May-December romance films are all over Hollywood’s calendar at the moment. Though lately, it’s the women who play the older partners in these taboo age-gap relationships. In just the past few years, we’ve seen The Idea of You (Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine), A Family Affair (Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron), Last Summer (Léa Drucker and Samuel Kircher), and the aptly named May December (Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and Charles Melton).
Whatever the broader societal psychosexual motivations behind this sudden interest in rebranding the formerly joked-about cougar into something deeper and more probing, the trend isn’t dying down anytime soon. The latest entry into the canon is Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman (again) and Triangle of Sadness star Harris Dickinson, which debuted to a warm reception at the Venice Film Festival (Kidman won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress).
The frothy A24 drama presents a clear-cut case of corporate sexual harassment (HR professionals, cover your ears), though based on the trailer below, it’s not clear who is at fault for violating the boundaries between CEO (Kidman) and intern (Dickinson). Those shifting power dynamics are explored with cheeky explicitness, with Dickinson’s character at one point literally ordering a quivering Kidman, who feigns offense and reluctance, to get on her knees. For a woman expected to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders, the trailer suggests, it’s a relief to not be in control for once—and her repressed need for submission is one that only Dickinson can intuit and satisfy.
Probably not the best film to watch with your family, Babygirl nonetheless hits theaters on Christmas Day.
Watch the Babygirl trailer below:
