The Babysitters 2008

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Until it crosses a shadowy line dividing serious comedy from distasteful exploitation, The Babysitters has the makings of an incisive satire of greed and lust in suburbia. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: The film remains engaging in no small part because of the beguiling and enigmatic performance of [Katherine] Waterston, daughter of Law & Order star Sam Waterston. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The premise is out of '70s porn, and so is the overbroad satire and almost total lack of conviction. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Their customers are awkward enough that we're able to believe the girls are in control, or at least aware that they're the highlight of the men's week. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Although the film is pitched as dark comedy, there's nothing very funny about the sexualization of teenagers. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It reads like a Cinemax special event, and as good as Leguizamo and Waterston (daughter of Sam) are, the skeevy, fantasy-fulfillment plot that drives David Ross' movie is uncomfortably risky business. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I'd call it a depressing soft-core porn flick, but that overstates its titillation factor. Mainly it's just icky. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Like television's Six Feet Under and the recent film Juno, it's the perfect antidote to the dopey, butter-cream-frosted teen flicks of John Hughes -- Pretty in Pink with poison sauce. Read more

Kamal Al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail: Despite the racy content and the alarmist 18A classification, The Babysitters is a remarkably restrained and decent film. It's polished, smoothly edited and shot with simple elegance. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: The script has a stale air, like something that was doing the rounds for a long time before David Ross found backers to make a film out of it. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: Read more

Alissa Simon, Variety: Ultimately fails to deliver on the audacity of its premise. Read more

Ed Gonzalez, Village Voice: Woefully reductive and painful. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's bad enough that writer-director David Ross indulges in the very perverse kind of Lolita-tinged titillation the film pretends to lament, but then he ties everything up with an oh-well shrug. Read more