Baby Girl

Of course I had never heard aboput this 2018 thriller titled "Baby Girl" prior to sitting down and watching it for the first time here in 2024. So I literally didn't know what to expect from writer Brandon Trask and director Kevin Van Stevenson.

The storyline in the movie was pretty slow paced. I will say that writer Brandon Trask definitely was good at fleshing out characters, but the pacing of the story was just pretty slow. And that made sitting through this a somewhat difficult task. The contents of the storyline were vague, and it didn't make for any particular entertaining viewing experience.

The movie is listed as a thriller. But I have to say that 50 minutes into the movie, this felt like nothing more than a sleaze-fest for writer Brandon Trask to showcase his lewd fantasies. And I tossed the towel in the ring around the 55 minute marker. By then I just couldn't take anymore of the pointless narrative and the sleazefest that this movie was. The movie failed to entertain me on a fundamental level.

I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list. But the cast ensemble was definitely talented, and they put on good performances in bringing the characters and storyline to life on the screen, despite of having very little of any solid contents to work with in terms of script and storyline.

Now, I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as this, perhaps a young adult audience. But if you sit down to watch a movie with the intention of being properly entertained by a proper movie, then "Baby Girl" is not something you should waste your time on.

My rating of "Baby Girl" lands on a very, very generous two out of ten stars, and that is based on the acting performances alone, because the storyline was a dumpster fire.

I could not even force myself to watch the entire thing. The acting is just horrible, none of them seem to know what they are doing. The way the lead smokes just looks freaking ugly. Why cast people who do not smoke, why make it a smoker in the first place, you did not really need that. The plot is horrible, the way the girls meet and start their story is incredibly bad. If nothing else the camera work is somewhat ok, does not look too bad. Any time they have a scene together the freaking cigarettes ruin everything. With every next plot line, it just gets dumber and dumber. The fight with mother is poorly made. After a somewhat decent scene of the fight with mother then switch to her talking about it holding a cigarette like she's disgusted by it. Why have it in the first place? Damn.

No real plot. Sex scenes without any depth. The lines between reality and truth were blurred. A change in the marital relationship happened throughout the story. I guess that was the point of the couple's relationship with inevitable exploration at the end. The movie was too long and so boring a fellow movie attendee was snoring loudly throughout. Even with some explicit scenes. The dominant younger man overtakes the obedient middle aged wife turning her into her supposedly untapped desire. Then her female assistant uses her obtained knowledge of the affair to gain advancement. Too many holes in the storyline. A complete disappointment and a waste of money.

Acting talent must not have been on the checklist when they cast this one. That being said, the dialog and emotional depth of the story wasn't ever going to make anyone a star. The only thing interesting was Diablo and her dangerous, freaky chick vibe. That can't exactly carry a film, though.

This movie is a train wreck from start to finish. The acting feels painfully amateur-it's like the cast had no idea what their characters are supposed to be doing or saying. Lines are delivered with zero conviction, and there's no chemistry-no spark-between the leads. On top of that, the editing? Terrible. There are abrupt cuts everywhere, like they just stitched scenes together without any thought. It looks like the editor never did this before. The main actress isn't believable either-her transformation around harmful influences is amateur-hour melodrama, not emotion. This flick is something you'll only endure if you're high or utterly bored. Sex and drugs are thrown in for cheap thrills, but there's no depth, no tension, and absolutely no emotional pull. A total waste.