CinemaBabygirl is a timid erotic thriller that provokes to a certain extent; RS already seen

In times when young people are increasingly complaining about sex scenes in films and series, Babygirl can be seen as a provocative product for many. However, for those more accustomed, the thriller erotica from the director Halina Reijnfrom Death Death Death (2022), does not go beyond the limits of a genre that produced great films in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Burning Bodies (1981), Fatal Attraction (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992), among many others.

In recent years, eroticism has reached cinema through adaptations of literary works popular among young adults, such as trilogies Fifty Shades of Gray and 365 Dayswhich have fragile, generally problematic plots, and which invest in an aesthetic soft video clip in the sex scenes.

Babygirltherefore, appears as a rare attempt to be bold — artistically and narratively — in an increasingly conservative industry. However, despite its thematic and aesthetic ambitions, the film Reijn stumbles by limiting its provocative potential in favor of a safer, more conventional finish.

In history, Romy (Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Shut) is an executive who earned her position as CEO with great dedication. The same applies to your family and your marriage to Jacob (Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In). However, everything she has built is put to the test when she finds herself involved in a dangerous and forbidden affair with her intern. Samuel (Harris Dickinson, Beach Rats), much younger than her.

Babygirl presents itself as an exploration of the dynamics of power, desire and sexual repression. THE Romy of Kidman is a successful but sexually frustrated woman who represses deep sexual desires under a façade of control. She doesn’t enjoy her husband and has to resort to post-sex masturbation to “get there”.

Your gaze on Samuel (Dickinson), his young intern, who emerges as an instigating object of desire, inverts the typical dynamic voyeuristic masculine aspect of erotic thrillers, giving the narrative an undeniably interesting feminine point of view.

However, the work hesitates to fully explore this role reversal. The sexual tension, while palpable in isolated moments, is often suppressed by choices that avoid more explicit provocation, creating a product that flirts with the genre but never fully delves into its waters. Reijn even seems committed to exploring the desire to Romybut the focus is more on their suffering and repression than on their liberation.

I explain. When the film finally suggests that the protagonist will surrender to pleasure, the hasty editing hides these scenes, resulting in a narrative that contradicts its own proposal. After all, doesn’t she have the right to pleasure? Don’t we, as spectators of her release, have the right to see her cumming? That is, will it get there?

Instead of offering a genuine, visceral look at female pleasure, Babygirl is content with just touching the surface, wasting a great opportunity in view of the genuine delivery of Nicole Kidman to the role that won her the Best Actress award at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Even so, Babygirl It has intense moments. The initial relationship between Romy and Samuel is marked by a growing tension that, although restrained, is electrifying. Some isolated scenes, such as the hotel room sequence, reveal the potential for Reijn in capturing the eroticism and power plays that define the genre.

However, such scenes are sparse and leave the feeling that the director, in trying to balance a more feminist and contemporary approach with the provocation of thriller erotic, ends up not completely satisfying either side, ending his film more as a timid attempt at transgression in such retrograde times than as a work that truly challenges or excites the viewer.

Rolling Stone Brazil film special

Cinema is the theme of the new printed special from Rolling Stone Brazil. In a magazine dedicated to lovers of the seventh art, we interviewed Francis Ford Coppolawho turns 85 amid the release of his new film, Megalopolisa bold and million-dollar undertaking financed by himself.

Unshakable in the face of controversial reactions to the novelty, which took around 40 years to get off the ground, the filmmaker defends the cinema industry’s boldness in being creative and opens up, in plain Portuguese, about Brazil’s influence in his new film: “Alegria” .

The special also features conversations with Walter Salles, Fernanda Torres and Selton Mello on I’m Still Herea chat about soundtracks with maestro João Carlos Martins, an exclusive list with the 100 best films in history (50 national, 50 international), another list with the 101 greatest soundtracks in the history of cinema, a warm-up for the Oscars 2025 and the launch radar for Globoplay, Globo Filmes, O2 Play and O2 Filmes for the coming months.

The movie special Rolling Stone Brazil It is now available on newsstands, but can also be purchased at the Perfil publisher’s store for R$29.90. Check it out:

READ THE ORIGINAL REVIEW AT:Babygirl It is a timid erotic thriller, which provokes up to a certain limit; read the review

Which 2025 release are you most looking forward to? Vote for your favorite movie!

• Baby (January 9)
• Babygirl (January 9)
• The Seed of the Sacred Fruit (January 9)
• Maria Callas (January 16)
• Here (January 16)
• Conclave (January 23)
• Anora (January 23)
• September 5th (January 30th)
• Emilia Pérez (February 6)
• Better Man: The Robbie Williams Story (February 6)
• Captain America: Brave New World (February 13)
• Snow White (March 20)
• A Minecraft Movie (April 4)
• Mickey 17 (April 18)
• Thunderbolts* (May 1)
• Jurassic World: Rebirth (July 3)
• Superman (July 10)
• Fantastic Four: Getting Started (July 24)
• Tron: Ares (October 9)
• Wicked Forever (November 20)