Babystar

The idea of child stars has existed for almost a century at this point. As early as Shirley Temple we as a society were as pointed as children and young as three and have said “dance pigmy, dance.” However, with time the figure of the child star has evolved. Instead of tap dancing in a studio due to orders given out by a film executive, children today are made to lip sync in their homes because their parents said so. This concept, being quite new, hasn’t been explored in film. Until now of course.

In Babystar Joscha Bongard takes a swing at family influencers. The plot is pretty simple: Luca (Maja Bons) is a child star who creates videos alongside her mother (Bea Brocks) and father (Lilliom Lewald). As the film goes on, Luca starts to act more recklessly as defiance for her parents having another baby.

It’s not a far stretch to say that Bongard was highly influenced by Yorgos Lanthimos. The intentional odd performances mixed with the camerawork scream Killing of a Sacred Deer. I do think this works, as it helps with the unsettlingness of child influencers. In general, the film does a good job at making the viewer feel uncomfortable. A scene that sticks out is when it is shown that a podcast episode was recorded where the mom explains periods to a young Luca. The tension that is built and the performances of the actors capture such a unique flavor of getting under the viewers skin.

This film does have some major flaws however. One of its most major flaws is the pacing. The film peaks around forty five minutes in with an excellent scene at a restaurant. After this happens, the film can’t really top itself in terms of shock value. It sort of meanders as Luca runs away and faffs about at the hotel.

Despite the fact that the film sort of dwindles by the end, it does seem to have a problem with overusing certain aspects of itself. The constant use of slow zoom-ins and the choral music get a bit bland after a while.

I wish I was able to enjoy this one more, hopefully someone in the future can make a more engaging film on the rapid increase of online child stars, since I do believe it is a fascinating and untapped market.