X
In Theaters Now
- 2024
- R
- Neon
- 1 h 44 m
- 2024
- R
- Neon
- 1 h 44 m
Summary After becoming pregnant from a one-night stand, Eden (Ilana Glazer) leans on her married best friend and mother of two, Dawn (Michelle Buteau), to guide her through gestation and beyond.
Directed By: Pamela Adlon
Written By: Ilana Glazer, Josh Rabinowitz
In Theaters Now
- 2024
- R
- Neon
- 1 h 44 m
- 2024
- R
- Neon
- 1 h 44 m
Babes
73
5.7
Where to Watch
Summary After becoming pregnant from a one-night stand, Eden (Ilana Glazer) leans on her married best friend and mother of two, Dawn (Michelle Buteau), to guide her through gestation and beyond.
Directed By: Pamela Adlon
Written By: Ilana Glazer, Josh Rabinowitz
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
73
84% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
16% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
73
84% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
16% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
With Pamela Adlon (“Better Things”) directing in a style reminiscent of the best Woody Allen and Nora Ephron movies of the 1970s and 1980s, a sharp and hilarious and poignant screenplay by Glazer (“Broad City”) and Josh Rabinowitz, and winning performances from the co-leads, “Babes” is one terrific friend-com, or should we say a mom-com, and I can already picture Eden and Dawn making fun of that latter term.
At its heart, this is a film about sisterhood.
Babes may deal with weighted adult issues like motherhood, friendship, connection and the struggles of moving on, but, rest assured, it is a comedic gold mine of delightful punch lines.
All these elements, wacky or not, come together in a charming mishmash that adds something ultimately very important to the childbirth comedy genre: the message that childbirth is profound, yes, and full of wonder. But also, like life, it can be funny — and a bit of a mess.
How much you enjoy all this will depend on how much you like Glazer. She’s funny, no question, and sometimes intentionally grating. But she also gives off a genuineness. Maybe she is just saying out loud what other people are thinking.
Although Babes nails its comedic swings, the film strains to build the narrative tension and stakes needed to land its more serious moments.
Babes is the kind of comedy that makes you wonder what jokes are, exactly, and if what you just saw contained any.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 26 User Ratings
5.7
54% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
19% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
27% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 26 User Ratings
5.7
54% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
19% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
27% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
IN A NUTSHELL:
The story is about two best friends who navigate pregnancy and childbirth, as it changes their relationship.
The film was directed by Pamela Adlon in her directorial debut. Writing credits go to Llana Glazer, Josh Rabinowitz, who also co-produced it with Susie Fox, Ashley Fox, and Breean Pojunas. Already, the film has been nominated for awards by two film festivals.
THINGS I LIKED:
Michelle Buteau and Llana Glazer have fantastic chemistry together and are believable as besties since childhood.
Llana Glazer was really pregnant while writing and filming this movie. She drew inspiration from her own experience with pregnancy and motherhood. I got a kick out of her physical humor as she played a spunky, energetic yoga instructor who gets knocked up after a one-night stand.
There are a lot of funny moments that are often simultaneously cringe moments. Some audiences will love that.
All of the secondary characters did a great job too, and include John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, Sandra Bernhard, Hasan Minhaj, and Stephen James.
I love it when New York City is one of the characters in a movie. New Yorkers are very different kind of people from the ones I live around.
There is a raw honesty about motherhood. Hopefully, men who watch this film will better appreciate what women do.
How lucky are those who have best friends like this who are fiercely loyal.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
The film is extremely raunchy, disrespectful, and profane. It’s not my cup of tea, but I can absolutely see why some audiences will think it’s hilarious and smart. It reminded me that there actually are people out there who live and speak like this in real life.
The content about bodily fluids and exhaustion is repeated over and over. While I wanted them to move on to new territory, I absolutely recognize that motherhood is filled with those things!
One of the things that made me sad about this movie is the focus on the negative side of parenting. Yes, being pregnant and raising kids is exhausting, but it’s also the most rewarding thing a woman will ever do in her life.
The ending is predictable, yet still made me a little teary-eyed.
TIPS FOR PARENTS:
This absolutely not appropriate for kids.
No subject is taboo in this movie.
TONS of super crude language and people
We see a full nude pregnant woman. She tries to cover various body parts with her hands.
We see two women take psychedelic shrooms
An unmarried couple has a one-night stand (we don’t see the action)
A woman tells a 3-year-old boy to watch a rated R movie with her: The Omen, which is a terribly scary movie for kids and incredibly inappropriate. He ends up writing 666 in red on the walls of his bedroom.
When a doctor asks a pregnant woman if she wants to know the gender of her baby, she explains she doesn’t want to put a binary name on it.
Lots of alcohol
Lots of talk of intimate relationships (if you know what I mean)
Report
How disappointing it is when you see a movie that you were looking forward to only to walk away unimpressed, if not largely disappointed. So it is with director Pamela Adlon’s debut feature, a comedy-drama about the wild and crazy relationship between two lifelong thirtysomething New York BFFs (Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau) who share the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood while struggling to maintain the kind of free-spirited friendship they had before becoming mothers. The narrative consists of a series of vignettes – some outrageous, some touching, some serious – involving various aspects of their connection, their individual lives and their interactions with others. Unfortunately, these episodes are wildly inconsistent, regardless of their nature. Some work well (especially, surprisingly enough, those that get unapologetically down and dirty with unbridled raunchy humor), but most others fall stunningly flat for a variety of reasons. The biggest problem here is the writing, which frequently tries far too hard to make the material work. Some segments simply aren’t funny, relying on excessive exhausting mugging and overacting to win over audience members and unsuccessfully persuade them otherwise. Others are utterly preposterous and implausible (despite trying to come across as “zany” or “outrageous”), lacking credibility in terms of plot devices, character development and story flow. And others still are just plain inauthentic, particularly when driven by the strained chemistry between the two often-immature leads, whose supposed bond simply isn’t convincing. What’s more, when the film unsuccessfully tries to turn serious, scenes that are supposed to move and touch viewers don’t work, because the film doesn’t do enough to engender sufficient interest in the protagonists, their challenges or their relationship with one another. To its credit, the film features some fine performances by supporting cast members (John Carroll Lynch, Stephan James, Elena Ouspenskaia), but the leads grow progressively tiresome, especially the longer the movie drones on. In short, “Babes” is a big misfire that fails to deliver despite a few modest laughs along the way. Best bet for this one? Wait for it to come to streaming.
Report
Production Company
FilmNation Entertainment,
Range Media Partners,
Starrpix
Release Date May 17, 2024
Duration 1 h 44 m
Rating R
Genres
Awards
Miami Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
SXSW Film Festival
• 1 Nomination