Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Joscha Bongard
Starring: Maja Bons, Bea Brocks, Liliom Lewald
There is currently much debate among the world's governments regarding the effect of social media on children. Some have proposed outright bans for users under a certain age, which has resulted in much distrust around the introduction of digital IDs. In an ideal world parents would control what their kids access, but what of those parents who actively encourage their offspring to put themselves out there on social media? One of the more disturbing modern phenomena is that of the "kidfluencer," with parents commodifying their kids and turning them into online stars. It's the new version of those parents who bully their children into playing piano or becoming an athlete. Is it what the child really wants or is it simply a case of an adult trying to make up for their own perceived failures?
These ideas are tackled in non-committal form by director Joscha Bongard's Babystar. Bongard previously highlighted the "attention economy" in his documentary Verified Couple and he applies a documentarian's fly on the wall approach to his narrative debut. The result has the cold, Teutonic approach of Haneke and Seidl, but it's a little too passive to make any real impact.
16-year-old Luca (Maja Bons) has been an online celebrity literally since the day she was born. Her parents - Stella (Bea Brocks) and Chris (Liliom Lewald) - began their social media journey while Stella was pregnant with Luca, and they have documented her every move since. Luca puts on a happy front, always smiling for the camera as she promotes the various products she receives for endorsement. But the smile seems manufactured. She sleeps in a room devoid of decoration, closer to a hotel room than a teenager's bedroom - there are no indicators of her passions or interests. She doesn't appear to have any friends, but her room boasts an LED display that tracks her "likes" in real time. Stella and Chris behave more like her siblings than her parents, ignoring her brattish behaviour like a pair of business owners walking on eggshells around an employee for fear of being reported to HR.
When Luca begins hanging out with twentysomething social media co-ordinator Julie (Joy Ewulu), her eyes are opened somewhat to the outside world (this is an aspect of Babystar that appears to lose much in cultural translation; there is a flirtatious element to Julie's "friendship" that the film doesn't treat as sinister, and Luca's parents don't bat an eyelid when this older woman asks their 16-year-old daughter out for a drink). Rebelling, Luca moves into a hotel, getting a free room by threatening to use her clout to ruin the establishment's online reputation.
Babystar has a slightly episodic narrative, a series of scenes that highlight the contrast between Luca's online adoration and her real life social isolation. Any sympathy we might have for Luca is often undone by her narcissistic behaviour, and she is a difficult protagonist to warm to. The movie keeps making the same point over and over about how soulless its characters are, and it begins to feel repetitive. What stands out most about Babystar is the neat trick of pixelating any brand names or logos, and bleeping out their verbal mentions (the English subtitles are similarly censored). This proves very effective in reminding us how dominated our lives are by a handful of brands.
It's only in its final act that Babystar proposes an interesting idea that perhaps should have been the basis for the entire movie. In the ultimate act of rebellion, Luca puts out a post in which she asks for a new family to adopt her. A family does indeed step forward, and Luca begins living with them. The father, mother and son are enamoured by Luca's presence, but their teenage daughter sees her for the vacuous husk she really is. Just as the movie has introduced some interesting dramatic conflict it winds towards its uninspiring conclusion, leaving us with little in the way of fresh insight into this disturbing phenomena.
Babystar is in UK cinemas from September 25th.
