silva e’ bravo a mantenere, come nei suoi film migliori La Nana e Magic Magic, una tensione costante e sottotraccia, e a metterci ripetutamente nella posizione di guardare con sospetto ai suoi protagonisti (coraggiosamente affida a se stesso il ruolo piu’ antipatico e apertamente deprecabile del terzetto di personaggi): in piu’, questa sua ostinazione nel diventare il prossimo David Gordon Green, vale a dire il nuovo sguardo autoriale alla frangia piu’ intellettuale della commedia USA, lo porta qui, dopo il dittico con Michael Cera, a collaborare con una Kristen Wiig mostruosamente spaesata per via della spacconesca voglia di épater che si respira per tutto il film.
Freddy e Mo vivono apertamente la loro storia d’amore omosessuale a New York, dove Freddy si trastulla con insostenibili e pacchiani esperimenti di videoarte (assistito dalla sempre clamorosa Alia Shawkat) mentre Mo porta la pagnotta a casa nonostante la muta disapprovazione della sua famiglia di provincia nei confronti delle sue scelte di vita. I due decidono di avere un bambino attraverso l’utero dell’amica Polly. E mentre la pratica di inseminazione porta con se’ molte piu’ tensioni sottotraccia e difficolta’ pratiche di quanto i tre potessero immaginare, il quartiere e’ sempre piu’ disturbato dalla presenza di un gruppo di senzatetto molesti e un po’ suonati, capitanati dall’imponente e insistente Bishop. Le due problematiche troveranno una soluzione opposta e imprevista nel corso di una lunga notte…” (sentieriselvaggi.it)

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Freddy (Sebastián Silva), trentenne gay bianco newyorchese di professione artista, desidera a tutti i costi avere un figlio. L’elegantemente arredato appartamento in cui vive col compagno afroamericano operaio Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) è tappezzato ovunque di sue foto da piccolo e immagini di neonati. Se questo non bastasse, Freddy si è persino lanciato febbrilmente in un progetto artistico che tematizza il suo bisogno di paternità inteso come forma mediata di rinascita e che dovrebbe concretizzarsi in una mostra-installazione da presentare in una nota galleria della Big Apple. Il desiderio di Freddy ben si sposa con quello della sua più cara amica Polly (Kristen Wiig), dottoressa bianca single ossessionata essa stessa dal bisogno di mettere al mondo un figlio. Sembrerebbe che il sogno di entrambi sia destinato a coronarsi se non ci mettesse lo zampino la natura: dopo mesi e mesi di tentativi di inseminazione artificiale casalinga andati a vuoto, si viene infine a scoprire che il seme di Freddy non ha abbastanza spermatozoi per fecondare un ovulo. La notizia ha su Freddy un impatto devastante: Non solo questi non potrà mai vedere esaudito il suo desiderio di paternità/rinascita: senza baby neanche la sua mostra vedrà mai la nascita. I due sono disperati, non sanno cosa fare, poi a Freddy viene un’idea: perché non usare al posto del suo sperma quello del suo compagno Mo? A udire questa proposta, Polly diviene entusiasta, l’unico a non esserne troppo convinto è proprio il papabile donatore. Riusciranno i due a persuaderlo? Se la situazione è già di suo alquanto intricata, a rendere il tutto più difficile ci si mette Bischof (Reg E. Cathey), un cinquantenne newyorchese afroamericano ritardato mentale che infastidisce con il suo comportamento, a conti fatti, innocuo Freddy e i suoi amici. Tra loro s’innesca un conflitto destinato a escalare tragicamente. Il regista e sceneggiatore cileno Sebastián Silva (La vida me mata, 2007; La nana, 2009; Crystal Fairy & The magical Cactus and 2012, 2013), già vincitore con La nana del Gran Premio della Giuria al Sundance Film Festival nel 2009, presenta alla 65. Berlinale il ritratto acre di una generazione che a suo avviso ha perso del tutto il contatto con la realtà. Nelle intenzioni del regista, nel personaggio di Freddy e dei suoi amici si mischiano l’egomania, l’ignoranza e la presunzione tipici di una cerchia sociale di finti bohémiennes che si barricano e identificano a tal punto con la propria diversità da arrivare al punto di non saper più rispettare la diversità altrui… (Christian Del Monte, indie-eye.it)

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An innocuous US comedy that unsuspectingly morphs into a twisted noir, Sebastián Silva’s Nasty Baby (2015) is a socially conscious thriller that confronts the ignorance of a bohemian culture that refuses to accept responsibility for the societal conditions it’s created. Starring alongside Tunde Adebimpe and Kristen Wiig, Silva has crafted a brutal satire that asks as many questions of the audience as it does of its characters. Set in Brooklyn during a hazy summer, visual artist Freddy (Silva) and his partner Mo (Adebimpe) have decided to have a baby with Polly (Wiig). Despite some apprehensions the trio are unified in the belief that nurture trumps nature and all a baby requires is the shared love of its parents.
These moments of fleeting sentimentality are playfully intertwined with jokes about Jennifer Aniston’s beige complexion and how Polly’s aggressive hormones have turned her into a ‘semen vampire’. Meanwhile, Freddy’s desire to be a father has permeated into his work and he surrounds himself with photographs of his childhood whilst attempting to create a self-deprecating video installation where he mimics the actions of a baby. However, the serenity of the trio’s New York idyll is destroyed when Bishop (Reg E. Carthy), a mentally handicapped local, begins tormenting them by using a leaf blower in the early hours of the morning. Things escalate one evening when Bishop’s fascination with Polly goes a step too far and what started as a minor scuffle between neighbours quickly escalates.
Nasty Baby is awash with conflict, be it Freddy’s low sperm count, Mo’s reluctance to become a father or the prejudices faced by a multi-racial couple trying to have a baby. However, all of these pale in significance as the film quietly mutates in a revealing portrait of the self-absorbed, individualistic lifestyle of New York’s ever-widening ‘creative’ community. Each character is beautifully formed, with Silva’s penchant for casting comedy performer such as Wiig (exceptional here) and mold them into his own worldview culminating in instantly likeable protagonists. Silva’s style is loose and playful, teasing you with lighthearted games whilst all the time the narrative is unknowingly embedding itself within the darkest recesses of your mind and feeding upon your subconscious prejudices. Just as you start to feel like Nasty Baby is simply another cutesy Sundance indie, Silva takes the story down a bleak and somewhat unexpected path when Bishop’s role as the nuisance neighbour adopts far greater significance.
Basking in the warmth of privilege and entitlement, Bishop feels like a beacon of the archaic discrimination the trio will need to overcome if they’re to start a family together, yet this is far from the case. As a black, mentally handicapped man of advancing years, he represents multiple divisions of those marginalised and displaced by the sprawl of urban gentrification. Silva’s sharp twist (whilst totally aware of the irony at the heart of its all) leaves the audience perplexed and unsure about how to feel. We love these characters and want them to succeed, and whilst we can understand how they find themselves in such a precarious situation we cannot condone their actions. It posits far bigger questions than whether a gay couple can bring up a baby, leading to intense self-analysis and a realignment of your own moral compass. It’s this deft trickery and misdirection that makes Nasty Baby such a sinister treat. VOTO: 4/5 (Patrick Gamble, cine-vue.com)

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A pleasant examination of modern life in a particularly gentrified neighborhood, Nasty Baby will be marked as a real surprise piece in this year’s Berlinale. Up-and-coming actor/director Sebastian Silva turns what seems destined at the outset to be a stultifying politically correct indie about a gay male Brooklyn couple into a much darker and heartfelt story.
The director co-stars here as Freddy, a video installation artist who’s soon informed that he should give up trying to help impregnate close friend Polly (Kristin Wiig). This thrusts Freddy’s partner Mo into the driving seat as the next most viable option, creating a tension among the three that is at times satirical and definitely honest and identifiable. An easy-watching work, it is not until other characters from around the neighborhood come wandering into the plot that the film is able to clutch at its greater themes of friendship and impending parenthood.
The on-screen connection between Silva and Wiig is especially strong; you almost immediately warm to their characters. Contemporary tales of life in New York have recently been trending subject matter, particularly through the medium of television, and it’s this originality and grit in the dialogue that allows the audience to involve themselves in the film and really identify with the cast.
Silva’s musical background flourishes throughout the film with some real indie gems to be found. The unsteady, quasi-home video quality of the proceedings is initially uninviting, but it becomes less grating, however the night and darkly lit scenes remain problematic.
Nasty Baby is all about appeal, tentative drama ready to be shattered by Silva’s searching curiosity. It is a film that will make you laugh, make you cry, and leave you hyperventilating in its final moments. VOTO: 4/5 (Tim Mead, theupcoming.co.uk)