i'm honestly still pissed that babygirl and nosferatu came out the same day and both deal with women being afraid/ashamed of their desires and yet, because it takes a hyper-realistic approach to sex, people deemed babygirl "cringe" ?? SEX IS CRINGE!! that's the whole point of the movie !! it's a story about a woman who's so ashamed of her desires and of herself that she's incapable of having an orgasm with the man she actually loves and decides to start a toxic affair with an intern because he understands her desires and doesn't shame her for them !!! nosferatu has a monster that thrives on ellen's shame, that feeds on her guilt and on her repressed desires to hurt her !! both movies deal with women being ashamed of their unconventional desires and unsure as to whether or not those desires are born out of traumas or are just a part of who they are ("does evil come from within us or from beyond ?") !!! the desires in themselves are never shamed by the filmmakers, it's the way that we reject them by deeming them CRINGE that's the problem !!!! the sexuality in nosferatu is hyper-stylized because it falls into the vibe of the film, it's like a dream (nightmare), a tale, whereas babygirl never shies away from how embarrassing and silly sex can be and yet people were still out there expecting a basic instinct style thriller. it's not a thriller !! it's about getting rid of shame to connect with your partner !! it's cringe because it's real !!!!
Editing this to say that I wrote a longer substack post on the subject (it's free) ^^
Halina Reijn's Babygirl and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu
