Nanny review: Blumhouse’s immigrant story has a horror problem

poster of Nanny The extreme close-up of main character Aisha’s face creates a very specific and very familiar type of cinematic feel.She looks distressed, her features still recognizable, but slightly distorted by stains like paint and drops of water. It’s easy to envision and complements the story of how this woman is undone because of what she sees. Nanny is released by Blumhouse, a studio known primarily for high-concept horror. The catchphrase is “We are haunted by what we leave behind.”

all those tips Nanny Horror movies are not false advertising: Writer-director Nikyatu Jusu deliberately uses modern horror trappings to shape his stories. But she’s visibly less interested in jumping and shocking audiences than in creating a drama that resonates. It paints a rich portrait of Ayesha’s life as a Senegalese immigrant and a nanny, but the horror elements intended to visualize her inner struggles are never coherent.

Right off the bat, the film makes us feel the tense dynamics between nanny Aisha (Anna Diop) and her employer Amy (Michelle Monaghan). As Amy hands Aisha a large binder of guidelines, contact information, meal plans, and more, her camera frames the two from a distance in uninterrupted shots. Amy isn’t exactly brusque, but the camera position creates a sense of detachment and chills the warmth she’s trying to convey. But Amy crosses that professional boundary by asking for a hug. Aisha was a little taken aback, but obliged to her boss. Amy doesn’t present her request like a demand, but she doesn’t have to. Aisha has been hired to look after Amy’s young daughter, Rose (Rose her Decker), but she is in no position to deny the woman in charge of her own salary.

Aisha faithfully records her time and puts receipts in Amy’s binder, but her payments are in cash and otherwise off the books. She’s cheaper than the documented nannies and barely aware of the situation. As an undocumented former school teacher, this is the best way she can find her skill set.Aisha needs money. She hopes to bring her young son her Lamine from Senegal. His absence weighs heavily on her, made worse by her profession.Aisha’s relationship with Lamine is entirely through her phone, with garbled videos of her chatting, is one of the records of moments missed by

Ayesha’s guilt for leaving her son manifests as a strange vision. Rain pours into the room. A distant figure stands on a distant lake. The spider’s legs cast long shadows that spread out like an open mouth. Aisha identifies some images and tells Rose a story about Anansi the spider and how his diminutive size needs to use his cunning to survive. When talking to the woman above (dead poolLeslie Uggams) is well versed in the supernatural, and she and Anansi Mermaid-like Water Spirit Asami Wata I’m trying to tell her something Aisha is fluent in multiple languages, and teaching them to Rose is part of her job.

Guilt- and trauma-bound hallucinations and time-loss are standard territory for those obsessed with arthouse cinema. the babadook It will feel incomplete.However Nanny A far cry from the standard-issue horrors of other movies of entities like shadows pounding walls, it stands out for its imagery, realized with unusual skill and grown from its folklore roots. Aisha’s visions are meant to unsettle her and unsettle the viewer by association, but they are understated and gorgeous in the way they immerse her in ethereal light. I have a feeling that the vision might not be so disturbing after all.

Photo: Prime Video

Where another movie could have focused solely on Aisha’s pain and mental breakdown, Jusu Be careful to show that the main character is trying to live his life and regain control. She spits out to her friends about Lamine’s absent father and begins a romance with the building’s burly doorman (Sinca Walls), who has a child of her own. When her employer neglects to pay her and her unpaid overtime starts piling up, she speaks up for herself. Amy’s husband, Adam (Morgan Spector), tells Aisha to “advance” her payment, and she quietly but firmly corrects him.

Jusu excels at highlighting uncomfortable power dynamics in the workplace, making Aisha’s relationship with her employer tense and complex rather than treading overtly sinister territory. I can. There is no ill will in the way they treat Aisha, but her discomfort with the freedom they take and the boundaries they overstep is always evident. Adam’s photographs adorn his apartment in large-scale prints, and he depicts Aisha and the subject of his art and fame, black poverty and strife. I would love to talk to you about These interactions superficially recall Jordan Peele’s awkward “meeting family” moments. Get outbut those truths are cleverly mundane.

In fact, this dynamic is so well executed that Jusu I had a hard time dabbling in horror given that it was far less effective than drama. Aisha’s eerie vision is the weakest part of the film, building towards an abrupt ending that raises a recurring question: If a Senegalese immigrant was promised several times to wander through a terrifying apartment, would the audience stay still? Just sit back and watch the social crisis of Senegalese immigrants?

Horror becomes a storytelling crutch when used in this way. It’s as if it’s the only way to wipe out the typically happy post-expectations of more conventional films.Oscarbait version of Nanny As easily imaginable as the horror the poster suggests, perhaps retaining Diop’s nuanced lead performance, but smothering it with tearful speeches and themes of virtues that pay off, hard work pays off, Spiteful characters see the error of their ways or get what comes their way. Horror may be her only mode of storytelling that reliably inspires audiences for this pessimistic version of the story, but Jusu’s other striking work is the one in which she divides her focus and most I suffer when I hide clear ideas beneath genre distractions.

Nanny will debut in theaters on November 23 and stream on Prime Video on December 16.