When Judd Apatow and the boys make an R-rated pregnancy comedy, they call it "Knocked Up." But when “Broad City” co-creator Ilana Glazer and comedian Michelle Buteau try to tackle the same topic, the equally raunchy result comes with a much more elegant title: “Babes.”
That pun is just one of the film's many acts of irreverent reclamation, as director Pamela Adlon, who makes a confident shift to feature directing after seminal small-screen contributions to “Louie” and “Better Things ”, and its stars deobjectify a label. used by guys, putting it on themselves. The term cheeky applies to both longtime friends Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Buteau) and the babies they spend most of the film incubating. These babies are making babies, and you might be surprised at how much comedy there is still to be gleaned from that seemingly universal (but still widely underexamined) topic.
Director: Pamela AdlonWriters: Ilana Glazer, Josh RabinowitzStars: Elena Ouspenskaia, Sandra Bernhard, Oliver Platt
Debuting the unrated film at the SXSW Film Festival, Adlon offers a raw, unapologetic homage to motherhood, presented here as the awe-inspiring phenomenon by which one human being grows another human being inside her body. . How can something so beautiful be crude, you ask? Co-writers Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz (a fellow “Broad City” vet) reveal as many perinatal secrets (and secretions) as they can imagine, obsessing over virtually every bodily fluid women produce except tears.
This modern “image of woman” is no shame, mind you. It's sometimes "Bridesmaids"-level funny (to cite another SXSW-released comedy), though it lacks the sharp psychological insights that made that film a classic. In any case, “Babes”, the Bechdel test, errs on the side of being too affirmative. Every time another film might have posed a challenge to the characters' success, this one obliterates that obstacle. Politically, that's a powerful statement: “Babes” won't let self-esteem issues, abortion laws, lazy parents, or internalized sexism slow him down. Dramatically, however, it's a disaster. The film's relentlessly positive attitude means preemptively eliminating any potential conflict.
Some might argue that best friends experiencing back-to-back pregnancies is hectic enough for any movie. But it is? “Babes” begins with Dawn's water breaking during a trip to the movies. While a younger friend might have panicked, Eden remains calm, honoring her (hungry) friend's wish to skip the hospital in favor of a fancy restaurant. This baby is coming in one form or another, and the madness of trying to eat a feast of sushi while the contractions accelerate makes for an unforgettably original and wildly fun sequence. It won't be the last.
Eden is convinced that she is the "best best friend in the world" for always being there for her friend. But once Dawn has pooped baby number two (a colorful depiction suggested by the film's focus on bodily functions), Eden proves less available than she would like to her physically and emotionally exhausted friend. . Turns out she has a pretty good excuse to zone out: on the epic ride home from the hospital, a three-way subway ride long enough to meet a cutie, flirt, and form a deep connection with a charming stranger (Stephan James ). she ends up having an unprotected one night stand.
For reasons best left unsaid, he cheats on her. And for reasons Eden probably should have anticipated, she ends up pregnant. Marriage (to Hasan Minaj's superhumanly supportive husband) and motherhood (to a high-maintenance 4-year-old) have matured Dawn. Eden still hasn't caught up, a disconnect that strains her friendship somewhat, though the film is too busy rooting for them to let them stay mad at each other for long.
In the spirit of solidarity, Dawn vows that she will support Eden no matter what her friend decides. To her surprise, Eden wants to keep the baby. (“Babes” believes in a woman's right to choose. In Eden's case, the choice is certainly more interesting when this ill-prepared, child-minded single woman chooses to have the child.) What follows is a consistently outrageous tour through joys. of pregnancy, touching on the things that society has conspired to keep hidden: the insatiable excitement, the paralyzing cramps, the unpleasant but natural biological surprises.
"They don't tell you about this part," Dawn says when Eden realizes she has yet to give birth. It turns out that there are many things they don't tell you. As the explicit adult equivalent of a Judy Blume book, “Babes” helps demystify taboos about the female body, a goal for which comedy proves an ideal tool. Adlon welcomes vulgar dialogue (e.g., “I'm going to go wash [bleep] because she's [bleep] wet”), but resists being graphic and leaves the imagery to the audience's imagination. Supporting actor John Carroll Lynch's bald OB-GYN patiently explains a few things. But Adlon obviously loves building scenarios around potentially confusing processes that more than a century of man-made movies have been too awkward or polite to depict.
As it happens, co-writer and star Glazer explored another dimension of the pregnancy experience with the 2021 fertility thriller “False Positive” (a disgusting take on the “mom brain” phenomenon). “Babes” is infinitely better, drawing its comedy from lived experience, rather than pregnancy-related paranoia. With Adlon there to spot them, Glazer and Buteau are confident in their respective roles, potentially unlikable qualities and all. Sometimes the couple gets so dirty that you might not believe what you hear. But strength, as the saying goes, comes from the mouths of children.
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