The Babysitters (2007)
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 18
Though built on an audacious and controversial premise, Babysitters teeters between exploitation and grossness due to uneven execution.
Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 9
Though built on an audacious and controversial premise, Babysitters teeters between exploitation and grossness due to uneven execution.
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Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 3,253
My Rating
Movie Info
A bored suburban husband finds his affair with a high-school babysitter fast snowballing out of control in this black comedy from first-time screenwriter/director David Ross. Shirley (Katherine Waterston) is a brainy honors student who is always thinking about the future, and works part-time as a babysitter in order to save up for college. Among Shirley's regular charges are spirited youngsters Adam and Mikey, the offspring of respected father Michael (John Leguizamo) and his pretty wife, Gail
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Cast
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John Leguizamo
Michael Beltran -
Katherine Waterston
Shirley Lyner -
Cynthia Nixon
Gail Beltran -
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Denis O'Hare
Shirley's Dad -
Lauren Birkell
Melissa -
Louisa Krause
Brenda -
Halley Wegryn Gross
Nadine -
Jason Dubin
George -
Ethan Phillips
Mark -
Spencer Treat Clark
Scott -
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All Critics (27) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (19) | DVD (1)
It's bad enough that writer-director David Ross indulges in the very perverse kind of Lolita-tinged titillation the film pretends to lament, but then he ties everything up with an oh-well shrug.
Top CriticUntil it crosses a shadowy line dividing serious comedy from distasteful exploitation, The Babysitters has the makings of an incisive satire of greed and lust in suburbia.
The script has a stale air, like something that was doing the rounds for a long time before David Ross found backers to make a film out of it.
Although the film is pitched as dark comedy, there's nothing very funny about the sexualization of teenagers.
I'd call it a depressing soft-core porn flick, but that overstates its titillation factor. Mainly it's just icky.
It reads like a Cinemax special event, and as good as Leguizamo and Waterston (daughter of Sam) are, the skeevy, fantasy-fulfillment plot that drives David Ross' movie is uncomfortably risky business.
A pathetic excuse to trot out a procession of teenage girls in the raw, performing graphic simulated sex acts with your basic suburban family man drooling all over himself.
A pathetic excuse to trot out a procession of teenage girls in the raw, performing graphic simulated sex acts with your basic suburban family man drooling all over himself.
Their customers are awkward enough that we're able to believe the girls are in control, or at least aware that they're the highlight of the men's week.
David Ross's stylishly tawdry black comedy fits neatly between Heathers and American Beauty. The Babysitters Club this ain't.
You can see the potential in this off-kilter coming-of-age story, and it's a pity it never quite adds up.
Is Ross trying to mimic Michael Haneke, daring his audience to be disgusted by the very titillating premise which probably brought them to the movie in the first place?
confused
Like the pilot for an awful, misguided joint venture between FX and the CW.
There's little real wit here and, as far as teen-chick antics go, it's definitely no Heathers or Clueless, not even Cruel Intentions.
By undermining the subtle feminism of his movie, [director] Ross ends up undermining the whole thing, culminating in a terrifying parking-lot scene that doesn't quite make sense.
Audience Reviews for The Babysitters
Super Reviewer
There isn't really an ending to it; the movie just kind of....ends. Like the director said "okay guys, that's good enough. Let's just stop here." So many unanswered questions and plot holes.
The characters are all pretty unlikable. Shirley's character evolved from a sweet innocent adolescent into a slutty greedy bitch towards the end. The whole movie didn't really have a point. A bunch of girls babysit kids then afterwards screw the fathers and get paid extra for it. There's no dilemma here. The movie focuses mainly on the affairs, and not on anything else. So we never know how the father's family react to the affair (if they even ever found out), we never know if Shirley made enough money for college or whatever, and we don't know if any of the father's ever got caught or not. It's just teenagers sexing up middle aged men. It's kind of disturbing and gross. It's a stupid movie really. Nothing happens. You walk away going "Whaaaaaat theeee fuuuuckkkk did I just watch?"
Yeah, dumb movie for sure. I only watched it FTR because I was sick and I had a Netflix marathon. I watched every single movie on my queue. It was awesome....except for this movie. This movie was not awesome.
Super Reviewer
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