Movie Review: The Babysitters

Upstart Shirley seems like your ordinary teen age daughter. Part-time work tending to kids for adults in the community is nothing new. Impressions are hard to overlook and impulses can lead to rather precarious situations. One innocent moment with a grown up client proves problematic. Man of the moment Michael Beltran is happily married with a young son. A single show of affection plants the seed for a thought process that sees Shirley grow up in a hurry.

Extra-curricular work just a touch outside the babysitting norm sees Shirley and some of her friends provide “extra” services to her adult male clients the likes of which would send shock waves through any normal community. Not willing to let her guard down and eager to expand her bank balance Shirley and co. becomes a one woman money making machine providing specialized services to men in the community that would make even Xavier Hollander blush.

Gritty and provocative, The Babysitters is a smart, well acted story about girls on the make and men who are all too willing to pay for it and age of consent be damned. Lead actress Katherine Waterston (Michael Clayton) turns in a stunning starring role as Shirley, a misunderstood teen with a knack for making money that would make Warren Buffet stand up and notice. Behind those innocent eyes lies a business woman with an aptitude to make a profit second to none. Grown men everywhere fall for all that innocent youth with John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge) showing just how easy it is for a elder gent(?) to fall for (or is that manipulate?) a young girl.