One of the year’s most talked about films has finally landed in our very own humble area, “Babygirl,” written and directed by Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”). A surefire awards contender, set in present-day New York City during Christmastime, it tells of a high-powered CEO named “Romy,” played by Nicole Kidman (“Cold Mountain”) who successfully runs her own automation AI company and sets her seemingly perfect world ablaze when she accepts inappropriate advances from one of her fresh-faced interns.
There really is no more perfect time to be in the city than Christmastime. Well, that is unless you are putting your entire career and family in jeopardy. Then it sure doesn’t carry quite the same romantic light and energy!
The naughty, daring intern, Samuel, played deliciously by Harris Dickinson (“Beachrats”) in a true breakout role here, smolders like a rained-out backyard campfire. Often wearing a “wifebeater,” as it is referred to, under his ill-fitting suits, Samuel never quite carries the polished veneer of his office peers. It is this unassuming quality that allures Kidman in about as quickly as me when in close proximity to a liquor store!
In addition to a killer soundtrack that I am destined to revisit on my Spotify service very soon, it is longtime veteran actor Antonio Banderas who gives his best performance in memory. No offense to the 64-year-old, but he just hasn’t seemed all that relevant in recent years. It is this very role as playwright, director husband “Jacob” that makes you think otherwise.
There was a couple in the same row I was in who got up and walked out of “Babygirl” less than a third into the story. It is not for any people who are uncomfortable with adult subject matter.
In 2025, an era in which pretty much nothing is off the table, “Babygirl” begs its viewers to leave the theater asking themselves, even if just quietly in their own head, what exactly are your own deep, dark, hidden fantasies?
Overall, “Babygirl” is a daring film bound to make you a bit uncomfortable in parts, but it also opens up a real dialogue about women in power and the men who sit underneath their empires who try to undermine them with their natural, animal instincts.
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