Movie Review: Babystar
Screened at Stockholm International Film Festival 2025
One-liner: This dark and timely family portrait drama is elusive and entertaining in its fly-on-the-wall chronicle of an influencer family at a crossroads.
Babystar is a drama from writer-director Joscha Bongard that speaks to the social media addiction of our age, where the illusion of perfect lives is broadcast for all to see. This image saturation and media frenzy have reached a point where beauty, power and money are leveraged to fuel celebrity worship – a strange compulsion to raise others to impossible ideals based on their purported success. These excesses have now become the goal, giving those with the greatest accessibility the power to influence others.
Now, instead of movie or sports stars finding a place in the sun based on traditional media dominance, the new dawn of social media has made it possible for just about anyone to become famous. This is driven by the internet, technological improvements in photography and video, ease of market entry and the universal appeal of instant gratification.
Babystar stars Maja Bons, Bea Brocks and Liliom Lewald as the influencer family. Each looks the part, bringing a slow-burning arrogance, overt entitlement and sense of superiority to their performances. Bons has the most screen time, delivering a doll-like turn that becomes more complex as the porcelain cracks begin to appear. While authentic in terms of their alienation and isolation, their lack of empathy creates distance, giving this drama a “dollhouse” appeal and an outside-looking-in perspective. Through solid performances, good casting and an often prickly and haunting family portrait, this dark exploration of what hides behind the illusion of perfection makes for a harrowing and revealing drama.
The film immerses itself in the world of a family who have made it their business to live a dream lifestyle, sharing their existence with the masses. Privacy doesn’t exist as they trade a normal life for sponsored content, where the products they use become their ticket to sustaining a high-end lifestyle. In much the same way that tabloids soak up life’s big events, Babystar centres on the evolution of a young girl who, from birth, became the star of this insular unit.
By monetizing the products associated with key moments, the very acts of having a child and being a family are commercialized and broadcast. Bongard paints a familiar and unsettling portrait of a family whose narcissistic traits make them both charming and insidious. Having grown up in this alienating world, the teen daughter begins to discover that she is also a victim as she struggles to come to terms with the family’s attempt to start the process all over again.
“I’m ready for my close-up…”
Babystar makes a fascinating and timely social commentary on the superficiality of influencers, going behind the scenes to show just how artificial their lives are. It’s easy to see how much of an echo chamber they create for themselves through their product-orientated existence. Latching onto themes that resonate in today’s world – where we are more connected than ever yet also at our loneliest – the irony of these social tensions plays out on screen.
It harnesses a smart and thought-provoking screenplay. The characters are understandably living in a very surface-level way, capitalizing on hype and charisma rather than possessing much depth or substance. They live stylish lives where cameras and social media infiltrate every aspect. Much like celebrity stardom, a slow-creeping realization of the prison they are in becomes prevalent as we get to grips with their hollow existence. As the young vlogger at the center of Babystar realizes she lacks freedom and has missed out on a normal childhood, she tries to play catch-up by comparing herself to normal families. These contrasts, while darkly humorous, are also startling as the film explores the hard-hitting effects of living such an artificial life.
Babystar operates at a cool distance. It takes on a documentary quality via fly-on-the-wall storytelling, keeping a safe distance from characters who are engaging yet cold-blooded and difficult to like. Maintaining this balance, the film veers away from the kind of empathy typically needed to make a story emotionally satisfying. Babystar is bold and adventurous in its penchant for ducking and diving, managing to remain elusive and entertaining.
The here-today-gone-tomorrow treatment and instant gratification of the family, serving the public at all costs, comes to a head in the finale. Using the technology at her fingertips to try to subvert the alienation and toxic nature of her family unit, the young star throws caution to the wind. She tests the boundaries of her parents’ tolerance and her fandom, trying to integrate herself into the real world without a clue of how to survive it.
The bottom line: Intriguing
