Babygirl (2024)

Critics loved Babygirl, regular audiences mostly shrugged, and both sides have a point. Nicole Kidman plays Romy Mathis, the CEO of a New York automation tech firm, with a theater director husband, Antonio Banderas’s Jacob, and two daughters. The story is about a powerful CEO whose secret relationship with a young intern, Harris Dickinson’s Samuel, puts everything she’s built at risk. Kidman carries it. She plays Romy as someone always in control on the surface and coming apart underneath, and the strain shows in every scene. Dickinson is magnetic and hard to read, and Banderas makes the husband more than a plot device. Halina Reijn shoots it plain and gritty instead of glossy, which keeps the tension tight early, but long stretches go cool and clinical when they should grip. A 6.9 because three strong performances carry a film that keeps you at arm’s length. $11.62 says a loose dog crosses your path on the way to work and you brace for a plot twist.

What works: Nicole Kidman is fearless and vulnerable at once, and Harris Dickinson and Antonio Banderas give her something real to play against.

What doesn’t: Halina Reijn’s cool, clinical approach sometimes flattens the tension, and the film can feel mechanical when it should feel urgent.

Who it’s for: Grown-ups who follow Nicole Kidman anywhere and like their workplace dramas tense and uncomfortable.