Baby Bump (2016) - Kuba Czekaj

​Kuba Czekaj's Baby Bump is an ultra-stylish, surrealistic coming of age story focusing specifically on sexual identity.  Told through the lens of 11-year-old Mickey House, a young boy who is befuddled by the recent changes his body is experiencing, Baby Bump is a blend of Walt Disney and the work of David Lynch, a singular vision of adolescence and puberty that is as befuddling at times as it is transfixing.  Mickey House is a character struggling to understand exactly who he is and what he is becoming, a loner character whose only guidance, and I use the term loosely, comes from a single-mother who routinely does sexually-driven cam shows as a way to pay the bills.  At school, Mickey is an absolute loner, though he is left alone more so than not due to his successful business - one in which he sells clean urine to his classmates so they can pass drug tests.  Subtlety isnt exactly Baby Bump's strong suit, as right from the get-go the film does a lot to establish Mickey House's seclusion and wandering mind.   The root of Mickey's confusion is his mother, a character who makes her living based off of her feminine figure and attractiveness, someone who nearly every male character in the film finds attractive.  The film takes on a borderline Oedipus complex at times, but it's merely another example of Mickey's confusion over his body and his sexuality, as he struggles to understand the pubescent feelings and bodily experiences he is going through.  Intentional or not, I'd argue the film captures the importance of the nuclear family, or at least a strong male presence in the life of every child, as Mickey's confusion is driven mainly by his disdain for those who pursue his mother (the school security officer, his older classmates who reference how hot his mother is), as the young boy even has borderline masochistic visions about detaching his own sexual organ, due primarily to him viewing it as something unnatural, monstrous even.  Baby Bump is bombastic with style and while the film delivers rather consistent outrageous and perversive comedy, it does have a negative impact on the film's overall pacing, being too stylish for its own good at times in a way that makes the film feel uneven and sporadic. Though the surrealist nightmares that blur the line between reality and fantasy are certainly bound to be the most memorable,  the use of split screen throughout Baby Bump is one of the film's more nuanced decisions that stood out to me. While one could argue the split screen was merely used as a way to capture the actions of Mickey and his mother simultaneously, I'd argue it's a decision that is more than just rooted in economical filmmaking, as the split screen serves as an effective tool, especially early on, at capturing the disconnect between mother and son.  A film that is sure to frustrate some viewers due to its bizarre, expressive surrealistic style, Kuba Czekaj's Baby Bump is a singular vision of the overdone coming-of-age narrative archetype, being a transfixing study of the importance of being comfortable in ones' own skin. 

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