Admirable film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Manny's Movie Musings: an interesting plot set in The Bronx, NYC, "Babygirl" has Yainis Ynoa playing the title role, plotting to destroy her mom's relationship with a younger man who has his eyes set on Ynoa from the beginning. Ynoa's plan involves using herself as bait; but things get messy when Ynoa develops feelings for her mom's lover. At an age somewhere between a woman and a girl, the innocent Ynoa has a difficult time making sense of her feelings and what she wants; and yet she plays a serious game that can destroy her relationships with her mom, her best friend, and a nice boy who likes her. My most memorable, movie moment of "Babygirl" is the scene when Ynoa and the guy find themselves alone in a hallway late at night, staring at each other. It is tense and very creepy. Rosa Arrendondo gives the best performance in this indie movie that is mostly cast with unknowns.Mannysmemorablemoviemoments

When I read the synopsis for this movie, I must admit that I was more than intrigued, because it sounded like director and writer Macdara Vallely was on to something extraordinary here. So it was with quite an amount of expectation that I sat down to watch "Babygirl".However, it turned out that my expectations to the movie were not brought to a fruitful cash in, because "Babygirl" turned out to be somewhat of a different movie than what I had believed it to be.With that being said, don't get me wrong, it is still a nice movie and indeed a very watchable movie at that. I was just expecting something else, so I was a bit disappointed with the end result of the movie."Babygirl" started out quite OK in establishing the characters and setting the stage, but then it took an abrupt nose dive for the worse.It was the characters in the movie that proved to be the biggest disappointment in my opinion. I say that because the characters were rigid and wooden, and they seemed very superficial and one-dimensional.The acting, however, was quite good, and people were doing good jobs with the severe limitations imposed upon them by the script and the director. Yainis Ynoa carried the movie quite nicely, and Flaco Navaja really performed well despite his sleazy role."Babygirl" was suffering from having a terrible written script. The intention of the writer and director was definitely good and there was a lot of effort put into this movie. But it just didn't had what mattered in terms of being unique and standing out. It felt like just another run-of-the-mill drama, except this was with an all Latino cast.All in all, not the best of dramas that I have seen, and it wasn't what I had expected, so I was somewhat disappointed.

The film as a whole revolves around the lead's mother Lucy and her almost desperation to have a significant other and keep them until she is mistreated. A new man is introduced, but before coming onto the mother her comes onto her and this sets in motion the movie.In pursuit of her getting her mother to see the guy as a jerk, she herself slowly in some ways sees her own faults in character. The movie itself is well acted and the dialog comes off very authentic, even if the situation seems a bit hard to understand. The young lady who plays Lena really keeps hold of you throughout the movie and the supporting characters for her tale really make this movie seem almost like it is entirely reenacted, rather than a brand new script written by a Irish man with a predominately Hispanic cast.It really is a good movie, and considering this is the first for the lead, it sets a good foundation for what is to come.