Baby Ruby

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 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.

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.

Baby Ruby is the type of movie that can cause your good mood to nosedive into sadness, disgust, and discomfort.

It begins with with a young couple giving birth to their first child. Expectations for a happy life of three seems destined, but soon reality slaps them in the face. The new mother is distraught by the burden of their new baby girl. She is constantly bombarded with the child's crying and need for attention. Motherhood isn't what she expected. Soon she becomes delusional without the ability to distinguish fact from fiction...fantasy from reality. Her behavior becomes bizarre and alarming. Everyone around her is affected.

The film feels like a schizophrenic nightmare...like a bad mushroom trip.

However it's well acted and well done. It makes u feel just as the makers intended.

That unending, incessant baby crying throughout the film was tortuous, but not as painful as sitting through ninety minutes of this movie.

I had checked the IMDB ratings and originally, they were in the mid 7s but now they have sunk to the mid 5s. Rightfully so!

The plot really never got off the ground although the tease of some potential was always around the corner.

It did touch on the very real and serious subject of post partum depression but only used it as an excuse for the underdeveloped storyline.

This was a feeble attempt at recreating a "Rosemary's Babyish" thriller, but fails miserably.