Nanny

Directed by Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny follows Aisha (Anna Diop) as she lands a job taking care of a wealthy New York City couple’s young daughter – with the film detailing Aisha’s ongoing exploits and struggles. There’s ultimately little doubt that Nanny fares best in its low-key yet engaging first half, as Jusu, armed with her own screenplay, does an effective job of establishing the appealing central character and her distinctive environs – with the ongoing emphasis on Aisha’s subdued comings and goings (eg Aisha’s tentative relationship with a hunky doorman, Aisha’s efforts at introducing her charge to Senegalese food, etc) lending the proceedings an authenticity that proves difficult to resist. It’s clear, then, that Nanny slowly-but-surely wears out its welcome as Jusu pushes the slow-moving aesthetic to its breaking point, with the progressively less-than-captivating feel eventually compounded by abstract, context-free horror elements. (And it doesn’t help, either, that said elements may or may not be entirely in Aisha’s head, which only exacerbates the palpable pointlessness of such moments.) By the time the interminable third act rolls around, as well as the laughably unsatisfying conclusion, Nanny has cemented its place as a complete misfire of rather monumental proportions and it’s clear, in the final analysis, that the picture would’ve fared much, much better without its ineffective “scary” attributes.

* out of ****