Sex in cinema is back, baby. 2024 has been a banging year at the movies thanks to steamy fare like Rose Glass’s neo-noir thriller Love Lies Bleeding, Luca Guadagnino’s love-triangle drama Challengers, Sean Baker’s sex-worker-centered comedy Anora, and last, but certainly not least Halina Reijn’s May-December drama Babygirl.
Written and directed by Bodies Bodies Bodies helmer Reijn, Babygirl has earned dynamic buzz out of its Venice Film Festival premiere, from which Nicole Kidman was awarded the Volpi Cup for her riveting performance as the female lead. As she has in daring productions like Eyes Wide Shut, The Paperboy, and Big Little Lies, Kidman rejects her polished persona as a megawatt star (and AMC advocate), embracing a messy journey of sex and danger.
Yet Babygirl stands out among these other sexy films and series by keeping the playfulness of fucking fiercely at the center of its wilfully problematic romance. In that, even the seediest sequence has a bit of sweetness ground in.
Babygirl genderswaps a common May-December dynamic.
Credit: A24
At first blush, Babygirl‘s premise sounds almost tediously familiar: A high-powered CEO’s family and job are threatened, thanks to a torrid affair with a lusty young intern.
Except Reijn genderswaps these roles, so the mighty CEO isn’t a snarling Michael Douglas type; she’s played by a crisp, cool Kidman. And rather than a curvy nymph swanning into their new workplace in a snug pencil skirt, Triangle of Sadness‘ Harris Dickinson strolls in with a blazer and a bored expression. And just like that, the expectations of this erotic tale are thrown off-kilter.
Romy Mathis (Kidman) seems to have it all: a posh Hamptons home, a luxury Manhattan apartment, a handsome, doting husband (Antonio Banderas), two lovely teen daughters Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly), and a high-power job, where she’s not only respected but also a role model for women in male-dominated fields. However, deep down Romy desires to be disrespected, debased, and made to beg. It’s a wish so dark she can’t even share it with her long-time partner. So when this beautiful and blasé hunk talks to her as casually as he might a barista, she’s uncomfortably aroused. And he knows it.
Samuel (Harris) is a new take on the problematic Lolita trope: a young person (typically a girl, often a minor) who is portrayed as sexually precocious and self-aware way beyond their years. Early on, he can sense that what Romy is missing in her life is a place where she can play at being submissive. Tough but tender, Samuel is ready to be her dominant, expecting her to grovel on a dirty hotel room floor or drink a tall glass of milk just because he said so. Romy’s desire is one often associated with male execs, especially in BDSM circles. The genderswapping of this May-December dom-sub relationship (the opposite of say Steven Shainberg’s office-set BDSM rom-com The Secretary), makes for a thrillingly transgressive narrative.
Romy and Samuel’s relationship is undeniably hot, thanks to the intense chemistry between Kidman and Harris. Yet it’s an onscreen romance that might well make its audience squirm, because of the power dynamics, the age difference, the non-conforming gender roles, and the kinky sex. This relationship is deeply fucked up even before Romy suggests their safe word be “Jacob” — the name of her husband. And all of this works toward a lusty and liberating message that sex should be about aching emotional honesty and fun discoveries.
Babygirl revels in sexual experimentation and consent.
Credit: A24
BDSM gets a bad wrap in the media, often because it’s mischaracterized as abusive or bullying. Reijn and her cast embrace a version of Dom/sub sex where consent is not just essential but also exciting. In a husky voice, Samuel tells Romy to do certain things. She might blush or refuse him, and he’ll urge her tell him why. It’s not pressuring, it’s communication. Notably, the kind of dialogue — awkward and exhilarating — that she can’t manage to open with her sweet husband.
Far from the “zipless fucks” dreamed of by Erica Jong or idealized in erotic thrillers of the ’90s, Babygirl uses these moments of clumsy conversation and fumbling foreplay not only to ground their sexual fantasy in a more realistic setting, but also, because there’s a freedom to seeing the process here. We see the pair’s chosen cheap hotel room as a sexual sandbox, where both feel liberated as playmates. The power dynamic is in effect, but pleasure is the goal both seek to find together. And perhaps because it’s Kidman in the lead, Babygirl urges its audience to take themselves less seriously in the bedroom, and be a bit like Romy and Samuel.
Nicole Kidman delivers a hot-blooded and vulnerable performance that could make her an Oscars frontrunner.
Credit: A24
Some will likely balk at or criticize Kidman for taking such a sexually raw role. (She faced similar critiques over The Paperboy.) As Romy, Kidman is given a level of power few women in the world will ever have. And so there’s a knowing discomfort in watching her surrender that power to some reverent dude in a necktie. As the stakes of this drama heighten through the possibility of Romy losing her job or her husband or the respect of her assistant (Talk to Me‘s Sophie Wilde) and daughters, there are plenty of reasons to judge this relationship. Yet within those scenes, Kidman lets loose a version of this character who is so radiantly human, so beautifully flawed, full of yearning and shame, that she is comprehendible. Even as we know, she’s making “bad choices,” we might be a relieved to watch someone dare to do that. By living vicariously through Babygirl‘s dizzying highs and gut-churning lows, you might feel inspired to embrace the truth of yourself as Romy does over the course of this movie.
Kidman thoughtfully knocks herself off of the high pedestal of glamour girl movie stardom to give us this gift. While the scenes of sexual discovery can feel downright juvenile with their laughter and awkward conversations around consent and kink, Babygirl has a profound maturity in its psychological understanding and empathy for unconventional desires.
As to the Oscars, Kidman’s win in Venice suggests she’s in good standing this award season. Sexual liberation and unapologetic nudity certainly didn’t hurt Emma Stone last year in the best actress race so she won for Poor Things. However, Kidman’s age might prove a challenge. Even as there is a rise in May-December romances featuring an older woman and younger man (including Kidman’s summer release A Family Affair), there can be a backlash against older women lusting for a younger man, as we’ve seen in the mixed reception of The Idea of You, a rom-com about a middle-aged single mom hooking up with a 20-something boyband member.
Kidman is helped, however, by being surrounded by strong performances. Harris is finely tuned at the cross-section of lusty fantasy and irksome reality, playing a character who maintains a sultry mystique, justified by his place in Romy’s conflicted perspective. Banderas warmly portrays a loving partner/father, edging the fun of the affair with the pain of his inevitable discovery of it. Wilde withers as a keen assistant. McGregor brings a free-spirited Gen Z sense of sexual liberation as Romy’s queer daughter with a love triangle of her own, while Reilly succinctly captures the sweet innocence of a child that might well be shattered by the cracking of her mother’s all-mighty facade.
Altogether, the cast makes Babygirl a stunner, landing silly moments as well as sexy ones. Emotionally naked, unapologetically provocative, and defiantly playful, Reijn’s film joyfully explores the complicated ties that bind. Amid stiff competition, she delivers one of the sexiest, most thrilling films of the year.
Babygirl was reviewed out of its North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release the movie in theaters Dec. 25.
