Starring Isabél Zuaa. In Portuguese, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable

Metaphor meets mayhem and more in the sardonically titled Good Manners, which shifts shapes so often you may need to bring your own neck brace.

This is a second feature for writer-directors Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas. And the only tip-off that this will not remain a social-commentary drama comes from knowing that their first effort, Hard Labor, was about a woman whose small grocery store offers coffee, bread, and a yawning portal to hell.

Things start when a semitrained nurse named Clara (Isabél Zuaa) applies for a nanny gig with Ana (Marjorie Estiano), a São Paulo woman who seems to have everything but a career and a man in her life. Ana’s privileged indolence and milk-white skin contrast heavily with Clara’s wary poverty and strong black features. (Zuaa is actually from Portugal, with an African background.) In a classic Brazilian conflict, the apparently outgoing employer is obviously angling to suck the life force out of the powerless, yet street-smart, maid. As matters proceed, however, things turn toward the literal, and the two women get much closer and also further apart.

Ana has the dangerous habit of sleepwalking—dangerous for other people and animals, that is. And she’s not quite as wealthy as she pretends. She got cut off by her family after getting knocked up by a mysterious stranger who, let’s say, either was a fan of Universal horror movies of the 1930s or has mistaken her for someone named Rosemary. Hard to know, since this part of the story is told through drawings, one of numerous stylistic devices that flit through the tale—many to return, like the weird wallpaper patterns at the start, and others not. The harp-and-piano score barely warns you that people just might burst into song at odd moments.

Then there’s the clue that the São Paulo skyline, already weirdly alienating in real life, is given a futuristic makeover like something from a sci-fi movie. References to other genres and pop-culture artifacts abound, making the beautifully shot film’s 135 minutes move faster, if not always coherently. To say more would ruin the surprises, although it’s fair to explain that some of these are not for the faint of heart. And a few of these will make you howl—with laughter, or something else.