Romy: “How did you get that dog to calm down?”

Samuel: “I gave it a cookie.”

Romy: “Do you always have cookies on you?”

Samuel: “Why, do you want one?”

Let me preface this unusual blogpost (who else would put so much thought into a movie before they saw it?!) by saying that I am a very, very spoiled girl.

And that I have given the subject I am about to present to you more thought than the average married couple contemplating concepts like sexual growth and physical sovereignty, before they submitted to monogamy.

In fact, I gave up an amazing long-term relationship when I was in my early 30s, and with it close to every friend I had (and it is still the big disclaimer in friendships, palpable to almost no one);
All, in order to investigate my sexuality.

So I know what I am talking about.

And let me tell you that sexual liberation is not, as they say in Fight Club, a weekend retreat.

This isn’t a seminar
This isn’t a weekend retreat
Where you are now you can’t even imagine what the bottom will be like
Only after disaster can we be resurrected
It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you are free to do anything

Nothing is static
Everything is evolving
Everything is falling apart

This is your life (feat. Tyler Durden)
The Dust Brothers

And a few years ago I also saw Halina Reijn’s movie Instinct multiple times because I thought, for definitely more than a minute there, she was actually on to something.

For a moment I thought Reijn, who is Dutch just like me, had unearthed the hidden gem from the cold ashes of the apocalyptic erotic landscape left behind by Basic Instinct.

The 90s were the decade where the very foundations of our sexuality were taking a punching. We could take no more, and were bleeding on the floor of Lou’s basement coughing our guts out.

Maybe this too deserves a reference to Fight Club (1999), because it gave us a new sense of nihilism.

Everything is falling apart.

Sex education for the new millennium.

But in the midst of it all, Basic Instinct had given us something, or multiple things even, which were never properly explored anywhere else.
Not then, not since.

And when Halina Reijn directed the Dutch movie Instinct (2019) about a female psychiatrist who gets into a sexual affair with a convicted sex offender, for a moment there;
I thought she had found Basic Instinct’s hidden treasures.

Now after a few viewings I understood that it was not there. That it had been me wanting to see it, like wanting to like a man and being willing to let a few mistakes pass because you do not want to judge too harshly.
But it wasn’t there.

The movie Instinct (2019) did not explore the hidden Basic Instinct topics.
And January 2025, here we are again.

Will Reijn’s next movie, Babygirl, bring to the surface what are by now Basic Instinct’s three decades old secrets?

Now at first glance Basic Instinct and Babygirl may seem miles apart.
Covering entirely different themes.

In Basic Instinct, the female multimillionaire protagonist (most would say antagonist) is single writer Catherine Tramell.
She oozes power, both monetary as well as sexually. And she’s possibly a serial killer, which will also keep you on edge.

In Babygirl the female multimillionaire protagonist is a married CEO Romy Mathis and she has children.
She oozes power economically, but is nowhere near Catherine Tramell’s omnipotence.

And therefor (because of this difference in power) the men these women meet, are also different in power.

Omnipotent Catherine Tramell meets a tough-as-nails homicide detective Nick Curran.

Where professional powerhouse Romy Mathis meets a self-aware, confident Samuel, at the beginning of his career.
I tried to look for a last name, and he doesn’t even seem to have one.

Either way, I think with Romy also being less powerful than Catherine, the fact that Gen Z character Samuel isn’t the explosive vessel of suppressed emotions that Nick Curran was, is a good thing.
And from what I have seen, the character of Samuel really embodies why I am such a big, big fan of Gen Z!

Whenever I talk to them I feel the only job we, the older generations, have is to keep things afloat until they are in power.
Gen Z will know what to do!

But I digress.

So either way I think Romy, just like Catherine, found a one of a kind lover.
And that it was this match that created an Erotic Space.
A concept which I consider the gem, the gift, of Basic Instinct.

How the importance and the quality of this Erotic Space is being regarded within the movie Babygirl, will determine what my verdict of Babygirl will be.
So pay attention.

Watching Basic Instinct, it is tempting to conclude Catherine’s and Nick’s tension is being built from the subtext of what is being said. And the context it is said in.
When Catherine Tramell lights a cigarette saying: “What are you gonna do? Charge me with smoking?”
When she is being interrogated by five or so officers, that clearly shows she is in power.

But it is because they know she is worth over a hundred million dollars, that she actually gets to have that power.
They are very aware she could hire a hot shot lawyer and sue their department.

The same with Nick.
Years of undercover work in the drugs scene have earned him a reputation of being lawless.
He was addicted to cocaine and alcohol and has had five shooting incidents within a few years, including one where he shot innocent tourists.
Yet he has managed to get out without being punished.

“You see! We’re both innocent Nick.”
Catherine laughs, when discussing their clean lie detector tests.

Their meeting of minds has created an impenetrable bubble around the characters of Catherine Tramell and Basic Instinct’s male protagonist, detective Nick Curran.

Nick Curran is the only one who is at her level, and she has recognized him as her equal, just from reading newspapers alone.
“She knows where I live and breathe,” Nick says to his colleague Gus. “I’m not afraid of her.”
“Why the hell not?!” his partner exclaims.
“I don’t know, I’m just not.”
(all quotes done by heart – may be inaccurate)

And yet!
The Erotic Space shared by Basic Instinct’s Catherine Tramell and Nick Curran, is
->a space they both also have around them when they are alone<-
A place of pure potential, of awareness, of sovereignty.
And it is in that space, where the erotic tension is being sparked the moment they suddenly see someone else “in there”.

They are no longer alone.

You could say they finally find someone who is fluent in their love language;
Unadulterated, scared of no one, no holds barred, power.

Nick and Catherine meet each other, in a place where no one else is.

Imagine having climbed your way to the top of a snowy mountain, and being used to not having anyone to talk to.
And suddenly someone else is there.
That’s Catherine and Nick.
Even if you believe she is a serial killer (which I obviously don’t) she will certainly never kill Nick because she knows very well how rare their connection is.

Basic Instinct is a tale about the Erotic Space that comes into being when two people are attracted to each other
->who are of equal high power<-
A game of minds, between equals.

From what I remember about Reijn’s other movie Instinct, is that I ultimately concluded that the two protagonists were either not powerful, or one was not powerful.
So that we had not been looking at an Erotic Space, but at I don’t know…. Probably trauma or something.
I don’t remember the details.

Which is absolutely not to say Instinct was not a good movie. And it has been instrumental in shaping my thoughts on this topic.
It was just that it was not the Hoped For movie about Erotic Space, that I hope to this day someone will make.

SPOILER ALERT FOR BABYGIRL
(although I will keep it to a minimum)

I have already watched spoiler reviews for this movie, and I know it explores the concept of her (Romy’s) infidelity from the context of the sexuality within her marriage.
So not getting Whatever at home;
and finds it with Samuel No Last Name. The younger, dominant, lover.

I have seen it being suggested that Romy’s infidelity could have been prevented if Whatever (I still don’t know what that is, but I don’t expect it to be relevant) had been properly understood by her husband.

I don’t know if this is really the trajectory!
If that is what I will see in the movie.
But if it is indeed a “Not getting enough at home” – theme?
Then I already know that once again Basic Instinct’s diamond has been left unturned, underneath the ashes of the 20th century.

Because magnetic sexual attraction is not about what you do or do not have at home;
It is about finding someone who can meet you at your level.

My verdict of the movie Babygirl will depend on if Romy’s problem is being rounded off to a technicality of what happens in the bedroom.
Something her husband can learn, and then all will be well.

Or if Babygirl recognizes that Samuel, even at his young age and without the professional accolades;
Was already more powerful than Romy’s husband had ever been.

And that shit cannot be taught.