If you're looking for an alternative to all the feel-good movie entertainment this holiday season, and you want something that will make you want to take a long Silkwood shower after watching it, I suggest "Babygirl" (A24).
A depressing blend of sexual compulsion, infidelity, inappropriate workplace behavior, abuse of power, degradation, and heterosexual horror. The best thing that can be said about "Babygirl" is that the queer character far outshines her straight counterparts.
The movie opens with warehouse robotics CEO Romy (a tired Nicole Kidman) having sex with her playwright husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas). Afterwards, she sneaks off into another room where she finally achieves orgasm by watching porn online. To be fair, Romy has a complex background which includes being raised in a cult.
Aside from being unable to be sexually satisfied, Romy's life, which includes a successful career, a city apartment, and a country house, and two devoted daughters; teen lesbian Isabel (Esther McGregor) and her kid sister Nora (Vaughan Reilly), isn't too shabby.
However, everything changes when she encounters intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson, whom some queer moviegoers may recognize from his portrayal of bisexual Frankie in Eliza Hittman's award-winning 2017 movie "Beach Rats").
When they first cross paths, it's on a busy NYC street where she watches Samuel calm an aggressive dog that has escaped from its owner. Later, in the office, when Romy meets the new crew of interns, he makes another lasting impression on her.
In case you couldn't see it coming, they begin a clandestine sexual relationship. Samuel is the kind of hot, sexually confident, under-30 guy who is used to having women (and probably some men, too) throw themselves at him. For "Fifty Shades" fans, the sexual situations overflow with that kind of degrading treatment (minus the bondage), as Samuel reduces Romy to a puddle of her own juices.
But Romy gets sloppy, and soon, word begins to spread faster than her legs. After a confrontation with her assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde), who is also banging Samuel, and a humiliating confession to Jacob, Romy's world spins out of control.
At the very least, writer/director Halina Reijn (who was raised by a gay father) deserves credit for creating a believable and positive queer character in the wise-beyond-her-years Isabel. Rating: C-
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