Directed By Nikyatu Jusu

Starring – Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls

The Plot – Immigrant nanny Aisha (Diop), piecing together a new life in New York City while caring for the child of an Upper East Side family, is forced to confront a concealed truth that threatens to shatter her precarious American Dream.

Rated R for some adult language and brief sexuality/nudity

Nanny – Official Trailer | Prime Video – YouTube

POSITIVES

In her debut directorial effort, Nikyatu Jusu proves she’s decades ahead of her experience, with the kind of atmospherically rich direction that constantly makes her film a pleasure to audibly and visually interpret. For starters, this is among the best conceptual lighting schemes that I’ve seen in a film this year, with an abundance of luminously neon color schemes vividly influencing the many environments and engagements that it envelopes. Aside from these instances emanating a majestic beauty to their essence, working cohesively with Jusu’s picturesque quality of abstract framing, there’s an equally permeating consciousness that artistically plays all the more psychologically to the insight and perspective of our prominent protagonist, bringing with them obstruction in the coherence of the fantastical imagery that occasionally makes it a challenge to decipher if what we’re seeing is in fact reality, all the while immersing itself to the depths and emotions of Aisha’s palpable isolation factor that drives much of her adversity. Beyond this, Jusu’s work as a screenwriter also transcribes a refreshing breath of creativity, both in her deviation of the horror genre, as well as the cultural world-building of Aisha’s homeland, which drive many of the narrative’s direction points. Jusu uses the conventionalism of the haunted house genre, in that supernatural figures are often the revered as the antagonists to any plot, but here they’re used as the protectors to Aisha’s internal need for change that drives her particular American dream. This is reciprocated even further when it’s revealed that those supernatural forces are indeed the work of legends of African folklore, capitalizing on the cultural relevance of the protagonist’s unique appeal, while conjuring an insatiable yearning for insightful knowledge that a film like this serves as the starting point to future delves. Aside from Jusu, she gets some help in the form of her leading lady, performed remarkably here by Diop. Similar to Jusu, this is Diop’s first big step forward, and as Aisha, whom we follow throughout the duration of the experience, she effortlessly inflicts the resiliency and determination of her people, all the while unraveling through a possession in personality of sorts that feels like completely different people from the beginning of the film to the end. Last but not least, I appreciate that the materializing of the exposition comes in ways that aren’t always audible, instead requiring interpretation in actions to fill in the blanks that would otherwise require leaps in logic. Such an example of this pertains to Adam and Amy, Aisha’s employers, who seamlessly emulate the actions and interactions of a weathered married couple so vividly that their motivations never require depiction or illustration to convey their reasoning, instead fleshing out an authentic slice of humanity that I deeply admired, especially in that it never required robbing the dialogue of screentime that it never could’ve afforded using.

NEGATIVES

Not everything translates effectively from the pages of Jusu’s meaningful screenplay, as the film’s horror elements are weakly undercooked and arguably unnecessary considering how little it calls on them. Part of the problem is certainly in the occasionally disjointed aspects of the storytelling, with as many as four arcs fighting for time inside of a 93-minute run time, but the bigger problem is in the evidential desperation of its appeal, with bold sound designs, overtly heavy-handed musical scores, and lucid dream sequences instilling a try-hard trait to its otherwise razor-sharp precision in storytelling. For my money, this film should’ve been a psychological thriller instead of being marketed as a supernatural horror film. There are supernatural elements to its direction, but as previously mentioned they work in cohesion with the protagonist, instead of against her, leaving the more compelling moments of conflict stemming from the systematic racism and advantage-taking circumstances of Aisha’s employers. Beyond this, another problem I had with the experience was the shallow level of depth within the supporting cast that left a few too many unresolved arcs by film’s end. Knowing that this is Aisha’s story throughout, I can understand why their time allowance is minimal, but considering the script includes with them a personal plight meant to influence different aspects of the script, it falls a bit flat on the follow through, making them feel like padding, instead of something conductive to the extent of the experience. Finally, while most of the second half is paced accordingly within the movements and consistency of its evolving narrative, the first forty minutes or so feels a bit too aimless to attach itself to audiences immediately. During this area of the film, we know the who, the why, the where, and the how, and yet Jusu isn’t able to put a driving force behind them in ways that clicks a confidence within her story, leaving the initial luring minutes requiring a bit too much faith in an audience that will be tested into committing itself further.

OVERALL
“Nanny” is an artistically impactful opening chapter in the promising career of Nikyatu Jusu, but it’s not one that isn’t without the flaws that diminish the returns of her originally compelling elements of storytelling. With the heavy lifting of Diop’s psychologically introspective turn, as well as the refreshing ingredients to an age’s old subgenre, Jusu’s debut offers just enough substance to its scintillating style to nurture a folkloric immigration nightmare, even if it would be better suited to leave the horror to the films it rightfully belongs in.

My Grade: 6/10 or C+