‘Babygirl’ Could Be a Great Movie — If It Had a Little More Discipline

Nicole Kidman’s character wants to be a boss in the office and a slave in the sheets.

Niko Tavernise for A24
Nicole Kidman (Romy Mathis) and Harris Dickinson (Samuel) in 'Babygirl,' 2024. Niko Tavernise for A24

“Babygirl” is a new movie from A24 and a Dutch director, Halina Reijn, starring Nicole Kidman as a high-powered chief executive, Romy Mathis, who wants to be a boss in the office and a slave in the sheets. It offers a twist on the usual workplace affair because Mathis’s paramour is a younger male intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson). He is willing to do to her what her husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), refuses. So far, so 2024.

Ms. Kidman delivers a riveting performance as a woman who manages to be both at the summit and at loose ends. Her company automates warehouses — Amazon meets A.I. — and some of the movie’s most gorgeous shots sweep in not legs and lace but colorful expanses of merchandise. Mathis is the ultimate girlboss, but all she’s done is lean in and she hardly has it all. She has never climaxed with her husband, for one. Vanilla is her least favorite flavor.

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