A CEO of a successful company starts an intense carnal relationship with one of her interns.
My first negative review of an A24 film. Writer/director Halina Reijn made a film with the intent of causing shock to the senses – Think of Basic Instinct (1992). Babygirl shares many similarities, but it is not it, regardless of how you see it. The way Babygirl has been shot, edited, and acted is brilliant. As a viewer, you constantly want to know what will happen next while enjoying what is happening at present. What is happening at present is primitive, gore, sensational, and sensual. Nicole Kidman is the right person for the job and is still a great actress and woman. She is not just doing it for the money; she still shows her love for acting. And this is where the good news ends. From then on…
Reijn’s directing is beautiful, but her script is deeply problematic.
- Antonio Banderas needed a lot more screen time, as Jacob’s presence was undermined, and the audience couldn’t care less about him being cheated; if it wasn’t for that, they wouldn’t get to enjoy Romy’s sex scenes.
- The power dynamics between Romy and Samuel (Harris Dickinson) are unspecified. It is unclear why they act the way they do.
- Romy tries to explain it, but the cult she grew up in (and why that matters), her sexual desires, and why she wants to be dominated when she dominates her industry are unclear.
- On the other hand, why Samuel acts that way and has such sexual desires is unclear.
- Finally, why the ending is important raises questions. Does it actually matter? Why? To whom? What’s the moral story? How is the heroine better or worse from the beginning of that journey?
Surely, you can find more things to say or ask as you contemplate the film. Personally, if the ending was fulfilling by justifying why all these encounters happened or if a calamity struck and left you speechless or a miracle happened and tears of joy filled your eyes, it would give the film a purpose. But the ending was anticlimactic, took away the purpose and made it look like a film that is just provocative for the sex scenes and nothing more.
Basic Instinct (1992) meets Fatal Attraction (1987) could be a nice way to describe Babygirl, but this is not the case. If you are into provocative cinema, particularly from the female gaze’s perspective, watch Julia Ducournau’s Raw (2016): https://kaygazpro.com/raw-2016-drama-horror/ and Titane (2021): https://kaygazpro.com/titane-2021-drama-horror-sci-fi/. And if you want to get a better understanding of trauma and its inescapable reality, go for Resurrection (2022): https://kaygazpro.com/resurrection-2022-crime-drama-horror/.
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