I’ve been really looking forward to this one, especially because it’s what is known as “divisive”. It’s fun to finally see it and make up my own mind. I’ve been writing about Harris Dickinson since he first arrived in 2017’s Beach Rats and have reviewed most of his films (Beach Rats, Postcards from London, Matthias and Maxime, Scrapper) – and this is definitely not just a culmination but the opportunity to show his very unique stuff on a much wider stage. One of the most exciting young new actors working today. Along with Paul Mescal.
At any rate. I dug Babygirl. It’s funny. I have some experience in this sort of thing, and the film captures a certain VIBE, which may not be comprehensible to people from the outside. “Female masochism is just a male fantasy,” says the husband in Babygirl. Uh-huh. Okay. And that’s what I’ll say about THAT. So many films like this position the kinky sex as dangerous and threatening to the status quo, to the conventional, the expected life-path for straight people. But if you’ve never fit in with the status quo, if you don’t value the rules of the status quo because they don’t work for you (like, at all), then all other kinds of things are possible. Like fun. And funniness. And yeah, there IS a status quo in Babygirl but the film positions it in an interesting way.
I read a review where the (male) critic referred to the relationship between the CEO and her intern as “toxic”. Maybe to you, ya normie. The only “toxic” relationship here was between the CEO and her husband.
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