#Babynymph
#BABYNYMPH
Directed by Aldo Pedrosa | Review by Antonio Rozich
Nymph – a beautiful young maiden capable of giving birth to the gods. In today’s world, when someone mentions the word nymph, the first thing that comes to mind is nymphomania – an uncontrollable sexual desire in a woman (for a man the phrase satyriasis is used). This sexual desire most often comes from a strong need for attention. If you take into account modern technology, which makes it easier than ever to find attention, you can easily deduce why Aldo Pedrosa decided to name his movie #babynymph. In the movie,Cibelle, whose code name is #babynymph, portraits the current young generation that finds attention via social media.Well, maybe Cibelle is a bit over exaggerated version, but to make a proper movie, you need to make sure the audience understands it. And the easiest way to do that is by making it bigger than it really is so the audience becomes aware of the true reality – it’s what we call the magic of cinema, you know.
Cibelle creates various live blogs where she often sexually teases her audience in order to get what she wants. Like some twisted version of the Greek goddess Hedone, she feeds on the attention given to her by the viewers. So one day, Cibelle calls her friend Diana to her house when Cibelle’s father leaves for a trip. Cibelle decides to include Diana in her ventures for attention and… Well, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out what happens next, but as you probably can guess, things go horribly wrong. Like most of us, Cibelle believes happiness is something that doubles when shared. And while you and many world philosophies will definitely agree on that; Cibelle got the idea a bit wrong.Nevertheless, it’s an interesting idea to ponder upon. We might think what Cibelle is doing is wrong, but today, more and more young people are doing the same thing. And when the minority becomes the majority, who will be wrong then?
Director Aldo Pedrosa managed to achieve exactly what he wanted. Some people won’t like the topic and won’t like the way it was produced simply for their own subjective versions. But in reality, the movie is done masterfully. Well, ok, Pedrosa could have probably developed the story better and achieve even more with it, but let’s not nitpick. The frames and the camera work are done in an exact needed way to portray two things. First is the feeling many people have when they see a young person like Cibelle (by the way, young DandaraAdrien played her role perfectly) and that’s either anger or discomfort hidden under the mask of the ratio as it’s always easier to judge than to understand. The second feeling is the horror of the consequences. And indeed, the movie’s beginning might make some people stop watching as Cibelle is arrogant, doesn’t feel shame, and most importantly, she’s self-confident. But the repulse you might feel is the way it was meant to be. If the movie started in any other way, it would’ve been wrong. Remember, just because you feel discomfort towards something or someone, it doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad. Hmm, this actually brings us to an interesting idea. Wouldn’t you say we often misjudge people on next to no basis? Same as we do with movies? Yes, I understand the World is filled with bad people and equally bad movies, but that isn’t an excuse for not giving them at least some attention. The main two characters in #babynymph are done perfectly. Same as the story they have a natural flow throughout the movie. And when you experience a natural flow in a movie where you don’t get plucked out of its magic, you know the director is doing his or her job.
Finally, we can say how children today spend too much time on their phones and how that’s the main problem the movie is trying to tackle;but is that really the problem? Maybe Pedrosa’s intention truly was that, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he simply wanted to make a movie on a topic that’s been viral since the dawn of modern civilization and that’s young kids who don’t know what they are doing. 20 years ago young kids didn’t know what they were doing when they went out to play only to end up in the back of a stranger’s car. Today, young kids don’t know what they are doing with their phones. So where’s the real problem? In the tools children use or in the children themselves; that is, in the education these children are given? Besides being a beautiful young maiden capable of giving birth to gods, word “nymph” is also used to describe an immature form of an insect that does not change greatly as it grows, like a locust for example. And wouldn’t you say the lack of change and learning is the real problem? For us humans I mean, not for the locust. If you get the chance, watch #babynymph as Pedrosa and his crew did a great job.
Antonio Rozich is working as a copywriter for a filmmaking startup called Try Cinema. Besides his usual copywriting, he also helps filmmakers with their screenplays by editing them and finding the ways to improve the initial filmmaker’s idea. When all of that is done, he turns to his true & original love: writing flash fiction, which he posts regularly on his site Syeta Stories.
