Diop sparkles in an eerie waking dream of a thriller
Some movies keep the audience guessing as to what it is right up until the moment the lights go down or they click the play button. Horror movies do better business, so the ads tend to play up the horror element in movies that aren’t really horror movies. Take “Nanny,” an eerie, assured debut with a terrific central performance from Anna Diop.
It’s no horror film. Rather, it delves into genuine psychological thriller territory, grounded in a character study of the American immigrant experience. Many films broadly describable as psychological thrillers are about as psychological thriller-y as a chainsaw massacre. Rarely does a legit example of the genre lay off the bloodshed long enough to get under a character’s skin, or behind a customarily marginalized character’s eyes, to imagine unsettled interior states of being.
“Nanny” is one of those exceptions, written and directed with supple authority by first-time feature writer-director Nikyatu Jusu. Diop plays Aisha, who has emigrated from Senegal to New York City, leaving her young son at home with family until she earns enough money to bring him over.
Aisha’s employer is Amy (Michelle Monaghan), a tense, competitive corporate executive who lives in an immaculate Upper East Side apartment with her restless, secretive husband, Adam (Morgan Spector), and their daughter Rose (Rose Decker). The nannying job pays in cash. Amy and Adam don’t seem happy, but they do seem like reasonable, enlightened
people, though there’s something off with the way Amy notes, in one scene, how the bright red top Aisha’s wearing goes so well “with your skin.”
Amy keeps her daughter on a strict eating regimen; references to what everyone’s been through lately with the pandemic are hinted at, slyly, obliquely. More obvious is Amy’s exhausting work life. And her husband’s stealthy interest in “the help.” And the imminent clash of wills between Amy (who has a habit of not paying Aisha on schedule) and Aisha, who introduces the sheltered Rose to jollof rice and other West African staples.
Aisha hasn’t seen her little boy in a year. She is haunted, increasingly, by visions of drowning and by spiders, big ones, crawling on the walls of her bedroom. Dreams, mostly. Waking dreams, possibly. Dangerous manifestations, threateningly. What is disturbing Aisha’s already dislocated state of being?
There’s more in “Nanny,” notably a romance from Malik, the security guard played warmly by Sinqua Walls. Malik takes care of his grandmother (Leslie Uggams), who claims to have psychic powers and has a hunch about the spirit-world tricksters who
may be responsible for Aisha’s visions.
Some of the storytelling elements don’t fully gel, and there’s a recovery period missing after a key reveal near the end, one that would’ve strengthened the finish. But this is where Diop comes in. The Senegalese American actor, best known as the emerald-eyed Starfire on TV’s “Titans,” carries every scene with aplomb. Diop is a reactive wonder as well as an exceptional scene partner as she strategizes how to work with or around or deflect the microaggressions coming from her “new family” and, more happily, her few friends in this new land.
Director Jusu revels in the otherworldly imagery, often with Aisha underwater or in domestic surroundings where she’s unsure whether she’s awake or asleep. All this works as a metaphor for the immigrant experience; Aisha is at once drowning in an unfamiliar life, and parched for a taste of home.
MPAA rating: R (for some language and brief sexuality/ nudity)
Running time: 1:38
How to watch: In theaters. Streaming Dec. 16 on Amazon Prime Video