Wish I could (not) turn back time (Baby bump, 2015)

How often do you think of “the good old days” like Twenty One Pilots in their song? Don’t we love to think of our childhood as of utopian, careless time, when everything seemed so simple? All we had to do was “just” school, making friends, playing games… Kuba Czekaj in his visually thrilling debut feature film reminds us that it is a false imagery and we easily forget about childhood struggles, which for the kid facing them appear to be giant and overwhelming.

A young boy, Mickey House, (delightful Kacper Olszewski) has a number of problems. The main one is abnormal (in his opinion) size of ears, which he tries to overcome by sticking them to his head with glue. In his mind the ears are rabbit-like! The protagonist’s only way to make himself look like everyone else is to undergo a plastic surgery for which he’s raising money. The source of his income is…the urine which he sells to the kids from school. Apart from that there’s something strange going on between him and his mother (Agnieszka Podsiadlik). Mummy, who tests products to make a living, can’t accept the fact that her son is growing and her behavior starts feeling weird for the boy. She cuddles and kisses him, asks him to wash her back in the bath, she’s interested in what is happening with son’s private parts though the very fact of them pubertying terrifies him. To make matters worse, there is a girl, Warm-And-Wholehearted, who loves Mickey House and also blackmails him. Hard life, isn’t it?

Kuba Czekaj tried to make a “movie comic” and I think he actually managed. What we see in Baby bump is a postmodern mosaic form; and so the characters talk directly to the camera and show nearly no emotions which kicks the viewers out of narration and make them feel they’re not only watching a diegetic story but also some flashes from their own past. While watching Czekaj’s new movie you can quite quickly realize there were indeed some serious drawbacks in your childhood which seriousness you could compare to job and flat struggles in adulthood.

What is more, the shots are technically very sophisticated – pastel staging, loud musical background, Polish and English subtitles appearing on different parts of the frame and quick montage of shots are just striking. Furthermore, Mickey House often talks to an imaged friend – animated Jerboa Mouse (dubbed by Caryl Swift) – his ambiguous alter ego which appears in different moments ostensibly trying to help the boy. It all creates a vision of a chaotic, artificial reality in which people want to be “big”, recognizable; our little protagonist dreams of being a king with paper crown on his head and being applauded by the crowd of schoolmates. But the characters need to act smart, otherwise they will gain unwanted fame on the internet, because Warm-And-Wholehearted watches and records any odd behavior.

Czekaj should have been careful too. There are moments and scenes in which aesthetic luxury distract from major narrative issues and as a consequence pictures seem empty. However, the director puts readable references to the contemporary world. Proceeding Americanization, functioning  in TV and internet instead of real living and exaggerated attention to the appearance simply glare from the screen.

The director and his crew showed the potential of artistic articulation by delineating something so difficult to describe as mother-pubescent son relationship. Its involvement generates extreme emotions. The mother’s need for son’s closeness is at the beginning unsettling and the further it goes the worse it gets. Mummy’s behavior connotes inverted Oedipus complex as if she would lust after the boy. Is it a strong maternal love or a sick desire? The uncertainty lingers till the end; I feel this aspect of the movie might have raised negative opinions. Because I have to add the reception after the premiere was mixed. Some say Czekaj is a very promising, maverick director the others claim Baby bump is some kind of misunderstanding.

The movie is wreathed in a disturbing, oneiric steam. Mickey House’s clear dreams and visions as well as raised issues create a nightmare of a kid’s expectations and obligations. Czekaj’s movie is hideous, shocking, sometimes scary just like complex aspects of puberty we tend to forget about. Bravo!