‘Babes’ Review
Stars: Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, Hasan Minhaj, Stephan James, Oliver Platt | Written by Ilana Glazer, Josh Rabinowitz | Directed by Pamela Adlon
Broad City’s Ilana Glazer and stand-up Michelle Buteau play two best friends going through pregnancy in this raunchy comedy from actor-turned-director Pamela Adlon. Crackling with comic chemistry, it’s frequently very funny and pulls off what is essentially a clever riff on the usual rom-com dynamic, but it oddly shies away from its potentially emotional moments, preferring to undercut them with laughs instead.
The film is set in present-day New York, where two best friends – single yoga instructor Eden (Glazer) and married-with-a-kid dentist Dawn (Buteau) – still get together regularly, despite now living in different boroughs that are several subway trains apart. As the film begins, they’re indulging in their annual Thanksgiving ritual of attending a movie together, but that’s cut short when heavily pregnant Dawn goes into labour with her second child.
Shortly afterwards, Eden gets pregnant via a one-night stand with an attractive bit-part actor (Stephan James) she meets on the subway, and when he disappears (for reasons best left undisclosed), she decides to go ahead and have his baby, turning to Dawn for support. However, Eden’s free-spirited irresponsibility puts pressure on their friendship and threatens to drive them apart.
That basic structure of two people falling out and then coming back together is the mainstay of multiple romcoms, and one of the best things about Babes is the way it casually repurposes that romantic rom-com dynamic and applies it to a strong female friendship. It’s a shame, then, that the script – co-written by Glazer and comedian Josh Rabinowitz – can’t quite muster up the level of sincerity to pull off its more emotional moments, almost as if it’s afraid of being too cheesy, preferring to squeeze in another gag instead.
The jokes, at least, come thick and fast. Glazer and Buteau have delightful comic chemistry together and every scene delivers multiple gags, ranging from well-timed one-liners to physical comedy. To that end, the film has an intriguing spin on gross-out gags, in that there’s lots of unpalatable physical description (“They don’t tell you about this part”, says Dawn, during a birthing scene), but Adlong stops short of showing you the visual detail. It’s probably just as well.
Similarly, the two leads are superb and there’s very funny support from John Carroll Lynch as Eden’s folically challenged obstetrician. There are also a pair of weird two-scene cameos – one from Sandra Bernhard (as Dawn’s boss) and one from Oliver Platt, as Eden’s absentee dad, another instance where the film literally runs away from a potentially emotional moment.
Admittedly, it doesn’t all work – in particular, Eden’s lapse of judgement that leads to the friends separating is so over the top that it almost comes across as a mean-spirited prank that went wrong. The film also avoids its expected big reconciliation scene, suggesting that either the script wasn’t up to it, or they shot it and ditched it in the final cut.
Ultimately, this is an enjoyable comedy that’s a strong showcase for the comic talents of its two leads, even if that sometimes comes at the expense of anything emotional or dramatic.
***½ 3.5/5
Babes is in UK cinemas from Friday, August 9th.
