Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson are up to all manner of psychosexual shenanegans in the new drama from Dutch director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies).
How to watch Babygirl in New Zealand
Babygirl will be playing in New Zealand cinemas from January 30, 2025.
Babygirl
What is Babygirl about?
In an age gap for the ages, Babygirl sees Kidman’s frustrated tech CEO and Dickinson’s confident, enigmatic intern embark on a steamy affair. She’s frustrated with her sex life with her supportive but dull theatre director husband, Jacob, while he… well, his motives are a little more unclear. It’s all bound to end in tears, of course. But it has a lot to say about gender disparity in the boardroom and the bedroom, power differentials, dominance, and desire. Babygirl comes to us courtesy of self-satisfied arthouse outfit A24, which should surprise nobody.
The cast of Babygirl
Nicole Kidman is sex-starved CEO Romy Mathis; Harris Dickinson is Samuel the intense intern; Antonio Banderas is Jacob Mathis, Romy’s dud root husband, which seems a stretch; Sophie Wilde is Esme, Romy’s assistant; Esther McGregor is Romy and Jacob’s teenage daughter, Isabel; and Vaughan Reilly is Nora, their younger daughter. Plus Gaite Jansen, Izabel Mar, Victor Slezak, Anoop Desai, Bartley Booz, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper, Leslie Silva, and Dolly Wells are in support.
Babygirl trailer
Why we’re excited about Babygirl
By all accounts Nicole Kidman delivers one of the best performances of the year. And the subject matter is certainly provocative, exploring similar territory to that covered by Sidney Shainberg’s Secretary back in 2002. But while critical acclaim has been strong, there’s been some unhappy rumblings from the kink community, averring that, like the much-mocked Fifty Shades of Grey series before it, Babygirl is a tourist’s take on dominance and submission. It has certainly taken a flogging at the box office, though, having so far failed to break even.
