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Babygirl (2024)

Writer's picture: Kyle BainKyle Bain

-Written by Kyle Bain.


A powerful CEO, Romy (Nicole Kidman), encounters a young intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), and forms an intimate relationship with him. Babygirl is the story of Romy’s increasing infatuation with the young man, and the role that power plays in their relationship and everyday lives.


Babygirl is a film that has forced me to think more than most films that I’ve seen in recent memory. It’s a challenging film to comprehend, but that’s the beauty of Halina Reijn’s film. I spent the entire one hour and fifty-four minutes mulling over the implications of each and every word, every facial expression, and every shift in tone–attempting to understand exactly what Reijn meant. Babygirl is a challenging film to understand beyond the idea of “power.” That’s the core of the film, and everything runs through that idea. 


Other than that, I’m genuinely confused by Babygirl, as I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a film in which nothing other than the narrative affected my opinion of the film as a whole. Lighting, cinematography, dialogue, acting, etc.–they are all effective, with some aspects of the film being fantastic; but at the end of the day I didn’t find myself thinking that these things, at all, enhanced my experience. 


Lighting: The use of light in Reijn’s production is simply average. There’s nothing spectacular about this, nothing enticing, nothing that ever heightened the overall experience or the production. 


Cinematography: I found myself feeling that this, too, was average. There were no unique shots, nothing to set Babygirl apart from other productions that I’ve seen, and nothing to drive the narrative forward, only to allow it to exist. There is one moment, as the film is about ready to conclude, in which there’s a beautiful aerial shot that floored me, that truly excited me. However, this shot has no bearing on the film. So, again, Babygirl’s cinematography is fine, and that’s about it. 


Dialogue: The dialogue comes off as both natural and inorganic. There’s a blend of reality and hyperreality that I felt extended itself from start to finish. Babygirl’s dialogue does enough to support it, but there are times when I felt that the inorganic nature of some of the lines hindered the film’s potential success. The dialogue is ultimately a wash, coming across as even keeled and typical. 


Acting: The acting was the one thing that positively stood out to me beyond the narrative. Kidman is wonderful, and she gets a fair amount of well-deserved love as a result of her performance in Babygirl. Though, it’s Dickinson that appealed to me the most, as his use of body language and facial expressions are what drive his character and allow the theme of power to seep into every crevice of the film. He’s the star of Babygirl, and it’s his meticulous attention to detail that allows that to be. 


The score was one of the more interesting aspects of Babygirl, but not necessarily in a good way. While much of the film is void of a score, and the actors are paired with effective and deafening silence–the score is constructed of several individuals moaning. That’s right…sex noises as the score. It plays well with the tone of the film, and most certainly with the narrative–but the score often comes on so abruptly that it’s shocking and almost funny. It steals from potential intensity in multiple scenes, and almost distracts the audience. Babygirl would have been better off if it had avoided a score altogether. 


Babygirl is one of the more interesting films that I’ve seen in some time. I love the concept of people wagering power, doing all that they can to come out on top (literally and figuratively). The narrative is strong, well written, well executed, and brought to life with vigor by way of Kidman, Dickinson, and Antonio Banderas (Jacob). However, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a film in which no other component beyond the story affects how I feel about the film, but that’s the case in Babygirl. It’s a good film, with a powerful narrative–and that’s about it. 


Written & Directed by Halina Reijn. 


Starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor, etc. 


8/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING


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