Baby Bump

Kuba Czekaj's surrealistic film "Baby Bump" has been compared to the work of David Lynch, but this is misleading. It's true that Lynch's early films, like "Eraserhead," are relentlessly weird. But as Lynch develops his surreal style in films like "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive," he emphasizes the importance of a clear, if unusual, plot structure.

The structure of Czekaj film, on the other hand, is more like a nightmare. One thought need not relate to its antecedent. The audience creates the story. Subjects like violence, incest and urination are cut together with close-ups of genitalia and self-mutilation.

Those who make comparisons would do better put this 2015 Polish coming-of-age-hell-dream along side the work of Kenneth Anger, Luis Bu�uel and Paul Verhoeven's Dutch films.

Eleven-year-old Mickey House (Kacper Olszewski) has an unusual relationship with his Mummy (Agnieszka Podsiadlik). She doesn't really give him the space to grow up or the privacy to experience the early phase of his adolescence. As for Mickey, he can't decide if he's sexually attracted to his mother or he wants to be her. Since mother and child live alone, and she is codependent and clingy, plenty of boundaries are blurred.

Mickey realizes that his body is changing and he wants to have some input in the process. (Primarily, he doesn't like his ears.) But plastic surgery is expensive, so he sells his urine to his classmates, so that they can pass the school's mandatory drug tests.

When the school's drug enforcement agency discovers that all the urine samples are coming from the same person, Mr. Lieutenant (Sebastian Lach) puts the screws on Mickey, which prompts Mummy to do whatever she can to protect her child -- whether this entails sexually gratifying the Lieutenant or clearing Mickey's name by substituting his urine sample for hers.

Just when the Mickey thinks he is in the clear, the school nurse reports -- he's pregnant.

"Baby Bump" subverts traditional, linear storytelling with a dreamlike train of thought. This can be very gratifying for the right kind of audience, as it leaves much to the imagination. And there is no shortage of campy and shocking images for those with a dark sense of humor and a keen sense of the perverse. But those who value character identification and story will be disappointed.

If you're looking for something unusual, there aren't many places to see a film like this outside of film school.

In addition to the movie, this Blu-ray disc contains one of the director's short films, "Twist & Blood."

"Baby Bump"
Blu-ray
$22.99
www.alteredinnocence.net/