NASTY BABY (Sebastián Silva, U.S./Chile). 100 minutes. Saturday (May 23), 10 pm, TIFF 1. Rating: NN
Sebastián Silva, director of the prickly character studies Crystal Fairy and Magic Magic, stumbles with this meandering New York City drama about a performance artist (writer/director Silva) who offers up his partner (Tunde Adebimpe) as a sperm donor to his best friend (Kristen Wiig).
Dramatically undercooked and shot in a way that makes the whole thing feel random and amateurish, Nasty Baby feels as self-indulgent and grating as the art piece on which Silva’s character labours for the entire movie – which is basically just him lying on his back, squalling like an infant. Wiig and Adebimpe do their best with barely-there roles while Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad) and Reg E. Cathey (The Wire) are simply wasted.