Babygirl’s hottest scene is just Harris Dickinson dancing

Spoilers, including the ending, follow for the film Baby girl.

Was there a time in my life before I saw Harris Dickinson sway the sinewy limbs and tattooed body of the bombastic, celestial, undeniably sexy “Father Figure”? I’m sure there must have been. But I, like Nicole Kidman’s titular “babygirl” who ruins her life for this man after watching him calm an angry dog, am captivated. I am transfixed. I have watched and rewatched this white boy wastedBritish up-and-comer edition sequence too many times. Samuel comes down to George Michael’s most iconic song the scene i Baby girl because of how cleverly it plays with seduction, gender roles and sexual power.

Baby girl is at its best when it lets the characters’ desires just flow — like in the “Father Figure” scene, which communicates everything we need to know about how CEO Romy Mathis (Kidman) and her intern Samuel (Dickinson) approach this affair an. As it begins, Romy has already undressed in front of Samuel at his behest, dropped to her knees to perform oral sex (offscreen), and been told by Dickinson in her husky, flat-American whisper, “You’re my baby girl. ” So far she has been the submissive one; they play both roles, but Romy’s is usually the artist’s, doing what Samuel asks and being rewarded for it with his attention and a steady flow of milk. But when the first note of “Father Figure” hits, their dynamic shifts. Now it’s Samuel performing for Romy, a turn that gives us a raw, vulnerable glimpse into Samuel’s sense of self – one that tells us he is authentic a fuckboy. And we can all be happy about that.

First the hard cut: Samuel in a medium shot, shirtless, standing alone in the frame as the stuttering first notes and pounding synth line fade in. hand (this is the key) as he bumps along to the music. His gold chain (also the key) is on, his shirt is off, and his tattoos are outand when he sways we see them fully for the first time. (For Dickinson newbies, he played a heavily inked hacker A murder at the end of the worldwhere he coaxes Emma Corrin to sing along to Annie Lennox’s “No More ‘I Love You’s”. It’s pretty sweet.) As Samuel jerks toward the camera, the Old English KES text on his upper right arm and a giant snake with an open mouth on his left enter the frame. Scratched little symbols on his fingers become more apparent as he takes another sip of his drink and waves his hand in front of his face. And the pièce de résistance on his right ribcage: a winged cherub in a black balaclava mask with a machine gun, a fantastic fuck-it image that seems to fly as he spins, body rolls, twirls and dips.

Baby girl isn’t particularly interested in giving backstories to its central characters. Romy and Samuel’s characterization is so thin that it’s distracting every time director and writer Halina Reijn throws out certain details: Romy was raised in a cult, which is perhaps why she’s into erotic scenarios where she gives up control – okay? Samuel is worried that he’s self-destructive – I mean, obviously? Romy’s husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) hates his wife’s various floral aprons – well, man, I can’t see you packing your daughters’ lunches! But Samuel’s tattoos, and especially that cherub (which is actually one of Harrison’s, along with the snake, finger tats, and KES, inspired by Ken Loach’s beautiful film of the same name), tells us everything we’ll ever need. It is a sign of his youth and drive, his nihilism and menace. He is declarative and ready to strike, while also being free and comfortable in his own body in a way that Romy never is.

All these layers make this scene feel prickly and barbed. It is Magic Mike XXL which Samuel twists and grinds; it is The bodyguard when he lifts and carries Romy in his arms; it is a fantasy that emphasizes the eroticism of being catered to by another person’s willing body. As Romy sits queenly in a throne-like chair and watches him do this little Chippendales routine for her, she seems like the one now in control of their dynamic. But as the one who shows up for consumption, Samuel also has the power to decide what she sees and how she sees it. Consider the opening lines of “Father Figure”: “It was all I wanted/Something special, something sacred/In your eyes/For just a moment/To be brave and naked/By your side.” Romy and Samuel are at their most open and exposed here in terms of what they want from each other – to be worshiped and to be catered to.

Of course, this sexual idyll cannot last. Samuel and Romy will each become stalker-y; his girlfriend, who happens to be Romy’s assistant, wants to blackmail her; Romy will confess a heavily edited version of the affair to her husband Jacob. (She apparently leaves out that her and Samuel’s safe word was his name, the film’s funniest detail.) But at the length of “Father Figure,” Baby girl gives us the familiar version of this story, the one where an ’80s pin-drop accompanies a bad boy loosening up in his own skin. There is comfort in recognition and joy in anointing a new father (especially one with such a perfectly illustrative tattoo). Fire away, Harris!