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‘Nanny’ Review: An Immigrant Mother Separated From Her Child Fears the Worst

In this bold debut, writer-director Nikyatu Jusu conjures figures from West African folklore to critique another myth: the American Dream.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Aisha didn’t move to New York City to raise some other mother’s kids. She moved there with the intention of bringing her young son over from Senegal. In order to pay his way, however, Aisha must do as so many undocumented women have in the Big Apple: She must play mom to a stranger’s child, while a family member takes care of her own back home in Africa. In “ Nanny ,” debuting writer-director Nikyatu Jusu brings fresh eyes to this widely accepted dynamic, so rarely seen from the perspective of the immigrant worker herself.

Aisha is a strong and independent heroine, though it’s not easy to be assertive in a culture that expects subservience of outsiders. A confident first-time filmmaker who doesn’t shy away from the power of ambiguity and suggestion, Jusu draws on aspects of West African folklore, invoking such supernatural figures as Anansi the Spider, a tiny trickster who uses his cunning to outwit larger rivals, and Mami Wata, a seductive water spirit or mermaid with dark motives. Their presence turns Aisha’s pursuit of opportunity into a kind of nightmare, as these old-world myths clash with the one that lured her across the ocean — that chimera we call the American dream.

More psychological than scary, “Nanny” might still be described as a horror movie. It certainly sounds like one, as ominous noises creak and strain beneath otherwise innocuous scenes. The film benefits a great deal from the Dolby Institute Fellowship grant, which gives select Sundance indies (including “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Swiss Army Man” in previous years) a major post-production upgrade. Jusu’s uneasy-making sound design creates tension where the visuals alone might not, such that neither Aisha ( Anna Diop , best known for her role as Starfire on “Titans”) nor audiences can quite trust their eyes.

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We might ask ourselves: What is Aisha most afraid of? She’s terrified of never seeing her son, Lamine (Jahleel Kamara), again, of course. That much we sense in the frequent, fretful calls she makes back to Senegal, checking in with Aunty Mariatou (Olamide Candide-Johnson) to make sure her boy is all right. But she’s also nervous about losing herself in this new place, about what she’s becoming in an unfamiliar city where it so often feels as if Aisha is at the mercy of forces beyond her control — forces that might even be described as magic.

“Nanny” finds original ways to convey the pressures Aisha faces in adjusting to her new home. Because the character doesn’t speak much, her visions — like the sight of a spider crawling into her open mouth while she sleeps, or the run-in with a mermaid who tries to drag her under at the local swimming pool — serve as haunting projections of Aisha’s innermost fears. They startle the character but don’t have quite the same effect on viewers, who may marvel at Jusu’s capacity to conjure such vivid hallucinations, even as they struggle to interpret what they mean.

More intimidating in many ways is the white family for whom Aisha works: outwardly pleasant, yet strangely threatening. They hold the power — to employ, to pay, potentially even to deport. Working mother Amy (Michelle Monaghan) welcomes Aisha into her elegant Manhattan apartment, with its dapper Black doorman (Sinqua Walls) and curiously sterile design style, as if career woman Amy and her (absent) photojournalist husband (Morgan Spector) subscribe to the Victorian philosophy that children should be seen and not heard.

Amy does her best to appear warm and accepting of this foreigner who will be cooking and caring for young Rose (Rose Decker), a girl who, as described, sounds difficult and allergy-prone. Amy shows Aisha the room she’ll use for overnight stays. “Please, make this space yours,” she says before handing the new nanny a binder full of guidelines, and we can’t help anticipating how this caring yet controlling mother will react when Aisha inevitably misinterprets one of her decrees.

Jusu meticulously calibrates the interactions between her characters, revealing a nuanced understanding of race and class relations. No wonder Aisha imagines herself drowning on multiple occasions in the film: Her disillusionment with everything America represented for her is overwhelming. She’s entered a system designed to exploit her, where even her allies can turn out to be predators — especially those who identify as liberal (Jusu makes it a point to show that Amy and Adam have a diverse group of friends).

In framing the entire film from Aisha’s perspective, Jusu upends the formula of a familiar genre, one that traditionally plays on the anxiety any mother might understandably feel in entrusting a foreigner to care for their kids. What if Rose winds up preferring this substitute mom? What if the nanny goes rogue and endangers the child? Now imagine those same uncertainties through Aisha’s eyes. “Nanny” climaxes much as a movie like “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” might, with Aisha kneeling over Rose in the bathtub, a raised kitchen knife ready to stab the child — except that here, we’re seeing it from an entirely new point of view.

The twist that follows represents a kind of worst-case scenario for Aisha. For audiences, it may seem strangely unsurprising, even predictable, given the clues (too tidily resolved in the film’s pinned-on epilogue). But after 90 minutes of mounting dread and mirages, of begging to be paid what she’s owed from her supposedly woke employers, reality catches up with her, far worse than any monster.

Reviewed online, Jan. 16, 2022. In Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Narrative Competition). Running time: 98 MIN.

• Production: A Stay Gold Features, Topic Studios presentation, in association with Linlay Prods. of a Stay Gold Features production. (World sales: CAA, Los Angeles.) Producers: Nikkia Moulterie, Daniela Taplin Lundberg. Executive producers: Maria Zuckerman, Ryan Heller, Michael Bloom, Rebecca Cammarata, Nnamdi Asomucha, Bill Berenson, Laurie Benenson, Grace Lay, Sumalee Montano, Nikyatu Jusu. Co-producers: Ged Dickersin, Kim Coleman.
• Crew: Director, writer: Nikyatu Jusu. Camera: Rina Yang. Editor: Robert Mead. Music: Tanerélle, Bartek Gliniak.
• With: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector, Rose Decker, Leslie Uggams, Olamide Candide Johnson, Jahleel Kamara. (English, French, Wolof dialogue)

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Nanny Review and Ending Explained – Nikyatu Jusu’s Debut is Anchored by Good Visual Storytelling and a Strong Anna Diop

For a lot of people, the American dream is an idea that is as relevant now as it was almost one hundred years ago. Built on the concept of freedom and prosperity, this idea is what draws many people from other countries to America in hopes of a new life. However, for most of the people with this plan, upon arrival, they realize that the American dream isn’t quite what they might have expected, and in some cases, it is more of an American nightmare.

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Nanny review and plot summary, nanny is a great directorial debut by nikyatu jusu.

• Nanny Ending Explained - What Happens to Aisha?

This is the case for Aisha (Anna Diop) who left Senegal in hopes of a better life. She is trying to save up just enough money to be able to bring her son to America from Senegal and takes on a nanny job for a wealthy white couple, Amy (Michelle Monaghan) and Adam (Morgan Spector), to look after their daughter Rose (Rose Decker). Throughout the film, Aisha has visions that haunt her wherever she goes.

Clearly inspired by Ousmane Sembene’s masterpiece Black Girl , Aisha follows a similar path in this movie. She is an immigrant, which is something Adam embraces as he makes a living off black culture, more specifically photographing black activists — when he first is introduced to the film he mentions that he was in France covering a police brutality rally.

However, it is something that Amy clearly rejects: she tries to put Aisha in “high class” clothing, she scolds Aisha for feeding her daughter jollof rice, and she refuses to pay her what she is owed because she knows there isn’t much Aisha can do about it.

This is where Anna Diop, who is best known for her role as Starfire on HBO Max ‘s  Titans , truly excels. Aisha knows her worth and isn’t afraid to ask for it — she corrects Amy multiple times when it comes to the rate they discussed — and the confidence she has in herself and her situation shines through when Aisha needs it to.

However, the great part of Diop’s performance is displaying the toll that this life is taking on her as well. Aisha is a motherly figure to Rose, even more of a motherly figure than Amy is, but has to sacrifice being a mom to her own son Lamine, who is about to celebrate his seventh birthday.

Rose gets the cooking, the stories, and the playtime, and Lamine is stuck only to a few fleeting moments on the phone. This tears at Aisha, and seeing the longing that Diop gives this character allows you to understand where her confidence in difficult situations comes from.

In her feature directorial debut, Nikyatu Jusu, who also writes the script, is visually and symbolically potent. The visions Aisha has are disturbing, but they are a window into how she feels being in this situation, how she feels trapped in this world, constantly hoping for the best but ultimately drowning in it. It’s a true visual achievement that shows great promise for Jusu’s future as a writer/director.

As the end of this movie comes around, some choices are made, and not all of them work. Some of the same elements that excelled in the front half can become a bit repetitive, but where this story eventually goes does end on an emotional one. Aisha is having to live with the decision that she made that she ultimately thought was best, and the consequences that came from it.

Nikyata Jusu’s film debut, Nanny , is anchored by good visual storytelling and a strong Anna Diop. The American Dream is a beacon of hope for so many people, but as the beacon gets closer a true nightmare ensues.

Nanny Ending Explained – What Happens to Aisha?

Nanny (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)

Throughout the film, Aisha has many different visions which cause her to see things that aren’t really there. After one of these spells, Aisha almost kills Rose in the bathtub. Luckily, she is brought back right before, drops the knife, and takes Rose to bed.

Aisha apologizes to Rose, to which Rose tells her that her son Lamine caused her to do it out of jealousy. Aisha asks Rose why she would say that, and Rose turns over, not saying another word to her.

As we know throughout the film, Lamine, who is about to turn seven, is still living in Senegal and Aisha is trying to save up the money to be able to bring her son to America. She hasn’t seen her son in quite some time, but her maternal instincts never left her as she treats Rose in a motherly way, something that Lamine is missing out on.

She is personal with Rose, feeding her African dishes and telling her African folk stories, and her relationship with Lamine has devolved into phone calls and messages.

When she finally is paid the money she is owed for working overtime, she has enough to bring her son and her Aunt to America, but while waiting for them at the airport, neither of them steps off the plane.

After a few moments, Aisha calls her Aunt and finds her alone, without Lamine. Her Aunt goes on to tell Aisha how Lamine was at the beach and got trapped under the waves, eventually drowning.  Riddled with grief, the end of this movie finds Aisha on the docks at a river in New York right before she jumps in and starts to drown, only to be rescued right before death.

Water symbolism can be found all throughout this film. Whether it is Aisha drowning in her work or in her personal life, she is constantly gasping for air hoping to breathe. When she jumps in the water, it seems as though it is an attempt to drown herself and let the pain and pressure of everything that has happened to her fully engulf her, but it also could just be a way to feel what her son had to endure without her.

Over the course of the film, she spent time looking after someone else’s kid and not her own in hopes that one day she would be able to have her son back. As she is in the water she looks up and sees a vision of Lamine. A mermaid that has been seen throughout the film in a menacing light is now fully realized.

This mermaid was never trying to hurt Aisha, but instead was serving as a warning. In this sequence, the mermaid helps Aisha to the surface which raises the question of whether is she still warning Aisha or is she actually the menacing creature she seems to be and is guiding Aisha to further doom.

While she may still be alive, this is not a happy ending for her as even though she lives and now has a chance with Malik and his son, the presence of Lamine and the mother she couldn’t be for him will always hang over; this is the cost of the American dream.

How the hope one carries can be completely stripped away in an instant, and there is nothing one can do about it. She tried to be the best mom she could for Lamine, and even if she truly believed this was the best way for him to have a better life, the price she had to pay for this sliver of hope is what will ultimately cause her a lifetime of grief.

What did you think of Nanny (2022)? Comment below.

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Article by Jacob Throneberry

Jacob Throneberry joined Ready Steady Cut in February 2022 and is a member of the NC Film Critics and NA Film Critic Associations. Jacob is also a graduating student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington doing a Master’s Program in Film Studies. He has applied his main hobby to building a career, becoming a trusted film critic and writer.

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Review: Nikyatu Jusu’s ‘Nanny’ artfully centers an immigrant’s terror in a palpable nightmare

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In writer-director Nikyatu Jusu’s pungent, psychologically unnerving “Nanny,” the title describes a suffocating swirl of demanding job, racialized identity and terror trap for Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant and single mother trying to make a life for herself in New York.

Jusu’s fantastically self-assured debut feature , which garnered her a Sundance jury prize this year, refreshingly approaches horror more as a dramatic prism than a genre template. There’s no “The” in the title for a reason (aside from the fact that it’s not a cheesy caretaker-gone-bad date-night frightfest): In her elegantly unsettling portrait of an invisible woman straddling two notions of home — far from what she’s known, working inside a perilous system — Jusu is letting us know she’s got all diasporic women employed by wealthy families on her mind. And that their fears can easily become nightmares.

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It’s a vibe she establishes right away with her moody opening image: our protagonist’s peaceful slumber accompanied by water sounds, then a gathering dissonance, and finally, most disturbingly, a spider crawling into her mouth. When we get to waking reality, we meet Aisha on the morning she’s about to start a new job caring for the daughter of a privileged, busy white couple, Amy ( Michelle Monaghan ) and Adam (Morgan Spector), who live in a sleekly modern high-rise apartment and lead busy, distracted lives.

Nikyatu Jusu’s ‘Nanny’ contains a ‘hard lesson.’ She’s learned one about Hollywood too

Jusu spoke to The Times about her Sundance prizewinner, the kaleidoscopic nature of Blackness and executives paid ‘not to watch foreign cinema.’

Nov. 14, 2022

Aisha has a child too, a boy named Lamine, but he’s a continent away — for now only a figure on video chat, a source of hope and a reminder of her crushing loneliness as she establishes a quick bond with her charge, Rose (Rose Decker). The goal is to earn enough to bring Lamine to New York, if only the controlling, career-driven, and emotionally needy Amy — edgily played by Monaghan — could remember to pay Aisha on time, and what she’s owed. Adam is kinder, but his interactions with Aisha are no less awkward for seeming ulterior. On top of the stress of navigating her employers’ tension-filled domestic situation, however, Aisha finds her consciousness being invaded by dark forces who spark dreams of suffocation and drowning, or episodes of hallucinatory danger.

As intensive and worrisome as Aisha’s hauntings are — artfully handled with subtle visual shifts, sly edits and oozing audio cues — Jusu doesn’t present them as sensationalistic high points or showpieces of victimization. Their horror is in their seeming to just exist as part of the fabric of Aisha’s life alongside the microaggressions at her job and the off-work moments of peace and positivity when she can visit a fellow immigrant friend or start a budding romance (with Sinqua Walls’ appealing doorman Malik).

Aisha is the three-dimensional hero of Jusu’s narrative, after all, not its prey, which is where “Nanny” distinguishes itself in a trope-filled genre, never more so than when Malik’s keenly observant grandmother (Leslie Uggams) shows up — like a well-rooted tree bearing fruit for a weary traveler — to inform Aisha (and us) about these supernatural interlopers warping her reality: one a trickster, the other a water spirit, both figures from West African folklore who can zero in on inner turmoil. With that scene, we understand why “Nanny” feels so different from other movies centering trauma in the marginalized: The need to process Aisha’s anxiety is as much on this movie’s mind as giving her terrors cinematic power (through some top-notch sound design and Ian Takahashi’s evocative underwater cinematography).

With Diop’s anchoring portrayal intertwining buoyancy and ache, “Nanny” gets to stand out as a character study, one of brightness beset by malevolence, and perhaps strengthened by it. Though Jusu doesn’t quite stick the landing — there’s a wallop at the end that isn’t dealt with as emotionally as you might need it to be — it’s still a work of compassion and unease heralding a thoughtful, genre-probing talent.

'Nanny'

Rated: R, for some language and brief sexuality/nudity Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 23, Regal LA Live, downtown Los Angeles; available Dec. 16 on Prime Video

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‘Nanny’: The troubles of an immigrant caregiver are scary enough

Anna diop plays a senegalese nanny in the horror-adjacent drama by first-time writer-director nikyatu jusu.

Perhaps the scariest thing in “Nanny” is the opening credits, which warn viewers that the film comes from Blumhouse — the horror-centric production company that brought you “ The Invisible Man ,” as the film’s trailer touts. Yet while this atmospheric tale of a Senegalese immigrant working in New York as a nanny for the daughter of a well-to-do White couple may be horror-adjacent — there are nightmares, rendered as lifelike visions — it is not, strictly speaking, a spooky movie.

Correction: not in the way you might expect . The clueless privilege on display in the feature debut of writer-director Nikyatu Jusu — a Baltimore-based assistant professor of film at George Mason University, born to immigrants from Sierra Leone — can be pretty disturbing.

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Anna Diop plays Aisha, a former teacher now making do as a child-care provider for the young daughter (Rose Decker) of globe-trotting photojournalist Adam (Morgan Spector) and Amy (Michelle Monaghan), a micromanaging workaholic mom who intimidates Aisha with her three-ring binder full of rules. Aisha, a single mother, hopes to bring her own young son (Jahleel Kamara) over from Africa as soon as she can. In the meantime, Amy expects Aisha to spend more and more overnights in the spare bedroom, as late work and frequent travel consume the attention of her employers — when Adam isn’t hitting on Aisha. Amy, for her part, mostly forgets to pay Aisha what she is due. The obvious stress takes its toll on our protagonist, who experiences hallucination-like bad dreams (and the occasional waking vision) involving water and a spidery apparition.

These chimeras accelerate after Aisha is befriended by Malik (Sinqua Walls), the charming front desk attendant in Amy and Adam’s building, and he introduces her to his grandmother Kathleen (Leslie Uggams), a spiritual consultant who schools Aisha in the African folklore of the trickster figure Anansi the spider and Mami Wata (“mother water”).

For Jusu, they are more metaphorical — symbols of survival and resistance for oppressed people, as Kathleen tells Aisha — than paranormal phenomena. That’s not to say they aren’t creepy when they do pop up, and there are a couple of jump scares here and there. But the film, despite being mostly set in a huge, expensive apartment that inexplicably seems to be illuminated only by low-wattage lightbulbs, by and large resists the easy tropes of conventional horror.

Instead, Jusu focuses, with an assured storytelling that slowly builds a mood of real-world dread, on more corporeal concerns. Why is the apartment so dark? That’s not the question this promising filmmaker is interested in. Rather, she wants to ask, as Kathleen frames it in a challenge to Aisha, “Is your rage your superpower or your kryptonite?”

R. Opening Dec. 2 at area theaters; available Dec. 16 on Prime Video. Contains some strong language, brief sexuality and some scary images. In English and some French with subtitles. 98 minutes.

Nanny/Amazon

Review: ‘Nanny’ is an eerie and evocative horror debut from Nikyatu Jusu 

Winning the grand jury prize at sundance 2022, 'nanny' combines supernatural horror with a tense domestic thriller..

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Internet Culture

Posted on Nov 23, 2022   Updated on Nov 23, 2022, 7:21 am CST

Riffing on the vintage horror trope of a young woman moving into a spooky house with ominous, wealthy owners, Nanny is a distinctive feature debut from director Nikyatu Jusu. Anna Diop shines as Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese migrant in New York. Saving money to bring her young son to the U.S., she lands a childcare job with trendy Manhattanite couple Amy (Michelle Monaghan) and Adam (Morgan Spector).

At first, this seems like a pretty decent gig. Amy and Adam’s 5-year-old daughter Rose (Rose Decker) is a sweet kid. But tensions begin to mount between Aisha and her employers; an affluent white couple who seem friendly at first, but carelessly exert their power over the Black woman who looks after their child. At the same time, Aisha starts to have alarming visions and nightmares, slowly encroaching on her everyday life.

As the Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Sundance festival , Nanny arrives with a lot of hype. It also avoids the typical tone and structure we might expect from a Blumhouse-distributed horror thriller. Much of the film’s runtime is closer to a straightforward drama, with a colorful palette and luminous cinematography by Rina Yang. The supernatural elements are a slow burn, although that obviously isn’t a value judgment. Nanny is still very much a horror movie, and it’s promising to see mainstream distributors promote material that experiments with conventional formulas.

Nanny plays into a long tradition of horror-thrillers involving domestic workers and their employers. In recent years we’ve seen similar material in Good Manners (a Brazilian werewolf movie about a Black nanny employed by a white single mother), Dearest Sister (a Lao horror film about a rural girl who cares for her rich cousin), and obviously Parasite . These stories connect real-life sources of oppression with the terror of being trapped in a cursed or haunted place, guiding their protagonists toward a breaking point.

Interestingly though, Nanny ’s most obvious influence isn’t a genre film—it’s the Senegalese classic La noire de…/Black Girl . This 1966 drama focuses on a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to be a live-in nanny. Viciously exploited by her employers, her story illustrates colonialism within the domestic sphere. Nikyatu Jusu pays homage to this dynamic in the relationship between Aisha and Amy, although sometimes Nanny suffers in comparison to its predecessor, with certain conflicts seeming a little too obvious. A similar issue comes into play on the supernatural side of things.

For the most part, Aisha’s mysterious visions are pleasingly ambiguous, anchored by Anna Diop’s engaging and nuanced performance. Around halfway through, however, she meets a character who feels like a transplant from a much cornier kind of horror story: A psychic folklorist (Leslie Uggams) who straight-up explains the metaphorical underpinnings of Aisha’s experiences.

This kind of direct exposition doesn’t really fit the indie-drama tone we see elsewhere, creating a disconnect with the more realistic conflicts Aisha faces at work. But while some elements don’t entirely hold together, Nanny still marks a strong debut from Nikyatu Jusu, showcasing Anna Diop’s range and emotional power as a lead actor.

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw is a staff writer at the Daily Dot, covering geek culture and fandom. Specializing in sci-fi movies and superheroes, she also appears as a film and TV critic on BBC radio. Elsewhere, she co-hosts the pop culture podcast Overinvested. Follow her on Twitter: @Hello_Tailor

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Movie Reviews

'nanny' employs african folklore in a haunting black horror film.

Pilar Galvan

Anna Diop plays a Senegalese immigrant pursuing the American Dream in Nanny. Courtesy of Prime Video hide caption

Anna Diop plays a Senegalese immigrant pursuing the American Dream in Nanny.

There's something in the water in the new film Nanny . Over two unsettling hours, director Nikyatu Jusu submerges the audience in suffocating night terrors, blending glowing reflections of Black love with discomforting glances amongst kin. The film is an experience for the senses; you'll hold your breath as you're consumed.

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While recent films in the Black horror genre have presented the terrifying realities of being Black in America, Nanny is rooted in the specific experience of the African diaspora. Black horror films often subvert systems of oppression but they also often employ Western devices and narratives. In films like Master , Get Out and Candyman , the horror device is the predominantly white institution or neighborhood – which has implications on the Black character's sense of self and being. In Nanny, the white domestic space is the setting, but the tensions are manifested through African folklore.

Anna Diop stars as Aisha in Nanny. Courtesy of Prime Video hide caption

Anna Diop stars as Aisha in Nanny.

Maternal instinct and sacrifice

Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese immigrant pursuing the American Dream in an attempt to give her son Lamine (Jahleel Kamara), who is still in Senegal, a better life. When she is hired as a nanny for a wealthy white family in Manhattan, she constantly feels the weight of her own maternal sacrifice.

Maternal instinct and intuition are Aisha's power even as she uses those instincts with the child, Rose (Rose Decker). Aisha allows Rose to eat her Jollof rice when she refuses to eat anything else, reads her folk bedtime stories like Anansi the Spider , and shields her from the realities of her parents' relationship. The film reflects the centuries-long tradition of Black women taking care of white children as "the help," and also reveals the contemporary African immigrant experience in which this imbalance continues.

Michelle Monaghan plays an affluent mother with a volatile home life. Courtesy of Prime Video hide caption

Michelle Monaghan plays an affluent mother with a volatile home life.

As a child of Sierra Leonean immigrants to the U.S., director Nikyatu Jusu teases out the experience of being a Black immigrant in all its tiring and traumatic layers. There are tense confrontations between Aisha and Amy (Michelle Monaghan), her employer, who faces her own personal turmoil as a mother and woman. Aisha spends sleepless nights in a harrowing guest bedroom.

The scenes are deep and saturated in dark tones. The film's visual language is disorienting by design. Hauntingly beautiful forms materialize to suggest the experience of being submerged in a body of water; the audience is immersed in Tanerelle's delicately blended aquatic soundscape. Sonic echoes, running showers, and beach waves are layered with both Aisha's dreams and her reality. Aisha is shown drowning in her night terrors, which is paralleled with a sense of her displacement in the waking world.

Anna Diop in Nanny Courtesy of Prime Video hide caption

Anna Diop in Nanny

Summoning Mami Wata, the water spirit

Aisha has a magnetic connection with Malik, the charming doorman of the building, played by Sinqua Walls. She is introduced to Malik's grandmother Kathleen (Leslie Uggams) with whom he is close and who acts as a surrogate mother to him. Uggams embodies the essence of a strong unwavering Black mother. She is magic, in form and practice.

Uggams' character, Kathleen, is a spiritual priestess – or Marabout – as they are known in West Africa. She introduces the idea of Mami Wata, the water spirit within the African diaspora, who haunts the myths of the Middle Passage. These myths stem from the possible destinies of those enslaved Africans who jumped overboard or threw their babies into the sea. Mami Wata is said to have guided these souls as they became one with the ocean.

Mami Wata is traditionally portrayed with an altar adorned with objects of indulgence – mirrors, combs, and fruit. But she is made literal in Nanny as a mermaid-like figure who haunts Aisha's life. In one scene, Aisha swims in a public pool in the daylight only to emerge in the night, face to face with the magnificent, Mami Wata as an omen, who pulls her down into the water as the pool becomes an ocean.

Halle Bailey's 'Little Mermaid' is already making waves among young Black girls

Jusu's film demonstrates that Black stories don't need to be situated within a familiar white framework to be both recognizable and impactful. While films such as the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid may have cast Black actors in preexisting white narratives to be more inclusive and representative, Nanny illustrates that Black people have their own folklore; Black mermaids already exist. Jusu draws from Black history and mythology, while also subverting and recontextualizing them in a contemporary setting. It is a classic New York immigrant story, retold.

Harnessing the power of African folklore

As an Afro-Latina kid who grew up with a nanny from Mexico, the film resonated with me deeply. I had the privilege of having a second mother who was there for me as if I was her own child – and who I later realized had to leave her own children behind to care for me. The representation of kinship dynamics in this film is so real, and so poetic. Watching it on screen became like experiencing scenes from my own life as if holding up a mirror to a reality that was fading.

The final act of the film is bathed in ambiguity. It renders Aisha's journey as an open-ended question and left me wondering whether I had also drowned in a dream or sunk into a dark reality. As Jusu intends, Nanny is a haunting film of personal and racial horrors, diving into the complex experience of being a mother and an immigrant, harnessing the power of African folklore.

Correction Nov. 23, 2022

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Phylicia Rashad plays Kathleen. Though Rashad was reportedly initially cast in the role, it is Leslie Uggams who appears in the film.

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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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Powerful, tense chiller about inequity and parenthood.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Movie is largely about cultural inequity and the c

Aisha spends the movie struggling and is a victim

Offers a thorough, rounded portrayal of both Seneg

Scary images. Bloody wound, blood smear, blood in

Topless woman. Kissing. Caressing. Brief shot of t

Infrequent language includes uses of "f--k" and "s

Social drinking at party. A character comes home l

Parents need to know that Nanny is a horror-drama about a woman from Senegal (Anna Diop) who's working as a nanny for a wealthy New York family. She's hoping to raise money to bring her own son over, but strange things start happening. Violence includes scary stuff and spooky noises, dripping blood and blood…

Positive Messages

Movie is largely about cultural inequity and the cruel imbalance that throws together those with little choice and those with too much choice. Also examines the responsibilities of motherhood.

Positive Role Models

Aisha spends the movie struggling and is a victim of her circumstances. In a supporting role, Malik comes across as kind, thoughtful, caring; his mother is the same, welcoming Aisha into their home and offering her spiritual help.

Diverse Representations

Offers a thorough, rounded portrayal of both Senegalese immigrants living in New York and Black New Yorkers. The only downside is seeing how much the expats are having to struggle just to raise a little money for their families. The writer-director is a Sierra Leonean American woman. White characters are three-dimensional but also irresponsible and unlikable (one also has a taste for culturally appropriated art).

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Scary images. Bloody wound, blood smear, blood in bathtub water. Child briefly in peril. Death discussed. Lots of scary noises. Nightmares. Character nearly suffocates when a wet sheet appears over her face. Images of drowning. Character grips knife blade in hand, blood drips on floor. Character throws self into water -- possible suicide attempt. A spider lands on a sleeping person's face and enters her mouth. Snake appears in bed. Brief shot of a bloody movie on TV. Woman bites a man's lip when he tries to kiss her. Character slips and falls on wet floor. Arguing. Description of a violent uprising. Violent description of police subduing someone with schizophrenia having a "manic episode."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Topless woman. Kissing. Caressing. Brief shot of two people having sex, one atop the other. Shot of two people spooning after sex. Woman in shower, side view of breast partly visible. Flirting. Woman curled up in tub, naked, but nothing sensitive shown. Married character tries to kiss another woman. Description of a man "impregnating schoolgirls" in Senegal. Jokey dialogue about a man having five children from five different women.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent language includes uses of "f--k" and "s--t," plus "dumb," "thank God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Social drinking at party. A character comes home late from work seeming a little tipsy (she drops her keys).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Nanny is a horror-drama about a woman from Senegal ( Anna Diop ) who's working as a nanny for a wealthy New York family. She's hoping to raise money to bring her own son over, but strange things start happening. Violence includes scary stuff and spooky noises, dripping blood and blood smears, a child in peril, death, images of drowning, and more. Two characters flirt, kiss, and have (brief) sex; one sits on top of the other, and a woman's bare breasts are visible. Another partial breast is seen while a woman is in the shower. A married character tries to kiss another woman, and there's some sex-related dialogue. Foul language is infrequent but includes few uses of "f--k" and "s--t." Adults drink socially at a party, and a character appears tipsy after returning home late from work. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In NANNY, former teacher Aisha ( Anna Diop ) leaves her son in Senegal while she heads to New York City to raise money working as a nanny for wealthy families. She gets a job looking after Rose (Rose Decker), whose father, Adam ( Morgan Spector ), a photojournalist, is hardly ever home. Rose's mother, Amy ( Michelle Monaghan ), is frazzled, overworked, and sometimes controlling. At first things go smoothly, and Aisha and Rose quickly bond. Aisha also starts dating doorman Malik ( Sinqua Walls ), whose mother (Leslie Uggams) is a priestess and welcomes Aisha into their home. But soon Aisha finds herself working overtime and having to remind Amy and Adam to pay her. She also can't seem to get to her son or his caretaker on the phone. She begins to see a variety of disturbing visions, from spiders to sudden rainstorms inside rooms to mysterious figures.

Is It Any Good?

The feature writing and directing debut of Nikyatu Jusu, this creeper feels like expert filmmaking, with its stark thesis on inequity, its nervy music and soundscape, and its striking performances. Nanny is up front about its situation. Aisha says she misses the good parts about her native Senegal but not the bad parts; apparently they were enough to make her choose the bitterly ironic situation of taking care of another family's child so that she can raise money to get hers back. (Such money cannot be raised in Senegal.) Diop's strong, empathetic performance conveys the pain of this, how every waking moment without her child hurts Aisha. Jusu is so astute as a filmmaker that she even conveys character nuances in Aisha's employers, suggesting their pained relationship, Adam's childishness (and his culturally appropriated African art), and Amy's frayed nerves.

Of course, starting with a solid basis in character makes the scary stuff in Nanny more effective, but Jusu doesn't seem as interested in scaring her audience as she is in simply suggesting the horror that exists in life. Aisha's terrors and visions spring right out of the fabric of her everyday existence. Sometimes they're routine nightmares, but other times, she's just looking in the mirror or testing some bathwater when something terrifying happens. All aspects of the production, from the lighting and colors to the unsettling music and sound design, handily mesh together to create Aisha's world. A too tidy, last-minute ending seems to let viewers off the hook a little too easily, but, on the other hand, it could also be part of the movie's biting tapestry.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Nanny 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary ? How can horror be used to address issues in the real world?

How does this movie examine inequity based on culture and race? What does it have to say on the subject?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 23, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : December 16, 2022
• Cast : Anna Diop , Michelle Monaghan , Sinqua Walls
• Director : Nikyatu Jusu
• Inclusion Information : Black directors, Female actors, Black actors, Black writers
• Studios : Amazon Studios , Blumhouse Productions
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 98 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : some language and brief sexuality/nudity
• Last updated : August 25, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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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 critic and contributing writer at  RogerEbert.com . Her writing on film and television has also been featured at other online publications, like CinemaFemme and Jumpcut Online. Her long-held, formative passion for horror has been the kickstarter for her career in film journalism, but she also loves writing about cult movies and stories of the Black experience. 

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Something from tiffany's, marya e. gates, the swimmers, monica castillo, lady chatterley's lover, sheila o'malley, the inspection, matt zoller seitz, you resemble me, christy lemire, a wounded fawn, 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

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Nanny Reviews

The overall effect is more disquieting than frightening.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2023

By using layered storytelling and mystical visuals, Nikyatu Jusu blends horror and social issues to reimagine the American dream.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

At the end of the day, Nikyatu Jusu shows tremendous skill and braveness by tackling one of the most demanding filmmaking tasks one could possibly confront, while carrying her own unique voice along the way.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 23, 2023

It's a reminder to me of how African filmmaking has the most trenchant social commentary I've seen from anywhere in the world.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2023

Director Nikyatu Jusu’s haunting tale of immigrant sacrifice engulfs and beguiles.

Full Review | Mar 16, 2023

Anna Diop stars as a nanny in this Sundance award-winning horror thriller, blending supernatural elements with race and class tensions in a Manhattan household.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 20, 2023

Jusu establishes Nanny’s premise fairly early and subsequently spends most of her time laying out the devastating toll...

Full Review | Feb 16, 2023

To add cinematic spice, there are copious amounts of magic and visions. Viewers are left to sort out the truth from the deliberate alchemy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 30, 2023

This film is both too positive and not horrible enough for most fans of horror movies, but that is precisely why I like it so much. Instead, it is subtle, iconoclastic and exquisitely crafted.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jan 27, 2023

Capitalism, hierarchy and racism make love unendurable. But love can also be a kind of resistance. The Nanny knows both that water drowns and that you can’t live without it.

Full Review | Jan 23, 2023

Jusu intricately weaved a tale that may be similar to other films, but not in its main character or her culture’s beliefs in mythical creatures being a significant component of Jusu’s storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 14, 2023

An eerie, dreamlike drama of cultural displacement, class exploitation, and mythic surrealism...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 6, 2023

...communicates in the most visceral possible way what it means for a young mother to leave her son behind and come to America to work so she can make enough money to bring him over to join her.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 2, 2023

Nanny rejects jump scares in favour of a uncomfortably tense atmosphere, one that slowly escalates and is reinforced by a powerfully distinctive visual style. Motherhood, exploitation and privilege are explored in an impressively confident first feature.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 2, 2023

The Nanny is very grounded in its approach to mental health and awareness. Where even when the add in African folklore & connection, this at its core is about how deal with trauma & how to overcome it for our future legacy

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Dec 29, 2022

NANNY is a truly special first feature film by a gifted writer and director Nikyatu Jusu who has assembled a first-class horror film with so many artful touches. It balances the horror and beauty so well.

Full Review | Dec 28, 2022

Throughout most of the film, Nikyatu Jusu pendulates the story between the nightmarish and things missed... as if she was cooking something impossible to elucidate. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 28, 2022

Jusu ultimately stumbles by awkwardly shifting midstream into a thrill-free horror story, complete with waterlogged nightmares and visits by the Mami Wata. Sorry, not buying it. The only thing truly fearsome is Diop’s incredible talent.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Dec 28, 2022

In that limbo between fantasy and reality, hallucinations and dreamlike moments occur, causing distress to the protagonist. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 28, 2022

Proof that sometimes the most devastating and resonating horrors can come from what appear to be the most mundane and domestic of conceits, Nanny is one of the genre’s best of the last few years.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 21, 2022

• Amazon Studios

Summary 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 increasin ... Read More

Directed By : Nikyatu Jusu

Where to Watch

Michelle Monaghan

Sinqua Walls

Morgan Spector

Rose decker.

Leslie Uggams

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A young girl, Noa, suspects her new nanny isn't from this world. Noa fights to reveal the nanny's identity, which is more twisted than she imagined in this dark fantasy tale. A young girl, Noa, suspects her new nanny isn't from this world. Noa fights to reveal the nanny's identity, which is more twisted than she imagined in this dark fantasy tale. A young girl, Noa, suspects her new nanny isn't from this world. Noa fights to reveal the nanny's identity, which is more twisted than she imagined in this dark fantasy tale.

• Matthew Allen
• Ed Dougherty
• Marcel Sarmiento
• Jaime Murray
• Nicholas Brendon
• Schuyler Fisk
• 39 User reviews

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[first lines]

Michael : Stop it

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• May 26, 2018
• How long is The Nanny? Powered by Alexa
• October 1, 2018 (United States)
• United States
• Northfield, Minnesota, USA
• Epic Pictures Group
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 20 minutes

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Having a kid is hard. Having three kids—one of whom is a newborn baby—isn’t just three times harder. The challenges increase exponentially to the point of surrealism, a sensation writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman nail with their latest comic drama, “ Tully .”

In their third collaboration, Cody and Reitman have crafted no confectionery ode to motherhood. There’s no wacky mad dash to the hospital, followed by cataclysmic screams for comic effect. In the same vein as 2007’s “ Juno ” and 2011’s “ Young Adult ,” “Tully” unearths uncomfortable truths in a wry, wise way. It features Cody’s hyper-verbal brand of snark, cynicism and subtle poignancy, but it’s tinged with the wistful perspective that comes from hard-earned maturity and experience.

Cody’s characters are growing up along with her; she actually wrote "Tully” after having a third child of her own, and the fact that this is such a personal story shines through from the very beginning. It’s at once intimately detailed and narratively ambitious. And it’s surprisingly profound, sneaking up on you with understated yet wholly earned emotion by the end.

Having Charlize Theron at the center once again gives “Tully” so much of its power. As she showed playing the stunted prom queen of “Young Adult,” Theron isn’t afraid to be unlikable, to get messy. Here, she visits deep, dark places within the female psyche as well as the sanctity of suburbia, and her every moment on screen (which is pretty much every minute of the film) vibrates with hilarious, brutal honesty.

We actually see her belly before we even see her. Theron’s Marlo is days away from giving birth to her third child—which wasn’t exactly planned at age 40—and she’s about to pop. She already has an 8-year-old daughter, the sweetly insecure Sarah ( Lia Frankland ), and a 6-year-old son named Jonah ( Asher Miles Fallica ), who’s somewhere on the autism spectrum and on the verge of being kicked out of kindergarten. Her husband, Drew (an appropriately low-key Ron Livingston ), means well, but he often travels for work and doesn’t really understand what it takes to keep the household functioning on a daily basis.

Whatever delicate balance they’d achieved gets obliterated with the arrival of baby Mia. The subtle look on Marlo’s face once she’s given birth isn’t one of euphoria or even exhausted pride. It’s something closer to detached anxiety: Change is coming, and she knows she needs to deal with it, but she’s just not ready.

Enter Tully ( Mackenzie Davis ), the night nurse Marlo’s wealthy, smug brother ( Mark Duplass ) has offered to hire as a gift to her. At first, Marlo is offended at the suggestion that she can’t mother her children on her own, but she gives in once the delirium of sleep deprivation takes its toll. “Tully” vividly and efficiently depicts the isolating nature of those early days at home with an infant: a never-ending cycle of feeding and pumping, crying and diaper changing, when you can’t recall at the end whether you’ve set foot in the outside world, much less showered or brushed your teeth. Marlo has two other kids who need attention, too, and she finally acknowledges that she could use some help.

Tully is that, and so much more. Perky and fit at 26, she’s Mary Poppins in a belly-baring tank top, full of wisdom beyond her years about a wide variety of topics. She’s plucky and quirky, wide-eyed and openhearted, a down-to-Earth free spirit who always has the right bit of advice for every situation. She also tidies up the house overnight while Marlo catches up on much-needed sleep, and even finds time to whip up some whimsical cupcakes for Jonah’s class.

She’s a nanny pixie dream girl—or at least, that’s what she initially seems. Cody’s characters are far more complex than the superficial facades they’ve constructed for themselves might suggest, and that’s especially true of Tully. Watching Theron engage with the hugely appealing Davis is a joy to watch. They have tremendous chemistry from the get-go, which only deepens and becomes more compelling as they get to know each other over nights of sangria and reality TV. (Marlo has a thing for the guilty-pleasure “Gigolos” on Showtime.)

Tully reminds Marlo of who she used to be at that age, when she lived a boho chic life in a Brooklyn loft. And she tries to enlighten Marlo about the woman she’s become years all these later—not just a wife and a mom, but a great mom: “Great moms organize class parties and plan casino nights,” Marlo insists. (As one of those moms myself, I can assure you: We don’t necessarily think we’re great moms, either.) It’s sad and universally relatable, but we really should give ourselves more credit.

The ultimate message of “Tully” is the importance of self-care: When everyone’s relying on you to take care of them, you need to take care of yourself first. Also: just because you’ve created a person, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon entirely the person you used to be. That all may sound trite or New Agey or both, but it’s worthwhile.

Like “Young Adult,” “Tully” actually could have been a little longer. You want to spend more time with these fascinatingly flawed, deeply human characters. As Tully puts it when she suggests that Marlo should kiss her baby good night before going upstairs to sleep: “She’ll be different in the morning—and so will we.” The sense of possibility within those changes is what’s exciting.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Tully (2018)

Rated R for language and some sexuality/nudity.

Charlize Theron as Marlo

Mackenzie Davis as Tully

Mark Duplass as Craig

Ron Livingston as Drew

Colleen Wheeler as Dr. Smythe

Elaine Tan as Elyse

Maddie Dixon-Poirier as Emmy

Asher Miles Fallica as Jonah

Lia Frankland as Sarah

Bella Star Choy as Greta

• Jason Reitman
• Diablo Cody

Cinematographer

• Eric Steelberg
• Stefan Grube
• Rob Simonsen

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