9/20/2025

Babygirl (2024)

Romy looks to be successful in both her career and her family. However, the very first scene hints at something being "off" in her sex life: immediately after having what looks to be mutually satisfying sex with her husband, she nearly runs out of the room to masturbate to porn -- clearly hiding this activity from him.

At work, there's a new crop of interns and Samuel captures her interest with his slightly entitled and unpolished behavior. He selects her as his mentor and she agrees after initial refusal. Somehow, though I completely missed the cues, they both pick up on her desire to be dominated and they have a couple of awkward encounters before settling on some ground rules. Though they both seem to want to keep their activities separate from the rest of their lives, she experiences jealousy when she sees him with someone else and he crosses a line when he shows up at her country home when her family is home.

Though I was kind of blown-away by the story's climax and denouement, I was mostly confused as to what Samuel picked up on. I'd assume this is just what he does and lucked into a willing participant, but we see him having a more traditional relationship, so that didn't seem to be it. This confusion rather overwhelmed the entire experience for me, making it feel like a fantasy rather than an actual possibility.

B