Movies

Sundance 2022: ‘Nanny’ is a Haunting, Sometimes Fumbling, Look at Motherhood

Published

2 years ago

January 22, 2022

Writer/director Nikyatu Jusu made her feature debut today at Sundance Film Festival with Nanny, a film steeped in mythology and folklore that will haunt its viewers long after the credits roll.

Set in New York City, the film focuses on Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for a wealthy family on the Upper East Side. Aisha is focused and driven. Her one goal is to save up enough money to bring her son from Senegal to live with her. It soon becomes clear, however, that all is not what it seems.

Drawn into the marital spats of her employers, Amy and Adam (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector), Aisha desperately tries to focus on the child despite the girl’s parents forgetting to pay her again and again. The more she stands up for herself, the more Amy resents her and her bond with the child. When she begins having strange visions that draw her into a trance state, she becomes a danger to herself and others.

Jusu’s filmmaking has a beautiful, almost lyrical, quality to it. She draws upon traditional imagery from African folklore including tales of Anansi the Spider and Mami Wata, the source of some of the earliest mermaid-like stories in the world. As the film explains, both figures symbolize survival and the freedom to live one’s life on your own terms. Those things matter deeply to Aisha. She wants nothing more than to have her son with her so that they can survive together.

For all its mythic beauty and terror, however, there were moments when it felt as though Nanny might leap out of Jusu’s control. As the visions become bigger, more terrifying, her hold on the narrative feels tenuous, but one could argue that birth and rebirth are tenuous, disjointed events so some of this can be forgiven.

Still, there is Diop. For those who are only familiar with the actress’s work in the DC series, Titans, you’re in for a real treat here. There is a stillness in the actress that can take your breath away. Each movement is measured, each breath paced as if moving forward in an interminable race. In her hands, Aisha is a model of control which makes her spiral all the more dramatic and gut-wrenching.

Water is a recurring theme throughout the film, again underlining birth and rebirth, and the actress has a way of acting with the water that is so unusual. It becomes a dance of sorts. It assaults her one moment and cradles her, curled in the fetal position in her bath, the next. She confronts it, soothes it, and becomes it.

It is one of the most powerful and reserved performances this reviewer has seen in years, and it was a treat to take this journey with her.

For those who are wondering, yes, this is a horror movie. The horror comes in fits and starts, overtaking the otherwise grounded story, again with a frenetic, untamed energy.

Ultimately, Nanny may end up drawing comparisons to Remi Weekes’s His House, a film that also confronts the horrors of displacement and family. While the films certainly belong in the same category, Jusu’s film deserves a place of its own without comparison. Africa is not, as is pointed out in the film “just one big country,” and the different stories from different cultures within the continent deserve to be honored for what they bring singularly to the table.

Check out what Nikyatu Jusu had to say about her film below!

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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

Published

13 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

^Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Movies

Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

Published

16 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Timothy Rawles

In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Movies

Renny Harlin’s Recent Horror Movie ‘Refuge’ Releasing in U.S. This Month

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Timothy Rawles

War is hell, and in Renny Harlin’s latest film Refuge it seems that’s an understatement. The director whose work includes Deep Blue Sea, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and the upcoming reboot of The Strangers made Refuge last year and it played in Lithuania and Estonia this past November.

But it’s coming to select U.S. theaters and VOD starting on April 19th, 2024

Here is what it’s about: “Sergeant Rick Pedroni, who comes home to his wife Kate changed and dangerous after suffering an attack by a mysterious force during combat in Afghanistan.”

The story is inspired by an article producer Gary Lucchesi read in National Geographic about how wounded soldiers create painted masks as representations of how they feel.

Take a look at the trailer: