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Babygirl

Play trailer Poster for Babygirl 2012 1h 16m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 4 Reviews 42% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A teenager (Yainis Ynoa) tries to break up her mother's new romance after the man starts hitting on her.
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Babygirl

Critics Reviews

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Shadow and Act Staff Shadow and Act The nuance of these characterizations, along with the great dialogue and director Vallely’s strong script, makes Babygirl a touching, compelling and recommended film to watch. Sep 15, 2022 Full Review Jeannette Catsoulis New York Times A gently knowing coming-of-age tale about the dangers of combining intellectual precociousness with emotional immaturity. Rated: 3.5/5 Oct 3, 2013 Full Review Chris Packham Village Voice You learn everything about the principal characters in the film's opening moments, a tight haiku of inner-city domesticity ... Oct 1, 2013 Full Review David Noh Film Journal International Despite the filmmakers' good intentions and some agreeable urban atmosphere, this is an unmemorable portrait of a young virgin. Oct 14, 2013 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member A stark but heartwarming story of a young girl navigating her feelings, and trying to stop a predator. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member A creepy story with a Latin Bronx backdrop, about a 26 year old man trying to get with a 16 year old and her mother. It's interesting but nothing more than that. There is no one to root for because all the characters are unlikable. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie messed with my head not really impressed. Good enough to watch once then try to forget. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member As a coming-of-age story, Macdara Vallely's Babygirl is quite successful. Front and center in the film is Yainis Ynoa, an attractive young talent whose Lena is equal parts street smart and naive. These characteristics help her navigate the tricky waters of the Bronx where her mother's boyfriend lusts after her while she struggles to deal with boys her own age. Because she must serve as her self-centered mother's babysitter, she's distrustful of men and afraid to let any of them close to her, even kindly pizza delivery boy Xavier (Joshua Rivera). Watching Lena's journey toward discovering her own identity is a treat. Unfortunately, Babygirl too often gets bogged down in clunky and deeply cliched melodrama. Her mother is Lucy (Rosa Arredondo), and the boyfriend, who's much younger, is Victor (Flaco Navaja). From the moment they met, however, the much younger Victor had eyes for Lena. She's afraid to tell her mother, and this initial reluctance proves a big mistake as Victor becomes a regular part of her life. Lena is game for trying anything if it means her mother, who's prone to falling for the wrong type of guy, dumps this creep, and she ultimately settles on telling him that if he breaks up with Lucy, Lena will go out on one date with him. He does, but she doesn't reciprocate. What she wasn't prepared for was Victor's persistence, which complicates her life in ways she never could have anticipated. Everything starts out interestingly enough, and there's a great ambiguity in Ynoa's performance, as we're never quite clear where Lena's true feelings end and her deceptive seduction of Victor begins. It's pretty clear, however, that Vallely's screenplay needed polishing. The proof is in the details-when a character steps away from her phone at an inopportune moment, or when another leaves her phone somewhere when she would presumably most need it. The film's dramatic climax is utterly implausible, and some of the dialogue falls completely flat. Though the characters are fully realized, the situations in which they find themselves never rise above B-movie or soap opera territory. Technically, the film is unremarkable. There's also the problem of too many meaningless musical montages. It's all a shame because there's talent involved here, especially when it comes to the actors. Ynoa, as outlined earlier, is excellent. Both Arrendondo and Navaja give their characters a great deal of complexity, especially the latter, whose Victor is not the serial killer you might expect him to be. Even Joshua Rivera is good in a role that's criminally underwritten. Xavier is more a plot device than a fully realized individual, but Rivera has a presence that makes the character stand out far more than he should. There's nothing in Babygirl that's inherently uncommercial, but there also isn't anything that's going to set the film world on fire. It just goes to show you, even great performances can't make up for a story that's only half there. http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/babygirl-review/ Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A teenager (Yainis Ynoa) tries to break up her mother's new romance after the man starts hitting on her.
Director
Macdara Vallely
Producer
David Collins, Gigi Dement, R. Paul Miller
Screenwriter
Macdara Vallely
Production Co
Escape Pictures, Samson Films
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 29, 2016
Runtime
1h 16m
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