Girl 👏🏾Baby 👏🏾 Girl.👏🏾
We’ve got to chat about Babygirl. The new Nicole Kidman film that is the talk of the k*nk community.
Please Note: There is a spoiler warning within this post; so feel free to read up until that point if you have not seen the movie and would like to!
This past Saturday my wife and I treated ourselves to a new wine club membership, around $58 of charcuterie board fixings, and a $19.99 downloadable rental: Baby Girl.
The film stars Nicole Kidman (her character is Romy) and Antonio Banderas (his character is Jacob) as her husband. It explores the realms of 🐝DSM. The film touched on elements that I liked…and things that could have been reworked in a more empowering way; because if there’s one thing k*nk needs less of…it’s negative stereotypes.
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✨✨✨SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW! ✨✨✨
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This film had a fair share of things that I liked and plenty of moments of cringe. So let’s break it down!
As the movie starts we are met with a somewhat awkward moment of Romy having a demure (fake) orgasm with her husband. Moments later she goes to finish in a separate room in a more primal based moment while watching an adult video.
As the movie continues, Romy is introduced to her deepest sexual desires thanks to a new intern at her company (Samuel). What ensues is an affair filled with power play, semi public sex, and primal play just to name a few.
The film does a somewhat decent enough job of exploring some classic k*nk themes…however; there were quite a few moments that gave me the ick to put it bluntly.
THE GOOD
🕯️When I found out that this film was predominately about 🐝DSM I knew that I had to see it ASAP. As someone who has been a k*nk educator and in a few non-normative relationship dynamics, I was ready.
🕯️Age gap relationships within the k*nk world often cater to men being the center of attention, however Romy is the submissive and is older than her Dominant Samuel.
🕯️Power play being featured! This film did not really feature your run of the impact k*nk arsenal.
🕯️Moments of beautiful aftercare between Romy and Samuel, which showcased just how connective SM dynamics can be.
🕯️Discussing themes of female sexuality, female orgasms, and the stigmas about mental health with SM.
🕯️I found the relationship between Romy and her queer kiddo to be refreshing, particularly their juxtuposition.
THE BAD
⛓️The ending of this film felt very rushed, things appeared to be all better with Romy and Jacob as they engaged in how her first sexual encounter with Samuel was. It does appear that Romy has a better control of herself and desires, however we have no idea what happened to Samuel aside from him transferring to Japan. Do they still have a dynamic going on that is long distance?
⛓️How I long for there to be a 🐝DSM film in which proper communication is explored as well as boundaries. While Samuel and Romy do at some point have a conversation around their relationship agreement, they are already pretty well established in a dynamic. With Samuel as the more ‘seasoned’ player I would have liked to see him not surprise Romy at home without her consent not once, not twice, but three times.
⛓️Affairs and k*nk are something that often unfortunately do go hand in hand, given the fact that they are still not seen as acceptable by the mainstream. Overall this is less about the film itself and more so just an irk that I have. Perhaps the world is not ready for a dynamic of that nature just yet, but hey a girl can desire it right?
⛓️As a cenefile and someone who has a background in script writing…nothing irks me more than unrealistic dialogue. If you are also offended by this, chances are you’ll find yourself in the same boat with Babygirl. In addition to this the progressive character development was a bit shoddy.
Overall, if I had to give this movie a rating it would probably be a B. It’s a movie that lends itself to spark discussion, not to mention the fact that it does stick with you in spite of there being some questionable flow issues with the film itself.
What were your thoughts on Babygirl? Did you love it? Hate it? Somewhere in the middle? Pop off in the comments I wanna know.