Movie Review: Babystar

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Screened at Stockholm International Film Festival 2025

This compelling drama offers a glimpse into the lives of an influencer family facing difficult changes, and it’s both thought-provoking and engaging.

Joscha Bongard’s drama, Babystar, explores our modern obsession with social media and the carefully curated, often unrealistic, lives people present online. The constant stream of images and media attention has created a culture where wealth, beauty, and status are used to fuel celebrity worship – a curious drive to put others on a pedestal based on perceived success. This pursuit of excess has become an end in itself, giving those with a large platform significant influence over others.

It used to be that only movie and sports stars could become famous through traditional media. Now, thanks to social media, anyone can achieve online fame. This is happening because of the internet, better cameras and video technology, how easy it is to share content, and people’s desire for immediate enjoyment.

The series Babystar features Maja Bons, Bea Brocks, and Liliom Lewald as a family of influencers. The actors convincingly portray a family marked by arrogance, entitlement, and a strong sense of superiority. Bons, who has the most screen time, initially appears as a fragile, doll-like figure, but her performance gradually reveals hidden complexities. While the characters feel genuinely disconnected and isolated, their lack of empathy creates emotional distance, giving the drama a detached, ‘observational’ quality. With strong acting, excellent casting, and a compellingly unsettling depiction of family dynamics, Babystar is a harrowing and insightful look behind the facade of a perfect life.

This film explores the life of a family who built their world around appearing to live the perfect life, and share it with everyone. They’ve essentially turned their lives into a business, trading privacy for sponsored content that funds their expensive lifestyle. Like a tabloid focusing on celebrity lives, Babystar follows a young girl who has been presented as a star since the day she was born, and how this affects her and her family.

The practice of profiting from milestones like having a baby and building a family turns these experiences into public displays of commerce. Bongard depicts a family that’s both appealing and disturbing, highlighting their self-centered tendencies. The teenage daughter, raised in this isolating environment, starts to realize she’s also affected by her family’s patterns as they try to repeat the cycle.

“I’m ready for my close-up…”

Babystar offers a compelling look at the world of social media influencers, revealing the constructed nature of their seemingly perfect lives. The film highlights how influencers often reinforce each other’s views and focus heavily on products, creating a self-contained bubble. It cleverly points out the paradox of modern life – we’re more connected than ever, yet many feel incredibly isolated – and shows how this tension is reflected in the influencer world.

The film features a clever and insightful script. The characters, focused on appearances and popularity rather than genuine connection, live very shallow lives. Their world is constantly documented by cameras and social media. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear they’re trapped, and we see the emptiness beneath their glamorous facade. The central character, a young vlogger, begins to realize she’s missed out on a typical childhood and tries to experience it by observing other families. These comparisons are both funny and unsettling, highlighting the damaging consequences of living a life that feels manufactured and fake.

As a film lover, I found Babystar to be a really interesting watch, but it definitely keeps you at arm’s length. It feels almost like a documentary, observing its characters rather than diving into their feelings. They’re compelling, sure, but also pretty tough to root for, and the film doesn’t really try to make you feel for them. It’s a brave choice, and I appreciated how it avoided easy emotional payoffs. Instead, it’s constantly shifting and surprising, staying just out of reach while still being incredibly entertaining.

In the final episode, the pressures of constant public attention and the desire for immediate satisfaction reach a breaking point for this family. The young star, using technology as a tool, recklessly attempts to overcome the damaging dynamics within her family. She pushes her parents and fans to their limits, desperately trying to connect with the real world despite being unprepared for its challenges.

The bottom line: Intriguing

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2025-11-19 12:43