Indy Film Fest: Baby Bump

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“Baby Bump” is an audacious and darkly comic Polish feature that follows a boy’s torturous and confusing journey into puberty.

The movie also is infuriating and self-indulgent, yet visually stimulating.

“Baby Bump” takes patience and perseverance to watch as it diverts into different tangents to visualize its young protagonists dilemma as he deals with physical and mental changes. The movie is too clever for its own good as its trajectory bounces around from live action to animation to music video-style imagery.

The boy, Mickey House (Kacper Olszewski), is going through the stirrings of his sexual awakening, causing him much anguish, as he does not fully understand the changes attacking his body. He feels differently and is beginning to look at the world — and the opposite sex, specifically — in a new light. He is terrified, embarrassed, shy and secretive, failing to realize that others have gone through the same process for millennia.

“Baby Bump” shifts from hallucinatory imagery to reality without hesitation as we graphically view Mickey exploring and abusing his body, trying to understand the new person he is becoming. The film is gross as well as poignant, tackling a subject most of us have experienced at one time or another.

“Baby Bump” will probably offend or even sicken some people. One thing it won’t do is bore you.

Bloom is a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. His reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). He also reviews Blu-rays and DVDs. He can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom.