Baby Ruby

Nobody tells you that all babies are not created equal. Some will literally suck the life out of you when you already don't have much life to give. A baby that incessantly cries is not the same as one that sleeps and smiles and coos.

That is what this movie is about. The underlying questioning of yourself and your abilities. The feeling that you are losing yourself, your sanity and that nothing is going to be the same again. That everyone else has it together while you are drowning.

This movie was so triggering because it captured every one of those feelings. It was hard to watch for these reasons, but also a brilliant idea for a horror film...

I know this did not get great critic reviews and I imagine the majority of reviewers here will do the same because they all seem to be of one mind anyway...

I figured this would be the usual pseudo-deep indie bore-fest with long scenes of the protagonist staring into space along with carefully sculpted scenes of nature or an urban landscape, but surprisingly this was nothing like that.

There was a plot and a story to follow, with wit and humor in the direction if not so much in the script, and I was never bored for a second. I also appreciated the few fantastical touches as they were necessary for the journey, ours and the protagonist's. And the baby was adorable, so there's that..

Overall, very well done, and well acted.

If you're looking for narrative, cohesion, plot structure, etc. Look elsewhere. Also, if you have had major mental health issues, or breakdowns this is your trigger warning.

The movie reminds me of a long, confusing nightmare. In dreams there are rarely beginnings, middles or ends. This movie explores the mental challenges of having a child. I'm not a parent, but everyone's experience is different and has its own challenges. In this film, the baby crying (it starts quickly in the plot so it's not a spoiler) is, at least to me where the breakdown starts.

Overall it's like watching a nightmare. Part horror, part character study, part surrealist, but overall it doesn't really come together. Some parts are interesting overall it's not a pleasurable film going experience.

If you're about to have a child or thinking of it I would not watch this movie. 5/10.

I thought this sounded like an interesting concept, social media has baby and things go wrong is what I got from the synopsis.

The film kind of went how I expected but lacked or even included too many things for it to be a good film.

It lacked meat on the bones of the overall storytelling from her backstory to her life in general. It included too many different characters and themes without managing to nail any of them.

It has a fairly dark dreary look which can add to the tone of a film and its not something I dislike but its done in a fairly weak manner that it never really hits you with any impact.

When the focus here is on the lead actress you really need a great lead and Noémie Merlant never pulls it off. The melancholic feels are all there but everything else is just placid. The rest of the cast ( including Kit Harrington ) are bit players and often overlooked or put in a corner once their purpose has been served. Many of which serve little purpose that really get to you in an unnerving way as intended.

You could remove a few characters and give others more to do and Im sure the impact would have been greater. I don't know an awful lot about Post Natal Depression so its difficult to comment on the realism in how it was used. Overall though it ended up being a bit disjointed and withering to a pretty anticlimactic ending.

There are flickers of horror and an ever omnipresent haunting flow to the film but little else.

5/10.

A debut film from playwright Bess Wohl that focuses on a French lifestyle blogger named Jo, who experiences postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. After giving birth to her baby Ruby, Jo begins to feel that her newborn is hostile towards her and she is unable to shake the feeling. The film keeps a close first-person perspective, showing Jo's increasingly paranoid mindset through shock cuts and hallucinatory elements, leaving the audience to question what is real and what is not. The movie's intent is to address the struggles that many new mothers face, but the constant use of horror tropes like pot boiling on the stove and repetitive "did I just dream it or did it really happen" moments drain away the power from the underlying message.

The film's real bite comes from its cultural observation of entitled girl boss culture, the "pick me girl" turned new mom, and the private citizen acting like a celebrity/expert, but these elements are presented more as background noise rather than the main event. Ultimately, "Baby Ruby" falls short of fully exploring these important cultural issues and instead focuses on the horror and melodramatic elements of Jo's postpartum struggles.