Openly laughed when I read Sonny's great line "There’s just no drama here; everyone’s too tolerant of everyone else’s bullshit for there to be any real stakes." A perfect encapsulation which, I'm sure, Sonny could use in future reviews to quickly and efficiently puncture a movie's pretensions. Great stuff Sonny!
Great idea for the Oscars. Push it. Get in touch with the suits & pressure them. Give us a name by name progress update & running status in every one of your column/posts/emails until the Oscars so that we can name & shame those who sit out. Especially considering how anxious CEOs, etc., were to donate to the Trump inauguration slush fund.
Sonny has buried the lede: "Vox Lux" is Corbet's best film! (It's, umm, the only one of his I've seen so far.) If you think Nicole Kidman's performance in "Babygirl" is divisive (is it?), just watch Natalie Portman in "Vox Lux." I loved her in it when I saw the film during its brief theatrical run but have been too scared to watch it a second time for fear that I'll do a 180 on her and the movie.
And she is Everywhere! We are currently watching her in Lioness on Paramount (along with Zoe Saldana and some younger actors. It does have a pretty talented cast actually.
I found Babygirl disappointing for the same reason I found this review disappointing. Neither seems particularly interested in engaging with kink as a potentially empowering form of sexuality. And if you're not willing to meet Romy (Nicole Kidman's character) halfway by taking her seriously, then what's the point of telling or watching this story? I do agree with Sonny that the film is confused about what it wants to say. It tangles up Romy's sexual tastes with issues of nonconsent, adultery and workplace harassment. This is how kink is almost always deployed in mainstream films, when it shows up at all: either as a punchline or as an illustration of dangerous, risk-seeking impulses that threaten to undermine social cohesion. The result is that the story comes off seeming like it doesn't respect its main character. I could imagine enjoying Babygirl as a workplace power dynamics parable or a journey of sexual discovery, but I don't think the film does itself any favors by yoking the two together.
Or, alternatively, it could have leaned into a kind of wicked, winking satire about the ways wokeness comes into conflict with human nature. I also agree with Sonny that one of the sharpest bits of commentary the film has to offer -- maybe its only sharp insight, actually -- is how Sophie Wilde's character reacts to discovering her boss's affair. Along those lines, though, I'm surprised that Sonny missed this one pretty important detail: Harris Dickinson says the thing about "dated ideas of sexuality" to Antonio Banderas not as "therapy-speak," but as a clear description of his problem. It's as close as the film gets to a thesis statement. In that conversation, Banderas's character describes female sexual submission as inherently abusive. It's an idea that has floated around in certain strains of feminist thought for decades. But in the text of the film, it's clear that Romy can only orgasm when she's engaging in power exchange. Dickinson is literally telling Banderas that he's too woke to please his wife. His mind isn't so open that his brain is at risk of falling out; quite the opposite. He's unable (at least at that point in the plot) to acknowledge her desires as legitimate.
I wonder if the whole "Kink" that we read about in other sites is what motivated this movie...it's supposed to be all over the place in our lives these days and we should embrace it because we are all woke, right? Was there a threesome? If not, I don't think we are getting the full spectrum
I wonder if Kidman just still wants to show the world one more time how beautiful she is and this is her change of life insecurity coming out (I think Emma Thompson did the same thing in search of an orgasm or something in Good Luck to you, Leo Del Grande). The old, "I'm over 50, and I still look good naked" adage seems to be on theme here with a lot of female actors these days. Like really, all this female empowerment irony is off the set too? How many guy actors say that? Well maybe, Brad Pitt, but hey, never mind.
I know we are prudish Americans, but I have also been told that this movie is half-ass titillation with zero true empathy...in short to which some have said make it "porn" or don't make it at all...or something closer to Basic Instinct campy. This seems almost like those "True Romance" rags back in the 60's and 70's where the actual marriage after learning from infidelity is a good thing. Who knows? We all have to get our kicks.....er, kinks these days.
I agree! It does seem like the inclusion of kink in this movie might have been an attempt to cash in on the relatively recent trend of BDSM in mainstream novels, television shows and films. (There was no threesome, for better or worse!) I can imagine Babygirl being pitched as a kind of "Thinking Person's 50 Shades of Grey." The frustration, from my point of view, is that the folks responsible for shaping the film seemed to have fewer interesting things to say on the topic than they thought. "Sexual dynamics and workplace dynamics can sometimes both involve power imbalances that make relationships tricky" is hardly a cutting-edge insight!
It is interesting, isn't it, that Babygirl came out so close to The Substance and The Last Showgirl -- it's like a trilogy of "the ol' girl's still got it" vehicles for middle-aged female celebrities. I'm all for it, though I do have a little trouble not rolling my eyes when characters played by impossibly beautiful people deal with debilitating body image issues. (And as long as Tom Cruise still insists on having a running scene in each of his movies, I think we can fairly say that actorly vanity transcends gender.)
Your instinct is right that the message of the film is ultimately quite conservative. Kidman's character reaffirms her commitment to her family, and her sweet husband agrees to try to get a little spicier in bed. Which is fine! I'm a sucker for a film that ends with everyone re-committing to the people they love. It's just that, for an ending like that to feel meaningful, the audience needs to be invested in the characters or the story, and that really didn't happen here. I love your idea about leaning into the campiness of the premise. I'd have been thrilled to see what Verhoeven's Babygirl looked like. That level of hothouse emotional vulnerability could really have made the film much more accessible -- both inviting us to empathize with these pretty lame characters and giving us an investment in their sensuality, so it felt like more than just empty titillation. In my ideal world, people would come away from a movie like this thinking, "I may not share her taste, but I get why she likes it." After all, we all have to get our kinks these days :)
I found myself getting more annoyed with Babygirl the more I turned it over in my head. There's a good (or at least interesting) movie in there somewhere, but the script just veers off track too often to be coherent. Romy seems to be someone's--who has never spent time around a CEO--idea of a CEO.
I think the charity awards is a great idea--whenever there is some sort of tragic event in a small town/rural area, the media always does these feel good stories about the community coming together to rebuild; I think it would go a long way in showing that some rich people are very invested in their actual communities/the public spaces of their communities.
"Her husband is so open-minded his brain is at risk of falling out." Best line written, EVER!!!
I also love your idea for the Oscars, I really think it would bring in a lot of donations, and maybe the zillionares will try to outdo each other in such a public setting!
I was going to write the same comment about the best line ever. I laughed out loud. great review. so I think I will pass except I would like to hear the mishmash of accents.
The loss of life and property destruction of the LA fires are horrible, no doubt. But please tell me that you're not suggesting (or endorsing) a telethon for multimillionaires living in average $3.5 million homes. Targeting other neighborhoods--or other causes--makes more sense, if you want to obtain meaningful value from the award shows.
I'll just assume you didn't make it to this part of the newsletter?
"Have Bob Iger and David Zaslav and Ted Sarandos show up with giant novelty checks for $20 million each, each dedicated to a different library or school or other destroyed public space. Send your craft services teams to impacted areas right now and film the footage for a clip during the show."
Did I write "raise to money to replace Billy Crystal's home"? I did not write that! (Though it is a tragedy that Billy Crystal lost the home he's lived in for 40-some years. It is no less a tragedy because he is well off.) But also: Lots of people who aren't millionaires lost homes in Altadena, etc.
Openly laughed when I read Sonny's great line "There’s just no drama here; everyone’s too tolerant of everyone else’s bullshit for there to be any real stakes." A perfect encapsulation which, I'm sure, Sonny could use in future reviews to quickly and efficiently puncture a movie's pretensions. Great stuff Sonny!
Great idea for the Oscars. Push it. Get in touch with the suits & pressure them. Give us a name by name progress update & running status in every one of your column/posts/emails until the Oscars so that we can name & shame those who sit out. Especially considering how anxious CEOs, etc., were to donate to the Trump inauguration slush fund.
Love that Oscars fundraiser idea! And thank you for the recommendations for donations.
i agree about the Oscars idea.
I feel that your review tells too much, especially about you. it's wordy, and too jumbled for a reader who hasn't seen it yet.
Very grateful for your donation suggestions and the Oscar Awards fundraiser.
great idea on the Oscars!
Sonny has buried the lede: "Vox Lux" is Corbet's best film! (It's, umm, the only one of his I've seen so far.) If you think Nicole Kidman's performance in "Babygirl" is divisive (is it?), just watch Natalie Portman in "Vox Lux." I loved her in it when I saw the film during its brief theatrical run but have been too scared to watch it a second time for fear that I'll do a 180 on her and the movie.
Nicole.Kidman.cannot.act.full.stop.
And she is Everywhere! We are currently watching her in Lioness on Paramount (along with Zoe Saldana and some younger actors. It does have a pretty talented cast actually.
Minor spoilers for Babygirl ahead...
I found Babygirl disappointing for the same reason I found this review disappointing. Neither seems particularly interested in engaging with kink as a potentially empowering form of sexuality. And if you're not willing to meet Romy (Nicole Kidman's character) halfway by taking her seriously, then what's the point of telling or watching this story? I do agree with Sonny that the film is confused about what it wants to say. It tangles up Romy's sexual tastes with issues of nonconsent, adultery and workplace harassment. This is how kink is almost always deployed in mainstream films, when it shows up at all: either as a punchline or as an illustration of dangerous, risk-seeking impulses that threaten to undermine social cohesion. The result is that the story comes off seeming like it doesn't respect its main character. I could imagine enjoying Babygirl as a workplace power dynamics parable or a journey of sexual discovery, but I don't think the film does itself any favors by yoking the two together.
Or, alternatively, it could have leaned into a kind of wicked, winking satire about the ways wokeness comes into conflict with human nature. I also agree with Sonny that one of the sharpest bits of commentary the film has to offer -- maybe its only sharp insight, actually -- is how Sophie Wilde's character reacts to discovering her boss's affair. Along those lines, though, I'm surprised that Sonny missed this one pretty important detail: Harris Dickinson says the thing about "dated ideas of sexuality" to Antonio Banderas not as "therapy-speak," but as a clear description of his problem. It's as close as the film gets to a thesis statement. In that conversation, Banderas's character describes female sexual submission as inherently abusive. It's an idea that has floated around in certain strains of feminist thought for decades. But in the text of the film, it's clear that Romy can only orgasm when she's engaging in power exchange. Dickinson is literally telling Banderas that he's too woke to please his wife. His mind isn't so open that his brain is at risk of falling out; quite the opposite. He's unable (at least at that point in the plot) to acknowledge her desires as legitimate.
I wonder if the whole "Kink" that we read about in other sites is what motivated this movie...it's supposed to be all over the place in our lives these days and we should embrace it because we are all woke, right? Was there a threesome? If not, I don't think we are getting the full spectrum
I wonder if Kidman just still wants to show the world one more time how beautiful she is and this is her change of life insecurity coming out (I think Emma Thompson did the same thing in search of an orgasm or something in Good Luck to you, Leo Del Grande). The old, "I'm over 50, and I still look good naked" adage seems to be on theme here with a lot of female actors these days. Like really, all this female empowerment irony is off the set too? How many guy actors say that? Well maybe, Brad Pitt, but hey, never mind.
I know we are prudish Americans, but I have also been told that this movie is half-ass titillation with zero true empathy...in short to which some have said make it "porn" or don't make it at all...or something closer to Basic Instinct campy. This seems almost like those "True Romance" rags back in the 60's and 70's where the actual marriage after learning from infidelity is a good thing. Who knows? We all have to get our kicks.....er, kinks these days.
I agree! It does seem like the inclusion of kink in this movie might have been an attempt to cash in on the relatively recent trend of BDSM in mainstream novels, television shows and films. (There was no threesome, for better or worse!) I can imagine Babygirl being pitched as a kind of "Thinking Person's 50 Shades of Grey." The frustration, from my point of view, is that the folks responsible for shaping the film seemed to have fewer interesting things to say on the topic than they thought. "Sexual dynamics and workplace dynamics can sometimes both involve power imbalances that make relationships tricky" is hardly a cutting-edge insight!
It is interesting, isn't it, that Babygirl came out so close to The Substance and The Last Showgirl -- it's like a trilogy of "the ol' girl's still got it" vehicles for middle-aged female celebrities. I'm all for it, though I do have a little trouble not rolling my eyes when characters played by impossibly beautiful people deal with debilitating body image issues. (And as long as Tom Cruise still insists on having a running scene in each of his movies, I think we can fairly say that actorly vanity transcends gender.)
Your instinct is right that the message of the film is ultimately quite conservative. Kidman's character reaffirms her commitment to her family, and her sweet husband agrees to try to get a little spicier in bed. Which is fine! I'm a sucker for a film that ends with everyone re-committing to the people they love. It's just that, for an ending like that to feel meaningful, the audience needs to be invested in the characters or the story, and that really didn't happen here. I love your idea about leaning into the campiness of the premise. I'd have been thrilled to see what Verhoeven's Babygirl looked like. That level of hothouse emotional vulnerability could really have made the film much more accessible -- both inviting us to empathize with these pretty lame characters and giving us an investment in their sensuality, so it felt like more than just empty titillation. In my ideal world, people would come away from a movie like this thinking, "I may not share her taste, but I get why she likes it." After all, we all have to get our kinks these days :)
Excellent idea re: the Oscar's telecast helping the communities ravaged by fire in LA. Thank you!
I found myself getting more annoyed with Babygirl the more I turned it over in my head. There's a good (or at least interesting) movie in there somewhere, but the script just veers off track too often to be coherent. Romy seems to be someone's--who has never spent time around a CEO--idea of a CEO.
I think the charity awards is a great idea--whenever there is some sort of tragic event in a small town/rural area, the media always does these feel good stories about the community coming together to rebuild; I think it would go a long way in showing that some rich people are very invested in their actual communities/the public spaces of their communities.
Fabulous idea for Oscar’s they could have online fund raising awesome
"Her husband is so open-minded his brain is at risk of falling out." Best line written, EVER!!!
I also love your idea for the Oscars, I really think it would bring in a lot of donations, and maybe the zillionares will try to outdo each other in such a public setting!
I was going to write the same comment about the best line ever. I laughed out loud. great review. so I think I will pass except I would like to hear the mishmash of accents.
Your review intrigued me enough to watch “Babygirl” when I get a chance
The loss of life and property destruction of the LA fires are horrible, no doubt. But please tell me that you're not suggesting (or endorsing) a telethon for multimillionaires living in average $3.5 million homes. Targeting other neighborhoods--or other causes--makes more sense, if you want to obtain meaningful value from the award shows.
I'll just assume you didn't make it to this part of the newsletter?
"Have Bob Iger and David Zaslav and Ted Sarandos show up with giant novelty checks for $20 million each, each dedicated to a different library or school or other destroyed public space. Send your craft services teams to impacted areas right now and film the footage for a clip during the show."
Did I write "raise to money to replace Billy Crystal's home"? I did not write that! (Though it is a tragedy that Billy Crystal lost the home he's lived in for 40-some years. It is no less a tragedy because he is well off.) But also: Lots of people who aren't millionaires lost homes in Altadena, etc.
And I’m glad you got (and took) the opportunity to repeat the really important part!
Apologies, using a device and missed it. Plead temporary blindness.
Fantastic movie!