Lullaby is a 2022 horror film about a new mother who discovers a lullaby in an old book and soon regards the song as a blessing. But her world is turned into a nightmare when the lullaby brings to light the ancient demon Lilith.
Directed by John R. Leonetti (The Silence; Wish Upon; Wolves at the Door; Annabelle) from a screenplay co-written by Alex Greenfield and Ben Powell. Co-produced by Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove, Lee Nelson and David Tish.
Director: John R. Leonetti
Writers: Alex Greenfield, Ben Powell
Stars: Oona Chaplin, Ramón Rodríguez, Kira Guloien
The US-Canadian co-production stars Oona Chaplin, Ramón Rodríguez, Liane Balaban, Kira Guloien, R Austin Ball, Adam Bernett, Hayden Finkelshtain, Moni Ogunsuyi, Brian McCaig, Aaron Rogers and Mary Ann Stevens.
Tender-hearted and keenly observed, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa's debut, Cancion de luna, is an absorbing, if flawed, mother-daughter drama. Lullaby is about a woman who, after having a child of her own, reaches a new affinity with her mother: hardly a new subject, but one that Ruiz de Azúa handles with confidence, grace, and wit. The writer-director cleverly dodges clichés as she trains her lens on emotional truths.
Thirty-somethings Amaia (Laia Costa) and Javi (Mikel Bustamante) are struggling with the emotional consequences of having a baby. Amaia's parents, the authoritarian and pragmatic Begoña, who constantly reminds the couple of their shortcomings (Susi Sánchez, a regular in Almodóvar's latest films, whose best work has been done for the underappreciated Spanish director Ramón Salazar) and the nice but useless Koldo (the veteran Ramón Barea). The first scenes of the film paint a good portrait of the postnatal chaos, with an exhausted Amaia trying unsuccessfully to juggle a precarious job and a crying baby, while a surprisingly animated Javi makes long business trips to raise the money he desperately need. need.
When Javi is away, Amaia can't handle it alone. After a scene in which the baby falls off the sofa, she guiltily heads, as so many young Spanish parents do, to her family's home in a Basque coastal town. This makes things worse, until, in an unexpected development, Begoña falls ill, which leads to a radical change in the family dynamic and a greater understanding between Amaia and her mother. But this strict focus on mother and daughter in the second half means that, until its wonderful final seconds, the film sacrifices some of the credibility that has made it work so well thus far.
Lullaby is strongest in the subtle and compassionate characterization of her women: mothers who are neither heroines nor victims of the stereotype. Although this is nominally Amaia's film, Begoña is the dominant figure. Both actresses do a fantastic and nuanced job, especially when they are together. Perhaps inevitably, women are drawn with more compassion and light and shadow, and go on more compelling emotional journeys than Koldo, characterized by his wife as "a horrible husband but a good father," or Javi, who feels outmatched by the requirements. . both family and film. The Amaia-Javi relationship never really takes off, and their issues are resolved too quickly later.
Atmospherically, things are appropriately claustrophobic, with events mostly taking place in gloomy rooms: one brilliantly juxtaposes horror music on TV with the presence of an angry and menacing Begoña. There are only occasional forays into the open air, one of which brings out of the closet a skeleton in the form of Iñaki (José Ramón Soroiz), an old love of Begoña's who will trigger in Amaia a deeper knowledge of her mother.
Watch Lullaby 2022 Movie Trailer
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