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'The Babysitters'

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May 9, 2008

You didn't really need the Miley Cyrus photo "scandal" to be aware of the tart-ification of American girlhood. In pop culture, at least, it's endemic. As is exploitation. So we can blame writer-director David Ross for what? Being ahead of the curve? There are plenty in "The Babysitters" in which child-minding morphs into dad-tending: After the lanky, unsure Shirley (Katherine Waterston) has a romantic moment with suburban dad Michael ( John Leguizamo) - and gets a big tip - she parlays her newfound entrepreneurship into a schoolwide hooker ring.

Leguizamo is as good as he's ever been and Waterston (daughter of Sam) is a real find; she has unusual looks and a charming awkwardness usually alien to the Hollywood adolescent. But the ease with which Shirley recruits her employees out of a presumably normal student body is the least believable thing in a pretty unbelievable movie. Or maybe I'm being naive.

THE BABYSITTERS (R). With Cynthia Nixon, Lauren Birkell. 1:30 (sexual content, vulgarity, drug content). Opens in Manhattan and at the Farmingdale Multiplex Cinemas

- JOHN ANDERSON