'My film is a cautionary tale': 'Babygirl' director on shame, power and femininity Christiane Amanpour speaks to Halina Reijn, who is the director and writer of new film "Babygirl". ‘He's taking his act on the road’: Analysts react to Elon Musk’s foray into European politics

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the year’s most talked-about movies continues with the Venice Film Festival-premiering Babygirl, A24 ’s erotic thriller from writer-director Halina Reijn that stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. It hit theaters December 20.

While there have been debates about whether or not the film fully delivered (there are some Twitter truthers who argue it wasn't that kinky), the general public can all agree on one thing: the film's "Father Figure" scene was pure cinema.

"Cementing her status as Hollywood's boldest actress, Nicole Kidman bares herself every which way – physically, emotionally and artistically – in 'Babygirl'", Halina Reijn's erotic thriller about a kinky workplace affair, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times.

The movie, starring Nicole Kidman, operates at the level of the female gaze. Its inversion of erotic thriller tropes leads to fascinating but, at times, tepid results.

Justin Kuritzkes ('Challengers' and 'Queer'), Payal Kapadia, ('All We Imagine as Light'), Mangold ('A Complete Unknown'), Reijn ('Babygirl') and Jason Reitman ('Saturday Night').

The writer and director Halina Reijn narrates a sequence from her film, featuring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson.

A key scene in 'Babygirl' features George Michael's "Father Figure." It turns out writer-director Halina Reijn knew she wanted to use the song before she wrote a word of the script. She tells Entertainment Weekly why.

Brazilian historical drama I’m Still Here starring Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres debuted to an excellent $25,082 per-screen average in a low-grossing Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend at the US box office.

A24's Babygirl features Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, and Antonio Banderas in key roles. Read on

Instead, these moments in “Anora,” “Babygirl,” “Challengers” and more involve complex power dynamics that speak volumes about their characters.

A depiction of a sadomasochistic relationship between a CEO and an intern, Halina Reijn's film keeps its distance and misses the meeting of the characters.