Babysitter, 2022.
Directed by Monia Chokri.
Starring Patrick Hivon, Monia Chokri, Nadia Tereszkiewcz, Steve Laplante, and Hubert Proulx.
SYNOPSIS:
After a sexist joke goes viral, Cédric loses his job and embarks on a therapeutic journey to free himself from sexism and misogyny. He and his girlfriend hire a mysterious and liberated babysitter to help shake things up.
Director Monia Chokri’s (A Brother’s Love) sophomore feature is a skittish adaptation of Catherine Léger’s play, and though the film’s screenplay was penned by Léger herself, Babysitter confirms the challenges associated with translating stories across scripted mediums.
The film opens with a shitfaced Cédric (Patrick Hivon) making the ill-advised decision to kiss a female news reporter without her consent during a broadcast. Cédric is subsequently suspended from his job, to the chagrin of his girlfriend Nadine (Chokri), with whom he recently had a baby. Cédric ultimately decides to join forces with his “faux-woke” brother Jean-Michel (Steve Laplante) to concoct an image-rehabilitating apology, a book reckoning with their own sexist pasts albeit with material gain in mind.
But both men are thrown for a loop when, while hiring a babysitter, Cédric meets potential candidate Amy (Nadia Tereszkiewicz); a beautiful, wide-eyed young woman who quickly wins the job. Yet as the two brothers wrestle with their own red-blooded desires, it becomes clear that Amy’s presence may help Nadine reckon with her dissatisfied station in life.
Right from its opening scene, Babysitter lies awash in sheer, unbridled chaos. Cédric is attending an MMA fight when the drunken smooch occurs, and the scene is a slapdash collage of ultra-fast cutting, bewildering snap zooms, and relentless lewd dialogue. Ironically, Chokri ends the scene by finally slowing things down and focusing on the visage of one MMA fighter brutally beating and choking another to a bloody pulp, in what’s nothing if not a loaded, unspoken flipping of the bird at the male gaze.
For better or worse, this dizzying opening sets the tone for what’s to come. In its bones, Chokri’s film is a stinging indictment of men acting with impunity and their insincere subsequent attempts to “make right” with society. Rather than privately apologise to the reporter, of course Cédric has to make it a public spectacle that’s ultimately more about himself and about generating a revenue stream he can exploit.
It’s not a subtle story in any way, but there is at least a fair attempt to explore aspects of modern gender dynamics fairly circumscribed by film as a whole. Especially cutting is the characterisation of Cédric’s brother Jean-Michel, depicted here as a pompous wind-bag who thinks himself incredibly progressive and feminist, yet is an over-eager and ultimately disingenuous ally who trembles with lust at the sight of Amy.
Yet the most involving aspect of the script is surely the dynamic between Nadine and Amy, the outcome of which won’t be terribly surprising to anyone paying attention, though assures to subvert the typicality of “sexy babysitter” movies with confident gusto.
Babysitter was part of Sundance’s Midnight line-up, which while perhaps inviting expectations of a more heightened genre film that eventually descends into violence, isn’t the case at all. This is an outright satire which, while mildly amusing in fits, doesn’t engage with its subject with enough depth, granularity, or consistency to fully work. Yet for many it’s the jarring visual style that will derail.
While the headache-inducing fast cutting and close-ups of female cleavage are used to weaponise the male gaze against both protagonist and viewer, it all quickly becomes exhausting to sit through. The near-nauseating abundance of 70s-style zooms and pastel colours further give the film a vintage feel, perhaps not unlike the saucy sexploitation films it’s basically making fun of.
Though it’s mildly amusing seeing the Lolita formula inverted to this degree, the emotional resolution doesn’t quite feel fully earned, and by film’s end it’s not entirely clear precisely what Chokri and Léger are trying to say. In the very least, the cast clearly understood the assignment, doing as much as they can with the uneven material; Chokri in particular is perfect as the quietly pissed-off, suffering partner, while Tereszkiewicz is a gonzo blast as the titular maid uniform-wearing sexpot.
A satire about misogyny certainly doesn’t need to be subtle, but Babysitter is loud and obvious in ways that don’t always work, undermining some solid social commentary and committed performances. Intrusive stylistic choices prove to be major a hindrance in this scattershot satire of both the male gaze and male rehabilitation, despite the fair efforts of a game cast.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
