The Babysitters (2008) poster
2008 · drama · coming-of-age

The Babysitters

Directed by David Ross1h 28m2008
ElsewhereIMDb5.613kRT35%Metacritic35
Movie DNA

Neutral, steady, measured drama / coming-of-age, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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Seventeen-year-old Shirley is a good student who works as a babysitter in order to make money for college. One night Michael, a father Shirley works for, confesses he's unhappy with married life. Shirley has a crush on Michael, and seizes this moment to kiss him. Michael is so happy he presents Shirley with a big tip, which gives her an idea. Shirley plans to make extra money by setting up her teenage friends with other unhappy fathers.

Our read · The Babysitters (2008) reads as a neutral, steady, grounded drama · coming-of-age entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Babysitters

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a provocatively uncomfortable look at suburban teen exploitation.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakensteady all the waygrips by minute 10attention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upexplicit sexnuditychild perilcringe humiliation

Skip it tonightStatutory-rape premises and sleaze are the last thing you need tonight.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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