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Hollywood’s output of American immigrant plotlines is endless. Yet while many of them are no doubt empathetic films, they also contain a sense of distance. Whether it’s in a film’s decades-ago period or a focus on the external forces that other its characters, rather than their interiorities and inner thoughts, this particular subject of film can tend to focus on what happens to people, rather than sitting with them in the transient moments of everyday experiences. Nikyatu Jusu ’s debut feature “Nanny” takes the trials, pains, and pursuits of the American immigrant experience and forms a narrative deeply and vitally entrenched in the mind of its lead character. 

The film follows Aisha ( Anna Diop ), a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for a young girl, Rose ( Rose Decker ), the daughter of a rich white couple ( Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector ) in New York City. Having recently moved to America, Aisha is not only building a life for herself in a new country but also working to save the money to bring her young son overseas as well. There’s a poignant feeling of loss in the film, contrasted not by the gain of a new home, but the newness of one. 

“Nanny” is visually striking, especially in its use of color. Scenes of Aisha at her home, swathed in saturation and patterns, greatly oppose the cold, brutalist architecture of the couple’s apartment and the city around it. Her bright head scarves and occasional donning of traditional clothing are a signal of warmth, remembrance, and the culture she’s carried with her to the states. The lighting of the film renders Black skin beautifully, whether in its daylight scenes or punchy surrealist sequences. 

There’s a water motif that plays into the use of light and color beautifully, but if used more sparingly, would receive more appreciation. Water is irrevocably tied to Aisha’s state of mind as both a physical representation of distance and a conceptual metaphor for drowning, but these water-based sequences occur so often that by the third or fourth time their impact is diminished. With tighter editing and a stronger discerning hand, these moments would feel more like statements rather than crutches.

The film's horror elements feel not only hindered by budget but overall apathetic. "Nanny" has a great, atmospheric score, and it would have sufficed in building tension without the inclusion of poor-CGI moments that completely interrupt the film’s otherwise solid cinematography. If “Nanny” was less focused on checking the box of “horror” and instead just committed to its successful surrealist tone, it would have felt more seamless. Saving the horror elements for the latter part of a film is not an ineffective strategy, but in “Nanny” they feel noticeably out of place. The impression they leave is fleeting, and the majority of these moments feel thrown in or confused, much like the movie's organization.

“Nanny” never quite finds its track among its list of narrative events. Time jumps, mood shifts, and side characters are messily included and distract from the film’s central focus (and strength): Aisha. She is displaced and at the whim of many external factors but has shamelessness and unshaken confidence despite her social position. Aisha is unconcerned with how she is perceived, and never loses sight of herself, her son, her culture, or her goals, despite how persistent the couple is in making her life dependent on their own. Diop’s portrayal is versatile, moving, and powerful in its acuity. She absorbs the tide of the horror elements, not letting them wash over the impact she brings to their space.

But Jusu's script spends far too much time planting seeds of interest in characters that end up unfulfilled. We are teased by their interiorities, and “Nanny” often loosens its grip on Aisha to shallowly explore side characters that don’t deserve our interest. The film’s thesis is unquestionable, but its power is anchored in Aisha’s mind and heart. When it pivots from that center, every moment is spent waiting to return. 

“Nanny” is a somewhat-cohesive slice-of-life psychological horror film. While its horror elements and overall structure lack gratification, it's the woman at its center and the submergence into her spirit that make it a poignant, wonderfully personal character study.

Now playing in theaters and available on Prime Video on December 16th. 

Peyton Robinson

Peyton Robinson is a freelance film writer based in Chicago, IL. 

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Film credits.

Nanny (2022)

Rated R for some language and brief sexuality/nudity.

Anna Diop as Aisha

Michelle Monaghan as Amy

Sinqua Walls as Malik

Morgan Spector as Adam

Rose Decker as Rose

Leslie Uggams as Kathleen

• Nikyatu Jusu

Cinematographer

• Robert Mead
• Bartek Gliniak

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Nanny is a last-minute contender for best horror film of the year

Nikyatu jusu weaves west african folklore and domestic horror into a chilling tapestry in nanny , which also features an exceptional performance from anna diop.

There’s something about the experience of domestic work that goes hand-in-hand with good horror storytelling. Henry James knew it, John Carpenter knows it, and Nikyatu Jusu knows it too. The title character in Jusu’s feature directorial debut, Nanny (in theaters November 23 and streaming on Prime Video December 16), is a haunted figure who exists for much of the film in an alien space, a cold home that’s not her own. There’s a sense of roaming through a haunted house, but also a sense that a nanny can herself be a kind of ghost, wandering through space that she doesn’t own, sometimes unseen, sometimes barely there. It’s a potent place from which to begin a horror film, but Nanny doesn’t stop there.

What begins as an uncomfortable introduction into a strange new environment soon changes shape, and Nanny rises to become an unsettling, darkly gorgeous meditation on the immigrant experience, West African folklore, and the forces which drive one woman to keep fighting. With those elements in place, all anchored by a fearless performance from Anna Diop, it emerges as one of the most compelling horror films of the year.

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Diop is Aisha, an immigrant from Senegal who’s settled in New York City, where she hopes to earn enough money to fly her young son over from their home country to start a new life. It’s this pursuit that leads her to the doorstep of Amy (Michelle Monaghan), who needs a nanny for her daughter Rose (Rose Decker). It’s a good job in a nice house, and Aisha’s spirits are bolstered by a new relationship with a local guy (Sinqua Walls) who takes a liking to her.

But the path to the life Aisha wants isn’t so easily traversed. As the new job takes a larger and larger role in her life, and her relationship with Amy becomes more and more strained, Aisha forms both a deeper bond with Rose and a new sense of anxiety informed by startlingly realistic nightmares. Something has taken root in Aisha’s mind, something informed by her homeland that may want to help her or may want to hurt her, and it changes everything about her life, her work, and quite possibly, her future.

How exactly this all unfolds is better left for the film itself to lay out, but the way Jusu structures her story makes for an elegant, satisfyingly creepy slow-burn fusion of folk horror and domestic chiller. Right away, there’s an intimacy within the subject matter, a sense that Jusu and Diop know every nook and cranny of this experience, that makes Nanny both immersive and almost instantly unsettling, even in the quiet moments when everything seems to be going well. Jusu’s script—which never overstays its welcome at a tight, horror-friendly 98 minutes—is packed with rich details that lay out all the little fears that come with a job like this one, all of them true, all of them frightening. What if Amy’s husband (Morgan Spector) gets a little too familiar? What if something happens back home that Aisha can’t handle? What if Rose starts to overshadow her own son’s place in her life? What if, in the eyes of her employer, Aisha becomes less of a helper and more of an enemy?

Jusu and cinematographer Rina Yang emphasize these questions, and the dread they bring, through a series of subtle but invigorating contrasts. Outside of Amy’s home, Aisha’s world seems to have more color. She can feel the warmth of the neon, the brightness of her potential future, the passion that’s forming in her love life. Inside the home, things are cooled down, even washed out, emphasizing the remove of it all. With the exception of Rose, everything in her work life seems boxy and artificial, and the more she brings her own warmth into that world, the higher the tension rises with Amy. It’s a movie that plays with light and shadow wonderfully, and that sense of contrast is echoed in the sound design. Water plays an important part in the film, as do the often intrusive sounds of New York City itself, and Jusu and her team weave those elements through each scene in ways that creep up on you, until it’s too late. It’s all designed to make you ask yet another question of the film: Are Aisha’s nightmares just nightmares, or is something else going on?

It’s that question, and the velvety, gradual horror that comes with it, which centers Nanny as a horror film, and which allows it to stand out as a singular story that’s nevertheless rooted in very relatable fears. It’s not a film that seeks to freak you out with jump scare after jump scare, but rather a film that wants to burrow down into your heart and fester, seeping into your room like a slow trickle of water. At times it seems like this sense of the gradual might start to veer into aimless meandering, but every time that happens, Jusu—and Diop’s astonishing, vulnerable lead performance—brings things right back to center, cementing Nanny as one of the best-crafted horror films of 2022.

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Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night, heart pounding hard from a nightmare? Maybe you tell yourself it's stress, or your comeuppance for snacking too close to bedtime. Or maybe you know better: It's your gut, warning of impending disaster. To watch Nanny is to slip into the spin of that slow-burn terror. 

From its first moments, this sensational Sundance standout ushers us not only into the life of Senegalese immigrant Aisha (a mesmerizing Anna Diop) but also into her mind, which is frequently flooded with waking nightmares of rising tides and skittering spiders. In her feature-length directorial debut, writer/director Nikyatu Jusu taps into African folklore, specifically the water spirit Mami Wata and the mischief-making Anansi the Spider, to spin visuals that are both surreal and spooky — yet these mythic figures are not the film's most menacing. 

Nanny is about how the American Dream can be a nightmare. 

For generations, the United States has been idealized as a land of opportunity, where hard work will result in success — as slippery a concept as "success" may be. For single mom Aisha (Diop), success would mean bringing her young son Lamine (Jahleel Kamara) to come live with her in her new home. Sure, her apartment might be humble and cramped, but her newfound community is welcoming and vibrant, alive with songs, laughter, and clothing in warm hues of reds, purples, and yellows. To achieve this dream of bringing her boy into this Black enclave's fold, she'll endure the onslaughts of a far colder environment. 

A subway ride away, Aisha surfaces in a neighborhood of cool colors — whites, beiges, and pale blues — which follow her inside the sprawling apartment of her employers, a wealthy white couple named Amy (Michelle Monaghan) and Adam (Morgan Spector). There, she'll care for their cheerful 5-year-old Rose (Rose Decker), who adores Aisha, speaking French with her and sharing the Senegalese dishes she prepares. But trouble brews as boundaries are crossed in this unhappy home.

With strained smiles and unearned familiarity, this entitled pair press Aisha for more and more. Amy pleads for validation and some clumsy version of friendship, while Adam is eager to make the nanny another wedge between himself and his high-strung wife. Along the way, both will withhold her paychecks, either out of neglect or resentment, either way threatening her goal to reunite with her son. 

Nanny is a harrowing tale of sacrifice. 

Parents sacrifice a lot for their children, more than those children may ever know. Aisha's sacrifices begin with leaving her homeland, far from the son she adores, to take a gamble on a better life for them both. Every day, she swallows her pride and anger to appease her selfish employers, who regard their own child as a burden more than a blessing. Aisha also code switches for them, wearing clothing in the conservatively pale blues and beiges they seem to prefer. But in this sea of bland colors, Jusu weaves warnings with metaphorical red flags, suggesting Aisha may be sacrificing too much. 

A borrowed red dress here, the red blink of a nanny cam's light there — the ominous hue chases her around the apartment, haunting her with more and more unnerving visions. It washes over the walls and Adam's professional photography, which frames scenes of revolution — including Black Lives Matter protests — into performative art for liberal white folk. Yet, these photos, tinted by a red light, call out to Aisha as the water and spiders do. Bolstering the unease, the soundscape of Nanny is a chilling echoing of water sounds, the skittering of spider legs, and the wails of human heartache. But it is not all darkness.

A romantic subplot gives Aisha a space to enjoy the splendor of sex, flirtation, and companionship. A love scene between her and her brawny beau (a hunky Sinqua Walls) is radiantly captured, celebrating sensuality and connection. The full-blooded pleasure and easy light-heartedness of these sequences are a joy to behold. And they prove not only a fantastic foil to the horrors of her work but also a delicate grounding for a finale that is dizzying and bold. 

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Through the film, Jusu showcases a strong visual language that steeps every setting with meaning. Her use of colors speaks volumes, expressing vividly what her heroine must keep in her heart. Her soundscape crashes in symphony with cryptic imagery influenced by African folklore. Her cast (including the legendary Leslie Uggams) brings verve to heroes and villains alike, grounding Aisha's journey in an unnervingly real environment. This makes scenes that slip into visions all the more engaging, sucking us in like a powerful riptide.

All told, Nanny is a sensational directorial debut and one of the best horror films of 2022.

How to watch: Nanny is now on Prime Video. 

Topics Film Streaming

Kristy Puchko is the Film Editor at Mashable. Based in New York City, she's an established film critic and entertainment reporter, who has traveled the world on assignment, covered a variety of film festivals, co-hosted movie-focused podcasts, interviewed a wide array of performers and filmmakers, and had her work published on RogerEbert.com, Vanity Fair, and The Guardian. A member of the Critics Choice Association and GALECA as well as a Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, Kristy's primary focus is movies. However, she's also been known to gush over television, podcasts, and board games. You can follow her on Twitter.

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‘Nanny’ Review: In This Atmospheric Horror Film, the American Dream Is the Real Monster

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Amazon releases the film in theaters on Wednesday, November 23, with a streaming release to follow on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, December 16.

Ghosts are everywhere in Nikyatu Jusu ‘s atmospheric feature directorial debut, “ Nanny ,” though few of them look like we’ve come to expect from decades of horror films. Sometimes, it’s just a feeling, a particular twist of the wind. Sometimes, it’s a photograph. Sometimes, it’s a story. And, sometimes, just sometimes, it’s a whole person, gazing out from beyond, well,  somewhere.  From the start, there is a queasy energy to Jusu’s get-under-your-skin film, one made all the more unsettling to her dedication to showing a full-spectrum leading lady (your usual final girl, she is  not ) caught in a surprising milieu.

Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese immigrant who has arrived in New York City with her own American Dream, though one that should really not feel so out of reach: she just wants her adorable young son Lamine, who is back in Senegal, to join her. When she gets a new job nannying for an affluent couple with a cute kid (Rose Decker), the steady paycheck seems destined to get Aisha and Lamine on the right track. But the real cost is one Aisha could never have seen coming.

Despite Aisha’s happiness over the new gig, something feels wrong from the start. The morning of her first day, a sleeping Aisha is plunged into a discomfiting nightmare — one of many key scenes that involve water, both dreamt and real, often bolstered by a rich green and blue color palette — and even waking up to realize, no, she was not actually drowning doesn’t add much relief. Cinematographer Rina Yang’s camera both boxes Aisha in and sets her at a far remove; when she first arrives at Amy (a chilling Michelle Monaghan) and Adam’s (Morgan Spector) apartment, Aisha can’t shake the feeling she’s being watched, and she is,  as we both observe her in an elevator and through the surveillance camera tracking her. But that claustrophobia doesn’t abate upon her arrival in the large apartment, with Aisha and Amy circling each other at a far distance. When they do come close to each other, it’s hardly comforting.

But the kid is cute and the pay is good, if only Amy could remember how much she has promised Aisha for her daily work and any special asks. ( Is  Amy, brittle and spacey and touchy, really so forgetful? Or is this just another one of the many micro-aggressions that Jusu skillfully piles on over the course of the film?) Monaghan is unnerving as Amy, a seemingly successful professional who falls to pieces at home, a stranger to her daughter, someone who treats her creepy husband as king of the castle while also bemoaning the current state of feminism.

Things only get worse when Adam, a photographer who seems to have a real affection for chronicling unrest, war, racism, and pain in his work, returns home. Amy and Adam’s marriage is clearly not working out, and while Aisha does her best to ignore it, the pair soon delight in playing their careful, smart nanny against the other. That would all be bad enough — plus Aisha’s constant need to ask for her pay, which is often incorrect, or Adam’s lingering looks — but as Jusu slowly turns up the tension, it’s obvious something far more sinister is lurking inside the walls of their cold, massive apartment. Outside, things are odd, too, as Aisha struggles to reach Lamine and keeps “seeing” him around town.

While Bartek Gliniak and Tanerélle’s score does a lot of traditional “horror movie!” work — lots of strings, plenty of foreboding tones — Jusu opts to turn her attention to the more edifying elements of Aisha’s life, including a budding romance with Malik, the doorman in Amy and Adam’s building (a charming Sinqua Walls). It’s also Malik who introduces her to his clairvoyant grandmother Kathleen (Leslie Uggams), who seems to see plenty others can’t (or won’t). Too often, however, that includes Jusu, whose interest in showing the full range of Aisha’s life feels like a misdirect toward the meat of the film. (Related: Aisha and Malik’s relationship might sink the film’s tension, but it also shows off Jusu’s chops as a romantic director, these two have heat and she directs it all beautifully.)

Still, Jusu’s desire to dig into Aisha outside the realm of whatever the hell is happening with Amy and Adam (and the many things they represent), offers Diop a multi-faceted character to play, the likes of which we don’t often see in traditional horror films. As Aisha, Diop is gifted with a full meal of a role, and she easily embodies all the different Aishas we meet over the course of the film. (Jusu has said she long had her eye on the actress, best known for TV series like “Titans” and “24: Legacy,” and like many of her impulses exhibited in the film, it was the right one.)

But which one is the real one? Which one is the ghost? Jusu’s script, while prone to meandering through its second act, delivers a powerful punch as the film ratchets toward its inevitable conclusion. The first-time filmmaker may be attempting to fit too many ideas into one sleek package, but that doesn’t mitigate the truth of “Nanny”: All of it haunts.

“Nanny” premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

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‘Nanny’ Review: A New Job That Swallows Her Life

Nikyatu Jusu’s new film, about a Senegalese woman who works as a babysitter in New York, plays like an immigration drama and a cruel labor farce.

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By Manohla Dargis

There’s a brief, flawlessly calibrated scene early in “Nanny” when the title character first sees the room where she is to sleep. Recently arrived in New York from Senegal, she has been hired by a white family as a babysitter. As the mother of the family guides her through the bright, spacious apartment, the nanny seems excited about her new position until she sees the small, dim room where she’ll sleep some late evenings. “It’s nothing fancy,” the employer says, clearly believing otherwise, as the nanny’s smile fades in the gray, cheerless light.

The nanny, Aisha (a lovely Anna Diop), graciously recovers her poise, despite the mother’s brittle exuberance and tensely coiled physicality. By the time this uncomfortable woman, Amy (Michelle Monaghan), asks if she can hug Aisha — after leaving her a binder filled with schedules and numbers and a fridge crammed with prepared meals — an absurd, uneasy world of privilege and its discontents has opened up, spilling its secrets. They’ll continue to spill throughout “Nanny,” which follows Aisha as she attempts to navigate her new life while holding fast to her former one and the beloved young son she left behind.

With swathes of vibrant color and a steady pulse, the writer-director Nikyatu Jusu, making her feature debut, briskly sketches in Aisha’s world with pinpoint detail, naturalistic performances and sly jolts of sardonic humor. Everything flows with unforced realism, or would, if it weren’t for the steadily mounting unease that tugs at the edge of the frame soon after Aisha begins working for the family, creating slight disturbances in the air. These ripples are almost unnoticeable at first, though even when they start to engulf Aisha, it’s unclear whether they’re emanating from deep within her or from outside malevolent forces.

It takes a while to get a read on what Jusu is up to. The story’s premise and some of its sharply observed details — totemic art work, an uninvited kiss — initially suggest that she is riffing on “ Black Girl ,” the Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène’s 1966 masterpiece about an African woman’s tragic death while working for a racist family in France. Yet despite the similarities between her movie and the Sembène film, Jusu is engaging with questions of power in a specific cultural context in which, among other things, white racial tolerance has become a kind of mask that ostensibly enlightened white people don only when it suits them, when they need to demonstrate racial sensitivity or need something from Black people.

Amid flourishes of discordant music and strange goings-on — a bump in the night, a mysteriously running shower — Aisha settles into her new routine. She quickly bonds with her charge, a sweet child (Rose Decker) with whom she speaks French. The family is paying for a babysitter and getting a language tutor for free, though, as Aisha tells Amy’s husband (Morgan Spector) with mounting bitterness, his wife has a terrible habit of not paying her. Aisha also begins seeing a man, Malik (Sinqua Walls), who also has a son and a grandmother (Leslie Uggams!), who ominously invokes an African spirit called Mami Wata.

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There’s fascinating drama underneath Nanny’s obligatory Blumhouse scares

Not every movie needs a horror hook

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The poster for Nanny creates the sense of a very specific, very familiar type of film through an extreme close-up on the face of Aisha, its lead. She looks distressed, her features still recognizable but lightly distorted by smears that look like runny paint or dripping water. It’s easy to picture this image accompanied by discordant music that mines tension and dread out of the stillness, supplementing a story about how this woman comes undone because of the things she’s seen. The poster advertises that Nanny is being released by Blumhouse, a studio primarily known for high-concept horror . The tagline is “We’re haunted by what we leave behind.”

All those hints that Nanny is a horror movie aren’t false advertising: Writer-director Nikyatu Jusu consciously uses the trappings of modern horror to shape the story. But she’s visibly less concerned with serving jumps and jolts to the audience than she is in crafting a resonant drama. Jusu paints a rich portrait of Aisha’s life as an undocumented Senegalese immigrant and nanny under the thumb of a wealthy white family, but the horror elements meant to visualize her internal struggles never quite cohere.

Right away, the film offers up a sense of the stiff dynamic between nanny Aisha (Anna Diop) and her employer, Amy (Michelle Monaghan). The camera frames both of them from a distance in an unbroken shot, as Amy hands Aisha a big binder of guidelines, contact information, meal plans, and more. Amy isn’t exactly unfriendly, but the camera position creates a sense of remove, chilling whatever warmth she’s trying to present. It’s nothing awful — a somewhat showy first impression, an air of entitlement. But Amy then steps across that professional boundary by asking for a hug. Aisha is briefly taken aback, but she obliges her boss. Amy doesn’t present the request like a demand, but she doesn’t have to; Aisha was hired to care for Amy’s young daughter, Rose (Rose Decker), but she’s hardly in a position to deny the woman in charge of her pay — especially on her first day of work.

Aisha dutifully records her hours and puts the receipts in Amy’s binder, though her payment is in cash and otherwise off the books. She’s cheaper than a documented nanny, and she’s hardly oblivious to the situation; as an undocumented former schoolteacher, this is simply the best avenue she can find for her skillset. Aisha needs the money — she’s hoping to bring her young son, Lamine, over from Senegal. His absence weighs heavily on her, and is made worse by her profession: While she bonds with, cares for, and generally lavishes attention on Rose, her own son is an ocean away. Aisha’s relationship with Lamine is entirely through her phone, in either garbled video chats or recordings of the moments she missed.

Aisha’s guilt over leaving her son behind manifests in strange visions. Rain pours down indoors. A distant figure stands at a distance in a lake. Spider legs cast a long shadow that unfurls like an open maw. Aisha is able to identify some of the imagery, telling Rose stories about Anansi the spider, and how his small size requires him to leverage his cunning to survive. When talking with an older woman ( Deadpool ’s Leslie Uggams) who’s more versed in the supernatural, she learns that Anansi and the mermaid-like water spirit Mami Wata are trying to communicate something to her. Aisha is fluent in multiple languages, and teaching them to Rose is part of her job. But whatever these mythical figures are trying to tell her is a mystery.

Hallucinations and time loss tied up in guilt and/or trauma is standard territory for people freaking out in arthouse movies. By now, a year without one or two cinematic descendants of The Babadook would feel incomplete. But Nanny stands apart for its imagery, realized with uncommon skill and grown out of folkloric roots far removed from other films’ standard-issue terrors of shadowy entities pounding on the wall. While Aisha’s visions unsettle her, and are meant to unsettle viewers by association, they’re subdued and gorgeous in the way they bathe her in ethereal light. There’s a sense that the visions might not be so unsettling after all, if she could only figure out what they mean.

Where another film might have focused exclusively on Aisha’s pain and mental unraveling, Jusu takes care to show her protagonist trying to live her life and wrest back some control. She vents to a friend about Lamine’s absent father, and strikes up a romance with the building’s hunky doorman (Sinqua Walls), who has a child of his own. She speaks up for herself when her employers neglect to pay her and unpaid overtime begins to pile up. Amy’s husband, Adam (Morgan Spector), says he’ll “advance” Aisha the payment, and she quietly but firmly corrects him: It’s not an advance if it’s what she’s already owed.

Jusu excels at highlighting the uncomfortable power dynamics at work, allowing Aisha’s relationship with her employers to be tense and complex rather than teetering into overtly sinister territory. There’s no malice in the way they treat Aisha, but her discomfort at the liberties they take and the bounds they overstep is always palpable. Amy lends Aisha a dress at one point, insistent that it suits her skin, even as Aisha remarks that it’s a bit tight. Adam’s photography adorns the apartment in big, blown-up prints, and he’s eager to talk with Aisha about the subjects of his art and his fame: Black poverty and strife. These interactions superficially recall the awkward “meet the family” moments of Jordan Peele’s Get Out , but the truth of them is cleverly mundane: Her employers feel so comfortably above her that they don’t have to consider her interiority at all.

This dynamic is so well executed, in fact, that it’s curious that Jusu even bothered to dabble in horror, given how much less effective it is than the drama. Aisha’s creepy visions are the weakest part of the film, building to an abrupt end while raising a recurring question: Will an audience only sit still to watch the social perils of a Senegalese immigrant if they’re promised a few stretches of fearful apartment-wandering in between?

Horror becomes a storytelling crutch when it’s used this way, as though it’s the only way to purge the typical happily-ever-after expectations of a more conventional film. The Oscar-bait version of Nanny is as easy to picture as the scary one suggested by the poster, perhaps retaining Diop’s nuanced lead performance, but smothering it in weepy speeches and a theme of virtue rewarded, where hard work pays off and the mean characters either see the error of their ways or get what’s coming to them. Horror may truly be the only storytelling mode that reliably primes the audience for this pessimistic version of the story, but Jusu’s otherwise impressive work suffers when she divides its focus and hides its clearest ideas under genre distractions.

Nanny debuts in theaters on Nov. 23 and will stream on Prime Video on Dec. 16.

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Nanny – Movie Review [Prime Video] (4/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Nov 23, 2022 | 3 minutes

NANNY on Prime Video is a movie described as a “psychological horror fable of displacement” which is spot-on. This one will haunt you – just don’t expect a classic horror movie. Read our full Nanny movie review here!

NANNY is a new Prime Video movie produced by Blumhouse. It’s labeled as both a drama and a horror movie, which is correct. The first hour or so is much more drama. However, the horrors shown in this movie do hit harder due to the character-driven story.

The ending is both heartbreaking  and  uplifting, which ensures that it stays with its viewer for quite some time. The story in this movie is called a “psychological horror fable of displacement” which is a perfect description.

However, just don’t expect a classic horror movie with jump scares and wild supernatural elements. If you do, this might be a disappointing watch, which would be a shame, since it’s a really strong movie!

Continue reading our Nanny movie review below. Find it in select theaters from November 23 – and on Prime Video from December 16, 2022.

Anna Diop is amazing in the lead

The story in Nanny  is very much character-driven, which in turn means the casting is even more important. Fortunately, Anna Diop ( Us , Titans ) is amazing as Aisha. Anna Diop is a Senegalese-American woman, who was born in Senegal, just as the character Aisha was.

MORE WITH ANNA DIOP Check out the horror fantasy The Keeping Hours starring Lee Pace and Carrie Coon >

Michelle Monaghan ( Echoes ) co-stars in a key role with less screen time, but much impact. She’s the mother of the child Aisha (Anna Diop) becomes the nanny of. The child, Rose, is portrayed by Rose Decker who you might recognize from Mare of Easttown . She’ll also be in the next season of Servant .

Other key characters are portrayed by actors such as Morgan Spector ( The Mist series ), Sinqua Walls ( Teen Wolf ), and the fierce Leslie Uggams ( Roots, Deadpool ).

Based on many true stories

In large part, the life experiences of the main character, Aisha, are inspired by the mother of the film’s writer and director. This is not about her in particular but inspired by the experiences she had.

Domestic labor comes in many forms and being a nanny is one of them. In that sense,  Nanny is just one woman’s story, but I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of these stories. They are important beyond anything I can articulate here.

Their importance comes from the simple fact that those who are privileged enough to not have these experiences, need to acknowledge them!

Watch  Nanny in select theaters now or on Prime Video soon!

Nikyatu Jusu is the writer and director of Nanny which is an amazingly strong feature film. This is her feature film debut, but Nikyatu Jusu has already made several short films – including a segment of Two Sentence Horror Stories .

She made the season 2 episode “Only Child” , which I commented on as “a horror story more than a comment on society”. This time, it’s more of a balance and it’s very efficient!

Jason Blum is a producer of the movie via Blumhouse, which should tell you that this has more edge than what you might expect from the plot. With a runtime of 1 hour and 38 minutes, you’ll be experiencing a few months in the life of one woman. But she represents millions.

NANNY is out in select theaters on November 23, and then globally on Prime Video on December 16, 2022.

Director: Nikyatu Jusu Writer: Nikyatu Jusu Cast: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector, Rose Decker, Leslie Uggams

In this psychological horror fable of displacement, Aisha (Anna Diop), a woman who recently emigrated from Senegal, is hired to care for the daughter of an affluent couple (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) living in New York City. Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind, Aisha hopes her new job will afford her the chance to bring him to the U.S., but becomes increasingly unsettled by the family’s volatile home life. As his arrival approaches, a violent presence begins to invade both her dreams and her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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One of Jack Nicholson’s Grimmest Thrillers Is a Beauty to Watch

This movie is the closest we ever got to seeing clint eastwood as james bond, everything that went wrong during the cursed production of kevin costner's 'the postman'.

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Nanny.

The greatest horror in the stunning feature debut that is Nanny comes in its final minutes, but it all also depends on how everything before it builds to these moments just as much. A feature debut from writer-director Nikyatu Jusu , it tells the story of a woman named Aisha ( Anna Diop ) who has emigrated from Senegal to America and discovers that the chance at a better life she is working hard for may forever be out of reach to those like her who weren’t already born with their hand on the top rung. It is a work that is understated in its construction, relying on limited locations and settings, that expands outward into a conclusion that hits like a train. Upon first seeing it when it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival , it immediately stuck out in my memory for how utterly devastating it all was. While unexpected, a second watch reveals there is no other way it could have gone and ensures the whole film is emotionally shattering as it carries out a grimly inevitable march to tragedy.

Myths at the Core of Nanny

The film would go on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the festival, a well-deserved recognition for all it managed to achieve in blending genre and tone to expose the exploitation inherent to our world. It would subsequently get picked up by Blumhouse for a theatrical release starting this week before its streaming release on Amazon Prime in December. While many exciting releases come out of festivals, this one in particular is noteworthy as it is one of those films that sneaks up on you the more you think about it. It is elusive and eerie without overplaying its hand, drawing you deeper into its depths. At its core, it's a story about myths. In this case, myths refer to both those we tell ourselves about the way the world is supposed to work and those that go deeper into foretelling how unimaginable tragedy can take hold of our lives when we least expect it too. This is crystallized in an ending that, for all the striking imagery that was seen throughout the film, leaves the most lasting mark in its final moments.

RELATED: ‘Nanny’ Review: Nikyatu Jusu’s Devastating Debut Uncovers the Horrors of the American Dream

After spending nearly all the film attempting to make enough money to bring her son Lamine ( Jahleel Kamara ) to America to stay with her, Aisha is right on the cusp of finally doing it. The story was centered around how she had to deal with the casual cruelty of Amy ( Michelle Monaghan ) and Adam ( Morgan Spector ) who frequently wouldn’t pay her what she was owed. This would prolong how long she had to work for them and delay when it was possible for her to get Lamine the plane tickets. However, after they finally came through on what they had failed to pay her for an egregious amount of time, she had managed to make enough to get the child she hadn’t seen for quite a while yet was doing everything for a ticket to fly there. The triumph of this moment was tempered with a growing sense of dread that something was wrong. When Aisha called to confirm the tickets were bought and everything was good to go, her cousin Mariatou ( Olamide Candide-Johnson ) who had been looking after Lamine while she was away seemed to be just about to tell her something before saying it was nothing. As it turns out, something was more wrong than we could have ever imagined.

When Aisha arrives at the airport, she eagerly awaits their arrival with her caring boyfriend Malik ( Sinqua Walls ) by her side though both can’t see Lamine or Mariatou. She goes to the front desk to ask for information though they are unable to provide her any. Aisha then steps outside to call Mariatou and hears the echo of her phone ringing nearby. She turns, already looking concerned, and begins to walk toward the sound. She sees her cousin there alone and desperately asks her where Lamine is. Through tears, Mariatou tells her that he drowned at the beach and that she came here alone. We get a painfully fleeing glimpse of Aisha bathing Lamine when he was a baby before she collapses in grief. After spending all this time raising the child of callous people who couldn’t care any less about her, her own son had died while she was waiting for them to finally pay her what she had owed. All the moments where she was being haunted by an otherworldly mermaid-like being, known as the Mami Watu, then begin to make sense. The being’s arrival, while occasionally menacing in how it was portrayed, actually served as a warning of doom and less its bringer as we then see it bring Aisha back up to the surface in one of the final sequences when she was about to drown herself.

The Horrors of Seeking the American Dream in Nanny

All the times that she heard screams, she was hearing Lamine in trouble. However, she was a world away and she was unable to do anything about it even as the Mami Watu was trying to bring them together across time and space. The ending is an unflinchingly bleak one as it sees how domestic workers like Aisha are made to give so much of themselves to care for others at their own labor and expense. She, like far too many, was prevented by circumstance from being with her own child yet was expected to work tirelessly in looking after another. It was not her fault by any means as the conditions of the world that she was forced to navigate ensured that she was prevented from being elsewhere. The myth that you can come to America and thrive is torn to pieces as we see how those like Aisha have the deck stacked against them at every turn. She will have a chance to rebuild a life, but it will always be in the shadow of her lost son that was taken from her by the dark forces of our own world more than any other. For all the brief glimpses we get of joy in her future, there is no escaping this truth.

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‘Nanny’ Ending, Explained: Amazon Prime’s Horror Movie Ends In Tragedy

Where to stream:.

• Nanny (2022)
• Ending Explained

‘A Family Affair’ Ending Explained: Director Richard LaGravenese Breaks Down That Fun Plot Twist

'the bear' season 3 ending explained: does carmy and sydney's restaurant survive, 'dark matter' ending explained: what happens to jason, daniela, and charlie, 'house of the dragon' season 2 episode 2 ending explained: which twin killed the other how to tell ser arryk and ser erryk cargyll apart.

Nanny , a new 2022 movie now streaming on Prime Video , combines the real-life horror of the American immigrant experience with supernatural horror. After all, what could be more horrifying than the realization that the American Dream will never be a reality?

Written and directed by Nikyatu Jusu in her feature directorial debut, Nanny was a critical hit when it first premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January. Critics particularly praised the performance of Senegalese-American actor Anna Diop in the lead role, even if not everyone was fully on board with the film’s surreal, dreamy plot.

Cinephiles have been hearing about the film since Sundance 2022, and now finally have a chance to watch Nanny on Prime Video. If you got lost or confused along the way, don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a thorough breakdown of the Nanny movie plot and the Nanny movie ending explained.

Nanny movie plot explained:

Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese immigrant who is hired to work as a nanny for a wealthy couple on New York’s Upper East Side, to look after their daughter, Rose. Aisha’s own son, Lamine, is still in Senegal under the care of her cousin, Mariatou. Aisha is trying to save up money to buy a plane ticket for both her son and her cousin to come to New York.

The nanny job starts off OK. But then Rose’s mother Amy (Michelle Monaghan) starts coming home later and later. Amy also starts “forgetting” to pay Aisha what she is owed, and does not keep the fridge stocked with food. As a result, Aisha starts feeding Rose Senegalese food, which Rose seems to like. Rose’s father Adam (Morgan Spector) is more reliable in paying Aisha, but he is reluctant to be in charge of the money. Also, he tries to kiss Aisha, which is pretty gross of him.

The late hours mean it’s hard for Aisha to FaceTime with her son, especially once her cousin starts dodging her calls. But it’s not all bad. Through the job, Aisha meets and begins dating the handsome front desk security guard, Malik (Sinqua Walls). Aisha meets Malik’s grandmother, who tells Aisha about Mami Wati, an African mermaid spirit that “lures sexuality, money, and promises of fertility.” Aisha thinks that she saw Mami Wata in the Hudson River. It’s just one of many strange, upsetting visions that Aisha begins to have.

After reading Rose a book about Anansi the Spider, Aisha has nightmares about spiders crawling into her mouth and up the walls. She also has a recurring nightmare that she is drowning and suffocating in the guest bedroom, which is where Amy asks her to sleep for “overnights.” That might partially be explained by the growing mold on the guest room walls— black mold can cause brain fog, confusion, and even hallucinations.

After an incident in which Aisha blacks out in a public pool and sees a vision of a mermaid, she consults Malik’s grandmother. Grandma tells Aisha that both Anansi and Mami Wata are “figures of survival and resistance for oppressed people. They challenge the dominant order through chaos.” Aisha wonders what these spirits want her to do, and Grandma replies that Aisha ought to be asking what the spirits can do for her.

Amy asks Aisha to do yet another overnight, and Aisha agrees, on the condition that Amy pays her double. That night, Aisha has a terrifying hallucinatory episode that results in her holding a knife over Rose in the bathtub. Rose is unharmed, and the child tells Aisha that it was Lamine who made Aisha behave that way. “He’s jealous,” Rose says. “Anansi told me.”

Nanny movie ending explained:

After the overnight, Aisha finally has enough money to buy a plane ticket for Lamine and her cousin, Mariatou. She eagerly waits at the airport gate, ready to greet her son… but he never appears. After searching the airport, she calls Mariatou’s cell, and finds her outside, alone, waiting for a cab. Aisha confronts her cousin and demands to know where Lamine is. Mariatou confesses that Lamine drowned in the ocean. She hadn’t known how to break the news to Aisha.

Devastated, Aisha goes back to the spot on the Hudson River where she saw Mami Wata earlier. Wearing a backpack full of material to weigh her down, Aisha steps off the dock and attempts to take her own life via drowning, the same way her son died. (This also parallels the many nightmares she had about drowning.) As she sinks to the bottom of the river, Aisha sees a vision of her son floating on the surface. She tries to swim up to him and is then hoisted up by Mami Wata to the surface. When she comes to, she is on the dock, surrounded by EMT rescue workers, Malik, and Malik’s grandmother. The grandmother tells the EMT workers to be careful because Aisha is pregnant.

In a series of quick images, we see Aisha pregnant with Malik’s child, the newborn baby, and Aisha laughing with Malik and their family. In the final shot of the movie, Aisha is curled up on her side in the bathtub, in the fetal position like an unborn child. The implication here is that Aisha is able to build a new life in the U.S. with her new family, but will always be haunted by the ghost of her son Lamine.

As for whether the spirits of Anansi and Mami Wata were really haunting Aisha, or whether it was all in her head—that’s up to the audience to decide. In the end, Nanny is less of a horror movie and more of a quiet drama with horror elements. Kind of like the real-life immigrant experience.

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A Quiet Place: Day One First Reviews: A Tense, Surprisingly Tender Thriller Anchored by Fantastic Performances

Critics say michael sarnoski's horror prequel isn't quite as terrifying as its predecessors, but it makes up for it with stellar character work from lupita nyong'o and joseph quinn, as well as a scene-stealing cat..

TAGGED AS: Horror , movies

Did we need a prequel/spinoff of A Quiet Place following all new characters through the silence-focused alien-invasion apocalypse? Well, you could just as easily ask whether or not we need any original movies in the first place. Fortunately, according to the first reviews of A Quiet Place: Day One , the third installment of the franchise justifies its existence with a thrilling trip through a decimated Manhattan. It may not be as scary as the first two movies, but for some, that’s not a bad thing. It also may not be as epic as expected for this kind of film. But critics mostly agree that it works as another character drama from Pig writer-director Michael Sarnoski and particularly thanks to the performances by leads Lupita Nyong’o , Joseph Quinn , and a cat named Frodo.

Here’s what critics are saying about A Quiet Place: Day One:

Is this a worthy addition to the franchise?

A Quiet Place: Day One is another excellent installment in the franchise, delivering the tense set pieces you’d expect, but also with an emotional core that you might not. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

This is a prequel done right and a real pleasant surprise. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

This prequel resonates more deeply and thoughtfully than its predecessor – and far more than the third installment of a franchise has any right to. — Aisha Harris, NPR

It is my favorite movie of the three so far. I found it breathtaking. — Rachel Leishman, The Mary Sue

Fans of the first A Quiet Place who are expecting another breathlessly tense sci-fi horror film, are likely to be disappointed by a blockbuster as reflective and, well, quiet as this. Day One bucks the expectations for what a Quiet Place movie, and really a blockbuster film, should be, and instead delivers something much more moving and poignant. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

It’s not often we get a post-apocalyptic saga that remains so personal, so in touch with human loss as something not just forgotten in the next jump scare but given room to linger, an aspect that survives the shift away from parents protecting their children. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

A Quiet Place: Day One can’t boast the freshness of concept of the first film, but, in pure emotional payoff, it’s the most satisfying of the series. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)

What makes it stand on its own?

A Quiet Place: Day One transforms into a truly singular blockbuster movie that sheds the immersive spectacle of the first movie in favor of something more tender and wistful. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While John Krasinski’s two previous Quiet Place films were family affairs, Sarnoski’s entry into the series is more interested in found family. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Sarnoski has done a laudable job, cooking up a spinoff that adheres to the rules of the first two movies by staying focused on the smallest group possible of core characters while spreading the fear factor and suspense across a much larger canvas. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

It’s more of a footnote than a bold new chapter in the series, but this prequel’s relative smallness has its advantages. — Tim Grierson, Screen International

A Quiet Place: Day One feels more like an ambitious indie than a summer studio movie, and its downbeat tone leaves an unexpectedly glum comedown. — Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

(Photo by Gareth Gatrell/©Paramount Pictures)

Is it still scary?

The less we see of the aliens, the better, and Sarnoski leans heavily on the abject fear his characters (and audience) feel once someone makes just a hair too much noise, knowing exactly what’s coming next. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

It avoids the trap of over-explaining anything, making the terror here arguably even more primal than the previous films. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

What the film does well though is deliver a precisely balanced combination of jump scares, intense situations and confrontations with truly horrible creatures. It’s an effectively scary story, and it’s through the silence of the audience that you can measure this film’s success. — John Kirk, Original Cin

It’s not scary anymore, but it’s stressful in the way that makes you dig your nails into your palm. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

In an attempt to build moments of tension and induce scares, the pressure cooker feeling of the deafening silence being broken feels as if it isn’t stretched to its possible limit. That being said, for someone whose second feature is a bonanza of horror-action set pieces, Sarnoski does a sound job. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Sarnoski doesn’t have quite the same handle on the kind of immersive action that Krasinski displayed in the first two Quiet Place movies, and it shows: the jumpscares are mostly by-the-book, and the film’s most tense moments are nothing we haven’t seen in horror before. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While it’s designed to be the Aliens to the Alien of the other films, this one doesn’t thrill quite as much as it intends to. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

Call me macabre, but I expected to see a lot more carnage than Sarnoski’s dismayingly sappy spinoff provides. — Peter Debruge, Variety

How is the change of scenery?

Seeing New York swarming with vicious monsters — scrambling over buildings and leaving giant gashes in their walls, while the streets are lined with burning car wrecks and destroyed storefronts — makes a big impression…production designer Simon Bowles and DP Pat Scola take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by New York. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

The bustle of the city is terrifying because every single noise could end up taking someone from the “city of dreams.” Still, director and writer Michael Sarnoski didn’t ruin what makes this city special. It still feels warm and busy and full of life as people are dying constantly around Eric and Sam. — Rachel Leishman, The Mary Sue

It evokes some of the iconography from 9/11. This isn’t uncharted ground — War of the Worlds and Cloverfield have this pretty well covered… but it’s a rich vein for a good filmmaker to tap into. And Sarnoski does this in ways that feel earned, not exploitative. — Patrick Cremona, Radio Times

As far as the action goes, there are times where Sarnoski uses the distinctive geography of New York City well – most notably a killer sequence that sees our protagonists chased into the subway system. — Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly

There’s nothing to these set pieces we haven’t seen in the previous two movies, meaning it can feel overly familiar at times, but they’re so precisely honed that you’ll find yourself holding your breath all the same. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

What about Michael Sarnoski as director?

Michael Sarnoski was the perfect fit for this movie. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Michael Sarnoski blew me away with Pig and here, he manages to show that he potentially can do just about anything. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

The filmmaker manages to bring much of his sensibility and overall texture to the series… Much of it is thanks to Sarnoski’s ability to pull deep emotionality out of his stars and audience almost immediately. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Sarnoski is working on an auteur wavelength. He often lets the momentum stagnate just enough so the viewer can truly take in the staggering annihilation of a city now in ruins, full of death, and inherent quiet beauty. — Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist

Sarnoski’s strengths as a filmmaker play better into the film’s more intimate moments compared to the larger action-oriented spectacle. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

How ist Lupita Nyong’o’s performance?

Nyong’o carries the movie on very capable shoulders. Never under-selling the crippling terror that rules Samira’s every move, the actor conveys the conflict between the character’s bitterness and her humanity, remaining tenacious and decisive even when her body starts seriously failing her. She keeps you glued throughout. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Nyong’o commands the screen, every emotion conveyed by her facial expressions. Samira’s development across the movie might be conventional – stoic loner to trusting friend – but Nyong’o makes it feel fresh and earned. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Nyong’o’s work in Jordan Peele’s doppelganger horror Us felt leagues apart from anything we could casually term “scream queen.” She returns to that same territory here, concentrating all the primal terror of a scream into a single tear rolling down her cheek. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

A Quiet Place: Day One may feasibly do what Jordan Peele’s Us so unfairly didn’t, and if it does carry her through to awards season, it will finally prove that the old saw about genre movies and the Academy is finally a thing of the past. — Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Not once does it get old watching Nyong’o dive into her bag of tricks, especially for horror films. Nyong’o continues to elicit some of the most fear-induced expressions (while flexing that one tear-drop magic), giving audiences an unlikely lead that leaves a mark. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Quite simply: Nyong’o elevates the franchise. — Aisha Harris, NPR

And Joseph Quinn?

Quinn is enormously moving. — Caryn James, BBC.com

Joseph Quinn [is] wonderfully vulnerable. — Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

The British actor manages the feat of delivering an overstated performance that still somehow feels understated… With some actors, an overly emotional performance inspires eye rolls. Quinn makes you want to give him a hug. — William Mullally, The National

He delivers a far more sweet-natured performance than the emboldened personality that everyone came to know him from in Stranger Things . — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

He shows the benefits of casting a face we don’t already know from a string of movies. His sensitivity is so acute, and his big brown eyes so brimming with feeling that Eric’s resourcefulness and steadily summoned bravery almost catch us off guard. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

What about the two of them together?

The actors’ chemistry yields deeply affecting impact in their tender final scenes, rendered more powerful by their wordlessness. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Samira and Eric’s friendship also brings a deeper emotional aspect compared to the previous two movies. If you thought Lee singing “I love you” to Regan in the first movie was a lot, wait until you get to a beautiful sequence in a bar between Samira and Eric. You’ll cry over pizza. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Nyong’o and Quinn have a good sense of camaraderie, with them realistically heroic as the film goes on, and willing to sacrifice their well-being for the other. — Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Any other standouts?

The other star is Frodo, a screen cat for the ages to rank with Ulysses from Inside Llewyn Davis or Jonesy from Alien , played by two chonky black-and-white felines named Nico and Schnitzel. He has the gentle nature and cuddliness of a service cat but also the badass curiosity to explore precarious situations and feed his humans’ anxieties. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

The film’s best character [is] a pet cat who is the best on-screen feline since Ulysses in 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis . — William Mullally, The National

Nyong’o and Quinn are superb, but they can’t compete with an adorable cat who clearly does not give a damn that he’s in an apocalypse. — Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

It has one of the greatest pets ever in a film. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Will it leave us wanting more Quiet Place movies?

If this is how the franchise is going to be treated going forward, I think there’s potential to continue on with more installments. Either way, the trilogy we have now is among the better ones in recent memory. — Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

It has to be said that A Quiet Place has turned out to be a franchise with better legs than any of us thought, thanks to the smart people behind it and the top-notch talent on the screen. While it’s the least of the series, it’s still quite good, and it feels like a franchise that could sustain another movie or two. — Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

While this is a solid entry in this franchise, the whole appeal of A Quiet Place (which sometimes can be quite gimmicky) and its implementation of silence feels like it will run its course sooner rather than later. — Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

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Jon stewart, cnn panelists react to trump-biden debate: “this cannot be real life”.

The 'Daily Show' host gives his take on the first Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump presidential debate of 2024, while CNN panelists suggest Biden should step down after "painful" performance.

By James Hibberd

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Jon Stewart and CNN panelists reacted to that very dramatic — and disturbing — debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Thursday night.

On a live edition of The Daily Show , host Stewart roasted the performances of both candidates, and seemed massively frustrated. Stewart was particularly concerned by Biden’s performance, with the president seeming pale, fragile and shaky onstage during CNN’s 90-minute telecast.

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But perhaps the most impactful moment wasn’t anything Stewart said. The host played a clip of Biden seemingly blanking out and losing his train of thought about 10 minutes into the debate. Stewart’s audience went quiet and gave some pained moans.

“Call the real estate agent in New Zealand,” Stewart quipped. “Sure, [Biden’s lapse is] not something that repeated throughout the debate causing Democrats across the country to either jump out of windows or vomit silently into the nearest recycling bin. Anybody can fuck up … talking. A lot of people have resting 25th Amendment face.”

CNN’s panel after the debate was scathing about Biden’s performance (video below), with CNN anchor John King declaring, “This was a game-changing debate. Right now, as we speak, there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party. It involves party strategists, involves elected officials. It involves fundraisers, and they’re having conversations about the president’s performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party on the ticket, and they’re having conversations about what they should do about it.” King added that in all his years covering debates, he’s never received the sort of panicked and distressed text messages that he did tonight.

Political analyst Van Jones looked very grave and added: “I love Joe Biden. I worked for Joe Biden. He didn’t do well … I just want to speak from my heart. I love that guy. He’s a good man. He loves this country. He’s doing the best he can. But he had a chance to restore confidence of the country and the base, and he failed to do that. And I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now. We’re still far from our convention. And there is time for this party to figure out a different way for people to do that. It was personally painful for a lot of people. “

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A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual pro... Read all A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide. A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide.

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• Trivia The film tells three separate stories with the cast playing different characters in each. But in an interview with We Need to Talk About Oscar, the editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis said, there's one actor plays the same character in all three stories who connects them in a strange way.

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Hugh Grant Gets Creepy and Traps Two Young Mormon Missionaries in A24’s ‘Heretic’ Trailer

By Lexi Carson

Lexi Carson

• ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’s’ Breakout Star Is Frodo the Cat: Why Two Kitties Were Better Than One CGI Feline 2 days ago
• Lupita Nyong’o on Cementing Her Scream Queen Status with ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ and the Advice She Gave Joseph Quinn About Joining the MCU 2 days ago
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Don’t take your faith for Granted. A24 has released the first trailer for its latest horror film “ Heretic ,” which stars Hugh Grant as a man who is visited by two young Mormon missionaries ( Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher ) who he then puts through an intense series of psychological games.

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Production on “Heretic” took place last fall in Vancouver during the SAG-AFTRA strike, with a guild-approved interim agreement. The cast also includes Elle McKinnon, River Codack, Carolyn Adair, Stephanie Lavigne and Elle Young. Along with Beck and Woods, producers include Katie Aquino, Scott Beck, Liliane Bedford, Julia Glausi, Kai Raka, Stacey Sher and Jeanette Volturno.

Grant’s made a habit out of playing villains in recent years, playing schemers in films like “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” “The Gentlemen” and “Paddington 2.” But he hasn’t led a horror film since his late-20s, when he starred in Ken Russell’s 1988 pagan barnburner “The Lair of the White Worm.”

Meanwhile, East is best known for her role in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” and Thatcher is a main actor on Showtime’s “Yellowjackets.”

Watch the trailer for “Heretic” below.

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For finding the un-googleable things that are on the tip of your tongue... That word... The name of that song... That movie...

[TOMT] [MOVIE] Animated movie (2008) similar to Mary Poppins but with elderly grandma nanny

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to find the name of an animated movie I watched around 2008. It was a lot like Mary Poppins, but the main character was an elderly grandma who looked a bit like Granny from the Tweety Bird cartoons. She had an umbrella and was a bit wobbly, acting as a nanny/babysitter for two kids (a boy and a girl). I remember her protecting them from some evil people (maybe men or some dark force) and using her umbrella to defend them, even flying with it.

The animation style was 2D and reminded me of movies like Rock-A-Doodle and The Land Before Time, but the story was completely different. It's a weird, oddly specific memory, but it's been bugging me for years.

This is actually the second time I'm posting about this movie, as I've been searching for its name since 2008. If you have any ideas or clues, please don't hesitate to share, finding this movie would mean the world to me!