Babygirl · reception & legacy

How Babygirl has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It landed Christmas 2024 as A24's counter-programming event, with Nicole Kidman fresh off a Volpi Cup win at Venice — then the discourse split hard between 'the erotic thriller is back' and 'wait, this isn't even that erotic.' A year and a half on it's remembered less as a scandal than as the film that got everyone arguing about whether movies had forgotten how to be sexy.

What's debated

The forever-debate: is it genuinely transgressive or just tastefully corporate kink — and was Kidman's Oscar snub after winning Venice a robbery?

Its footprint

The glass of milk became an instant meme — bars and brands riffed on it, 'good girl' entered the vocabulary — and Harris Dickinson's hotel-room dance to George Michael's 'Father Figure' was clipped, looped, and parodied endlessly.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd discourse-magnet more than a settled classic — the film everyone had a one-liner review of, and the moment Harris Dickinson became the internet's babygirl.

Named by the director

Influences Halina Reijn has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• 9½ Weeks (1986) — Reijn has said seeing it made her 'feel less alone' in her dark fantasies, and calls Babygirl her answer to it.
• Fatal Attraction (1987) — One of the late-'80s erotic thrillers Reijn cites rewatching while shaping the film.
• Basic Instinct (1992) — Reijn names it among the '90s thrillers she was writing back to from a female gaze.
• Secretary (2002) — Cited by Reijn as a touchstone for power-exchange romance done from the inside.
• The Piano Teacher (2001) — Reijn has named Haneke's film as an influence on Babygirl's portrait of hidden desire.
• Paul Verhoeven — Her Black Book director and declared master of the genre — she cites his thrillers (including Elle) and his advice to build a film around a question you can't answer.