Romy Mathis leads a robotics company in New York and appears to control her work and family life. She loves her husband and two daughters, but her marriage leaves some desires unsatisfied. Her life changes when Samuel, a much younger intern, begins a secret affair with her. The film combines office tension, dark humor, family problems, and explicit sexual scenes. Romy must face the difference between her public image and her private wishes.
The film shows female sexual freedom, female pleasure, and shame placed on women. Romy leads a company while facing pressure to look young, act perfectly, and protect her reputation. Her daughter Isabel has a girlfriend and treats attraction to girls as normal family life. The story supports self acceptance and questions older ideas about marriage, workplace power, gender, and proper behavior. These themes strongly shape Romy’s personal conflict, while workplace equality appears in smaller scenes.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Babygirl.
Woke representation / casting
The film places a woman CEO at the center of its story. The film also gives a woman assistant and a queer teen visible roles. The modern New York setting makes those choices believable. The creator and press frame the film around a female gaze and female sexual agency. That framing adds a mild focus on identity.
18%
Woke political dialogue
The company presents inclusive growth and emotional intelligence as leadership goals. Esme asks for support programs for young female engineers. Esme later says the company should support women at every level. These lines give the story a modern workplace equality message. The lines remain side dialogue beside the main affair.
45%
Identity-driven story themes
Romy’s main conflict centers on shame about female desire and the wish to control her own pleasure. The film links her fear of aging to pressure on women to look young, perfect, and fertile. Isabel has a girlfriend and treats same sex attraction as normal family life. The ending rewards Romy’s self acceptance while questioning old rules about marriage, gender, and sexuality.
72%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film shows Romy fighting pressure to be a perfect wife, mother, and CEO. The film ties that pressure to the male gaze and older ideas about female beauty. Esme expects a woman leader to help other women rise at work. Jacob calls female submission a male fantasy, but the story rejects his simple answer.
58%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is a fully original story with no changes to established characters or source material.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Some Letterboxd viewers call the film a progressive girlboss story. One review links its queer family and female leadership to diversity politics. A Spanish newspaper review says gender politics matter more than film quality. Mainstream reports focus on sex, consent, age gaps, and power instead. The backlash looks scattered and small, not like a broad campaign.
16%
Creator track record context
Halina Reijn’s cached score is 39/100, with a focus on female desire, shame, and power. Her Babygirl interviews frame the film with female gaze, patriarchy, female liberation, and orgasm gap language. Avy Kaufman’s cached score is 45/100 because of identity focused projects. The other cached crew scores are low. The current film matches Reijn’s known themes, but the crew shows no broad activist record.
42%
Production
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