The Babysitters

This movie is both entertaining and highly unsatisfying; as unsure of itself as the teenage girls it depicts. There does not seem to be an overall direction and there is little in terms of a climax. No pun intended, because the frequent sex scenes are among the film's most entertaining sequences.

Almost every act committed by those in the film is immoral, illegal, or a terrible mixture of the two. Grown adults, ranging from lonely elderly perverts to unhappily married businessmen, purchase time with teenage girls running a prostitution ring disguised as a babysitting business. The film attempts to focus on the internal struggle of both the men and girls involved, but does little to form any kind of moral compass along the way. As the movie progresses, you grow to dislike the greedy ringleader as well as the married men her clique sleeps with.

Due to the lack of a leading protagonist, we are left with no one to cheer for. The only thing to look forward to is some kind of justice, some kind of reprehension or punishment for the acts committed. That does not happen. The ending is, to say the least, highly disappointing and resolves no questions nor concludes the movie properly.

This is the kind of film that demands a satisfying ending, but in the end, the viewer is left with more questions than answers. As far as we know, everyone involved manages to forget about the ordeal and move on. Perhaps the viewer should do the same with this film.

This is what I look for in independent film. Well drawn characters, competent movie making, and a pleasing ambiguity that a big studio wouldn't dare leave in, lest the audience actually decide how to feel for themselves. The guys are great - desperate, sleazy, charming, funny and sad. The girls are also portrayed fairly - scheming, sweet, sexy and innocent. Leguizamo's character is believable to me as an aging playa, chafing against middle age and lusting for Waterson's Shirley. And Shirley is the best on-screen pimp in recent memory. To be fair: things unfold a little quickly, people accept their situations a little easier than they might in real life, but this is a pretty short movie, and throwing in more angst would be overkill and overlong on screen. No one comes away clean, and no one comes away as the absolute bad guy. Moral absolutes would kill this film, and I'm glad it got made the way it did.

Stuck at home and recovering from a viral throat infection, I was looking for a couple of nice little cheesy movies that didn't take much brain power. What I found instead, was one utter piece of dross (Black Ribbon, don't bother watching it), and this absolute gem.

Not at all the Debbie-does-Dallas style piece of cheese that I was expecting from the description I had read, I found this film really rather touching and thought provoking. The acting was excellent, especially considering the apparent young age of some of the cast. Katherine Waterston shone as Shirley, and managed to convey all of the awkwardness of her slightly neurotic teenage character, whilst still being completely convincing in later scenes where her inner core of steel shows through. The range of different personalities amongst the girls as a group was excellent, and each character was thoroughly fleshed out. If there was a weak link here, I would say that perhaps there was not quite enough focus on the reactions of the teenage boys to what is going on around them - Scott's reaction to Shirley later in the film appears to come from nowhere. Perhaps a deleted scene?

The sex, whilst somewhat explicit, was never gratuitous, and there were a couple of uncomfortable scenes that had me on the edge of my seat. Whilst I certainly never got involved in anything like this as a teenager, I found I was reminded very strongly of the amoral thing I once was, and rather grateful, in fact, that I was never given the choice that these girls are offered in the film. The lack of any real analysis of their actions only serves to make these teens more convincing in my view - what teenager really considers the consequences of their actions before taking them?

My recommendation: Get hold of a copy of this film, grab yourself some popcorn, and watch it through, and be prepared for some introspection afterwards.

OK, there is something slightly sleazy about watching a movie featuring high school girls making money providing sex to dads.

Michael (John Leguizamo) and his wife (Cynthia Nixon) are falling into routine, and she is not interested in his hobby. His job is becoming a bore. He and the babysitter (Katherine Waterston) fall into an illicit relationship.

Soon, Shirly (Waterston) gets her friends into babysitting for $200 a pop and takes a cut.

One of the girls (Louisa Krause) wants out and things go to hell.

Waterston was really good, and I always enjoy Leguizamo in anything he does.

The well-acted indie drama "The Babysitters" takes what appears on the surface to be fairly salacious and distasteful material and turns it into a scathing attack on contemporary mores and values.

Shirley (Katherine Waterston) is an attractive suburban high school student who decides to make a little extra money babysitting for the young son of a local couple. When the husband, Michael (John Leguizamo), who is clearly unhappy in his marriage, pays to have sex with her at the end of the night, Shirley comes up with a scheme to parlay that into a full-fledged teen-prostitution ring, with Michael lining up other clients among his married buddies and Shirley setting herself up as a sort of "madam," "hiring" her friends from school to serve as under-aged "call girls." But the folks involved soon discover that, when it comes to affairs of the heart and of the loins, one can't always dictate how things will turn out.

Writer/director David Ross aims at a wide range of targets, from the sterility of suburbia and middle class marriage to middle-aged men who refuse to grow up – and who, instead of serving as moral guides for the girls, are willing to exploit them for their own perverted needs - to the capitalist system itself, at least as embodied by the "enterprising" young entrepreneur, Shirley, who often has to stoop to ruthless and dictatorial tactics to ensure the viability and survival of her business.

But always, beneath it all, there is the intense sadness and emotional emptiness of the situation, as these attractive young ladies - who are really just confused and insecure kids under all the makeup, sexy clothing and alluring bravado - find themselves getting into something they can neither fully understand nor fully control. Even Michael seems unable to separate the sex from his own more romantic feelings for Shirley as he battles with jealousy thinking about her with other men. Perhaps, the most indicting line of dialogue comes from one of the creepier gents who cluelessly proclaims that one day, when these girls are all grown up, they will look back on this time as one of the greatest of their lives. Yet, paradoxically, the exploitation goes both ways, as these "naïve" girls, particularly Shirley, wrap a bunch of immature middle-aged men around their little fingers, ultimately using the men's uncontrollable libido against them.

It is this complicated twist that gives the film its darkly humorous tone and makes "The Babysitters" more than just a titillating and exploitative exercise in finger-wagging moral umbrage.