Halina Reijn’s frank sexual odyssey begins as it means to go on, with a level of candor that many audiences will find hard to process.
They bought into Nicole Kidman’s performance alright, since it’s hard to ignore the amount of dedication, not to mention naked flesh, that she brings to the role.
But though there are wry laughs to be had, from the exquisite awkwardness of the setup alone, Babygirl was received by many as a comedy, which trivializes the extraordinary atmosphere that Reijn creates.
Her experiences working as an actor for Paul Verhoeven (on 2006’s Black Books) clearly rubbed off, since her third feature owes a small debt to his controversial revenge thriller Elle, which raised a similarly provocative debate about male aggression and female sexuality.
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