Babygirl (Macdara Vallely, 2012) USA

Reviewed by Casey Cummings at the Metro 4 Theater, Santa Barbara

Babygirl takes you in the life of a small ordinary Latin American family in Brooklyn that consists of Lena, a young 16 year old who is essentially put into situations of being a mother figure to her younger brother, and her Mom who loves to have a good time.

The film is seen through Lena’s eyes and all the troubles she goes through with her mom, moms boyfriend, and friends. She doesn’t like  her moms new boyfriend they  meet on the bus because he tries to hit on her first then moves right over to her mom and she takes the bait. The film is about Lena trying to get rid of her moms boyfriend, but secretly acquires a little something for him. The boyfriend then goes back and forth messing with the moms head while Lena tries to stay faithful to her Mom.

We were able to meet the director after the movie and he explained how he got the idea for a film. He witnessed a situation just like the one that occurs on the bus in a subway one day and had the idea to make it into a film. He also explained why the movie was based primarily about  Latin Americans. He is from Ireland, but his wife is Pureto Rican which explains why he chose to make the movie about a Latino family. Vallely surprised me when he said shooting only took 16 days for the entire film, and also that the main actress Yainis Ynoa, Lena, auditioned for the part a day before shooting and got it! Ynoa did an outstanding job acting for her first time and i would not be surprised if we see her in the future.

I thought Babygirl being as simplistic as it was is a great movie. I enjoyed it and recommend people seeing it if they enjoy a film about problems people face in everyday life.