Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Now in cinemas: Halina Reijn's Babygirl
|
Hello Reader, Is Halina Reijn's Babygirl the erotic thriller of the year? Is it even an erotic thriller?! Nicole Kidman's performance is getting all the buzz; she won Best Actress at Venice. But the film's best asset is rising star Harris Dickinson (Beach Rats, Triangle of Sadness), as the intern to her CEO, the unexpected lover in a power-exchange relationship who knows exactly what she needs and isn't getting from her husband (Antonio Banderas). Love it, hate it, or feel kinda middling about it as we did, Babygirl offers a lot of food for thought! Today on the podcast, I'm joined by Woman in Revolt Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Pugh to dig into why we think Babygirl is worth talking about...even if we didn't totally love it. Episode 155: Halina Reijn's BabygirlHappy watching/listening! Alex
|
Seventh Row
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to Bill Hader, the SNL star-turned-writer-director, on the Team Deakins podcast. He was talking about rewatching Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, hitting a moment that felt like an emotional gut punch — and literally pausing the film to ask:“Why did that hit me?!” That kind of moment — where something lands harder than you expect —and you feel something strongly before you know why… You’ve probably had that, too. Even Hader — who thinks about directing...
The best film I saw at this year’s Berlinale was a 19th-century period drama that felt like Portrait of a Lady on Fire meets Belle meets An Education. Much like in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the only men in the film are servants or employees. Which means the story can laser-focus on the racial, class, and sexual hierarchies the women are still subject to, even when men aren’t around. Like Portrait, it is about lesbians. And like Belle, one of the main characters is a racialized aristocrat....
I'm technically writing to you from Toronto, where the snow is starting to melt, and the skies are still stubbornly grey. Even though I'm not at the Berlinale in person, my disembodied voice was there this morning at a panel on how we're discussing, talking about, and thinking about film in 2026. (Which means my talk was something I recorded, and you can listen to it! Even if, like me, you're on a different continent right now.) Most of the wonderful panellists were discussing their work to...