If you were missing Adrian Lyne-style erotic thrillers — or even thought that such erotic thrillers were no longer possible — watch the second trailer for “Babygirl,” director Halina Reijn‘s scorcher starring an uninhibited Nicole Kidman as a CEO having an affair with a younger man (Harris Dickinson) who also happens to be in her employ.
But that power dynamic may not be exactly what it seems. Dickinson’s character, a late 20-something intern, is also into domination and submission dynamics in his relationships, and indeed appears to swiftly take the control of their sexual connection. Is this guy a threat?
Reijn’s film takes on issues of power and control in relationships in the fearless way viewers haven’t been accustomed to seeing in some time. “Babygirl” was a sensation at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, with many critics and journalists in attendance hailing it as the legendary actress’s best performance in recent vintage and positioning Kidman strongly in the Oscar race for Best Actress.
Reijn, who previously directed 2022’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” has said she was in awe of Kidman’s performance in her new film, likening the experience of watching her act to “an exorcism.”
“It’s about desires, your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, marriage, truth, power, consent, the language [around] sex,” Kidman said at the Venice Film Festival press conference for the film. “It’s told by a woman through her gaze, and that’s what it made it so unique. Suddenly, I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was very deep and very freeing to be able to share those things.”
“For each person that sees the film to interpret it, their interpretation will be wildly different,” Kidman said when asked about any parallels to her abused “Big Little Lies” character. “If we polled everyone in this room, they’d have a completely different reaction to Romy and the way she behaves. My connection to it is I want to examine human beings. I want to examine women onscreen, what it means to be human in all the facets of that and the labyrinth of that.”
Watch the new trailer below.
