1 of 6 | Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman star in “Babygirl,” in theaters Dec. 25. Photo courtesy of A24
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 (UPI) — Babygirl, in theaters Wednesday, is the kind of erotic drama they used to make a lot in the ’80s and ’90s. As such, it is refreshing in 2024, though perhaps still derivative of its genre predecessors.
Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman) is the founder and CEO of Tensile, a robotics company developing automated drones for warehouses. She is married to a theater director, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), and they have two daughters.
When Tensile begins a mentorship program for interns, Samuel (Harris Dickinson) pushes Romy’s buttons to get one-on-one time with her. His power plays unlock Romy’s repressed sexual desires and they begin an affair.
Playing power games may be inherent to many sexual relationships, so it’s not like one movie invented them, but it’s hard not to think about 9½ Weeks. In that notorious 1986 film, Mickey Rourke played a man who seduces a woman (Kim Basinger) with sex games involving food, spanking and blindfolds.
Still, Babygirl doesn’t play Romy as a cliche of a powerful businesswoman who really likes to be submissive in bed and experience the adrenaline of risking exposure.
Not that the affair compromises Romy’s success, either, although it could if Samuel reports her. She also starts to blur the lines of being submissive in private and at the office, but she doesn’t let it interfere with business decisions.
The love scenes between Kidman and Dickinson are revealing, but not gratuitous. They are vulnerable and uncomfortable rather than titillating.
The way writer-director Halina Reijn approaches consent is interesting and seems realistic. Samuel does insist on consent before continuing, which is a fantastic portrayal of obtaining verbal consent, though the conditions of Romy’s consent remain nebulous.
Romy makes it clear that Samuel’s power games make her uncomfortable. Agreeing to continue while feeling uncomfortable seems like it adds a level of duress.
It’s 80 minutes into the movie before Samuel and Romy even discuss using a safe word, which would give either party, but especially Romy, a way to end a session at her discretion. Yet, this is believable because Romy and Samuel are amateurs at this, so they’re figuring it out.
Samuel may play the dominant role, but he is in many respects just a poser. He is a young intern and very emotional when things don’t go his way.
It seems like Samuel is imitating what he thinks a Casanova would act like, but whenever Romy goes off script, Samuel seems to be at a loss for words. It’s not natural to him, either, though he thinks of some clever workplace games that make Romy play along.
He’s probably watched 9½ Weeks, too, or more likely just read the Wikipedia summary.
The Jacob character is the film’s most stereotypical.
Jacob is a loving husband who just can’t excite Romy. Romy tries to teach him to play games in bed, but Jacob doesn’t enjoy experimenting. It’s odd that a person whose job is in the arts would lack any creativity with his partner, but he’s entitled to have traditional desires, too.
The lack of monogamy is an unmitigated betrayal, as even submissive relationships should respect loyalty unless they’ve discussed and agreed to having an open relationship. The film eventually explores how a couple navigates compatibility, but Romy has to own hers first.
Individual choices the characters make in Babygirl will provoke discussions, and won’t be spoiled in this review. The positive is that the film does show Romy’s growth through the experience.
So, even if a viewer disagrees with part of the journey, the film makes its case for the value of those experiences. That makes it an engaging, provocative film.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
Raw, intimate, and uplifting, Rebuilding tells a story of overcoming heartbreaking, real-world struggles and mending broken relationships; it’s an inspiring love letter to the hard, unforgiving American West.
This slice-of-life film is surprisingly inspiring. It perfectly balances death and innocence from a childlike perspective. After a devastating fire sweeps across the land and destroys several farms, Dusty has to decide whether to be present in his daughter’s life or move to Montana to continue his farming career. Raw, intimate, and uplifting, Rebuilding tells a story of overcoming heartbreaking, real-world struggles and mending broken relationships; it’s an inspiring love letter to the hard, unforgiving American West.
After the catastrophic fires in California earlier this year, the film’s release couldn’t have been timelier. Having suffered the effects of a forest fire himself, director Max Walker-Silverman’s personal experience shines through. Many quiet scenes are infused with depth not only due to the emotional performances of the actors but also as a result of Walker-Silverman’s personal touch. The film drips with his love for his craft, community, and hometown. Recently, I was able to chat with him about the experiences that led to him creating this film. You can find that conversation here.
The most powerful relationship depicted in the film is the one between Dusty and his daughter, Callie Rose. Her faith in him inspires him to stop running and to open himself up to the relationships that truly matter. Her heart redeems him.
At the start of the film, Dusty is a loner who prefers to spend time with his animals rather than his neighbors. But when he is forced to sell his cattle and rebuild, he comes to understand the importance of community. By the end of the story, he is a new man. It is a powerful lesson in selflessness and friendship.
Death is ever-present in this film, though not in a suffocating way. After a loss in the family, Callie Rose asks what happens after death. Dusty offers a romantic secular response, replying that his mother always said they bury people so they can come back as trees. When those trees die, they come back again. This interaction opens the door for viewers to discuss the realities of heaven and hell.
The film also emphasizes the importance of making the most of what you have. One of the characters has a mantra, “You get what you get.” She is the picture of contentment, teaching her granddaughter to be generous and to appreciate the small things in life. She is a comfortable, lovable character who provides a great example of living a quiet life to the fullest.
Rebuilding can be seen simply as a love letter to the American West. Even though a terrible fire has just destroyed every material thing Dusty and his newfound community owned and loved, there remains an innate beauty that is impossible to erase. The cinematography is gorgeous, featuring sweeping landscapes as well as plain, dusty dirt roads and buildings. The original score fits perfectly, with the stripped down acoustics and strings adding a greater sense of authenticity.
Rebuilding is an inspiring film full of life lessons. It reflects the gospel in a quiet and steady way. The story is unhurried and allows viewers to fully appreciate the characters and their struggles. Overall, I recommend this film to anyone looking to enjoy a beautiful, low-key story on a rainy day.
On the Surface
On the Surface—(Profanity, Sexual content, violence, etc.).
Language: None
Violence: None
Sexuality: Elderly characters that may be in a homosexual relationship live together, though nothing explicitly sexual is shown.
Beneath The Surface
One of the major themes of this film is rebirth. Fire is a cleansing force. Once something is burned, it can never return to what it was before. Though fire is destructive, it also presents an opportunity for a new beginning. Before the fire, though everything may have looked fine on the surface, life was pulling Dusty further and further from his daughter. Afterward, his heart begins to change.
Dusty’s transformation mirrors the Christian experience. The Bible describes the Spirit as a flame in Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). When you are truly confronted with the Spirit, nothing can ever be the same again. The impact of that encounter is undeniable, just as it is impossible to deny the evidence of a recent fire.
After the confrontation and prayerful acceptance comes a period of rebuilding during which one learns how to walk with Christ. This is the point in the process in which the movie takes place—the sanctification. A slow renewal begins. Though there are setbacks and doubts along the way, Dusty has been reborn.
The charges of “Blasphemy!” are likely to come fast and furious for Lotfy Nathan’s supernatural horror film revolving around the life of the teenage Jesus. Based on the apocryphal “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” (which I confess I haven’t read), the film strains mightily for a seriousness that it never deserves. I mean, when you cast Nicolas Cage as “The Carpenter” and FKA Twigs as “The Mother,” you’re already kind of throwing in the towel.
Despite its handsome production values and an arresting performance by Isla Johnston (The Queen’s Gambit) as “The Stranger,” who turns out to be, wait for it, Satan, The Carpenter’s Son will please neither the faithful nor those looking for a more traditional fright film in which the Devil makes an appearance.
The Carpenter’s Son
The Bottom Line Jesus Christ!
Release date: Friday, November 11
Cast: Nicholas Cage, FKA Twigs, Noah Jupe, Isla Johnston, Souheila Yacoub
Director-screenwriter: Lotfy Nathan
Rated R,
1 hour 34 minutes
Set largely in “Anno Domini 15,” the story takes place in Roman-era Egypt, where Joseph and Mary (let’s not be coy about this) are going about their daily lives while being understandably protective of their 15-year-old son Jesus (Noah Jupe, reuniting with Twigs after Honey Boy). So Joseph gets understandably perturbed when his son begins hanging out with a mysterious stranger with haunting eyes.
“I play games all day. Will you play with me?” the stranger asks Jesus, which provides a subtle clue that he may be up to no good. Not to mention his propensity for playing with scorpions.
Soon enough, Jesus finds himself increasingly drawn to the stranger, much to his father’s consternation. “My faith has become a broken crutch!” Joseph exclaims, in the way that only Nicolas Cage can. The villagers are equally upset, becoming convinced that the carpenter’s son and his new friend are evil spirits. A reasonable assumption, considering that highly aggressive snakes are starting to emanate from people’s mouths. Meanwhile, Jesus understandably begins to suffer daddy issues: “Tell me who my father is!” he implores the stranger.
Writer-director Nathan (12 O’Clock Boys), who grew up in the Coptic Orthodox Church, seems to be sincere in his attempt to present a Biblical narrative from a very different perspective. The Carpenter’s Son is nothing if not solemn, presented with all the gravitas of a ‘50s-era religious epic as if directed by John Carpenter. The performers are equally committed, although Cage immediately sends out campy vibes. Not so much from his performance, which is relatively restrained, but his mere presence. That’s simply what happens when you cast the actor who starred in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Mandy as Joseph.
Since Twigs and Jupe have no such cinematic baggage, they fare much better. But the real standout is Johnston, whose eyes are so mesmerizing that it’s easy to see why Jesus falls under the stranger’s spell. The actress, who will soon be playing the lead role in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Joan of Arc pic, has such a compelling screen presence that stardom seems all but assured. Add to that the fact that she can deliver lines like “I am the accuser of light…I am the adversary” with utter conviction and you can see she’s going places.
For all its visual stylishness, The Carpenter’s Son feels like such an essentially misconceived project that it seems destined for future cult status, with audiences at midnight screenings shouting out the more outrageous lines in unison with the actors. Which may not be what the filmmaker intended, but sounds like a lot of fun.
Arco, 2025.
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu.
Featuring the voice talents of Juliano Krue Valdi, Romy Fay, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Flea, Roeg Sutherland, America Ferrera, Zoya Bogomolova, and Wyatt Danieluk.
SYNOPSIS:
In 2075, a girl witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. She shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time.
With a prologue set far in the future, co-writer/director Ugo Bienvenu (unmistakably inspired by the striking works of Hayao Miyazaki and penning the screenplay with Félix de Givry) depicts the world of Arco as a riff on the earliest civilizations. Climate change has ravaged Earth, where the old ways are new again; there appears to be no more traditional technology or much of anything beyond living within one’s natural environment. However, humanity has learned that homes should be built as circular structures on platforms in the sky, to relieve the surface of various environmental pressures and allow it to heal continuously.
The other twist is that this new civilization has apparently developed or acquired time travel technology, traveling into the past to learn what went wrong and how not to repeat it, and to prevent the planet from spiraling into another devastating crisis. That is the job of the titular Arco’s (voiced in the English-language version by Juliano Krue Valdi) family (with parents voiced by Roeg Sutherland and America Ferrera in the English-language version), as the 10-year-old boy is considered too young to join them on these time-traveling expeditions to amass knowledge that has been depleted or lost.
Naturally, this leaves Arco feeling frustrated and distant from his family, even though they are generally around quite a bit to provide for him. Arco doesn’t have the patience to wait until he comes of time-traveling age, though, stealing his sister’s flying cloak (they are brightly colored, resembling rainbows), soaring his way unintentionally until the year 2075, when climate change is seemingly at its most dangerous and when robots have taken over the majority of the workforce.
While on the run from a trio of comedic relief twins looking to capture him or the diamond that gives the cloak the ability to time travel (play by the amusing trifecta of Will Ferrell, Flea, and Andy Samberg in the English-language version, with their blending together and sounding alike as they bumble their way through their objective), Arco befriends the similarly aged Iris (voiced in the English-language version by Romy Fay) who is, unsurprisingly, fascinated by his eccentric attire but also curious about him and why he is asking what year it is.
Considering that Iris’ parents (voice in the English-language version by Mark Ruffalo and producer Natalie Portman) are often working in what’s left of the city, and only around via holographic projections through the technology of robot caretaker Mikki (also voiced by a combination of Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman), it’s tantalizing to be around another human. Even at school, there are no teachers; robots give lectures through a virtual reality component. And although one student appears to be interested in her, Iris generally comes across as isolated and lonely in a world where outdoor play is minimal, given the nonstop storms and wildfires terrorizing the planet.
Not only is Iris determined to help Arco find the diamond and the methods to fly back to his time correctly, but she also seems to want to join him to get away from this depressing state of near-future life and constant damage being done to the Earth. A future with almost nothing in the way of modern technology sounds like a reprieve. Perhaps that’s part of what the filmmakers are saying: in a world where AI threatens to take over everything and do more harm than good with no foreseeable way of, at the very least, reducing the damages wrought by climate change, maybe society has to circle back around to a somewhat ancient civilization lifestyle. In a more common juxtaposition, she also seems jealous that he gets to be in his parents’ presence as much as he does, whereas he is mostly frustrated that they believe he isn’t ready to time-travel with them.
Although there is much to ponder about Arco‘s timely and imaginative messaging, which perhaps most importantly chooses optimism and hope, this is also a visually resplendent, colorful, humorous tale of bonding and trial and error. The presence of Will Ferrell alone should be enough to tell parents this is not all doom and gloom, even if the mature themes are welcome and should have children curious about current critical events.
Even at 88 minutes, it slightly drags in the back half until reaching an emotional wallop of an ending that would have been more effective if the rest of the film were more interested in the sci-fi dynamics than solely these two kids hanging out and avoiding a trio of comic relief dopes. Arco is still moving and lightweight fun, though, even if it doesn’t capitalize on all its wondrously creative ideas.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
Half-naked woman was allegedly tortured and chained in Texas backyard for months by five ‘friends’ who didn’t ‘like her anymore’
Missing Kapolei man found in Waipio, attorney says
Texas launches effort to install TPUSA in every high school and college
Where to watch Nebraska vs UCLA today: Time, TV channel for Week 11 game
Police investigate car collision, shooting in Orange, New Jersey
Northern Lights to dazzle skies across these US states tonight – from Washington to Vermont to Maine | Today News
Israel’s focus on political drama rather than Palestinian rape victim
Search for coal miner trapped in flooded West Virginia mine continues for third day
