Since opening three days ago Babygirl has been faring rather poorly with Joe and Jane Popcorn, but it’s not the fault of director-writer Halina Riijn, who’s made a brilliant, riveting film about compulsive sexual behavior.
The fault, dear Brutus, lies with A24’s marketing team, which has insisted on selling the Nicole Kidman-Harris Dickinson film as an “erotic thriller.” Erotic it certainly is, but no one in their right mind would call it a thriller.
Friendo: “Don’t you think marketing this film as an ‘80s & ‘90s-style ‘erotic thriller’ a la Body Heat, Basic Instinct and Sea of Love may have been a SERIOUS miscalculation?”
HE: “Yes. Applying the ‘thriller’ label is completely ridiculous.”
Friendo: “This is how the producers or the releasing company were promoting the film: As a goddamn ‘erotic thriller.’ Which it most certainly is not. And those of us (like me) who believed the hype, were expecting — and YEARNING FOR — that kind of experience. Instead we got a bait & switch.”