Babes

I have literally never written a review on here, but I'm so shocked by the negative reviews that I feel compelled to do so.

I saw this movie tonight as a part of Cinemark's "Secret Movie" series and I was so pleasantly surprised. This movie was NOT on my radar at all (and I go to the theater every weekend), so imagine my surprise when this movie came on and I absolutely loved it!!

I honestly don't think I would've ever gone to this movie if it weren't for this "secret movie" thing, but it was so funny I would honestly go see it again. I laughed the entire time.

I just saw on a poster for it a critic say something like "Bridemaids for having a baby" and I couldn't agree more. This was a movie about women and women issues, and I'm not a woman, but the humor is so good that none of that mattered.

Maybe it's because I live Broad City, but this movie hit that same exact sense of humor and it was amazing.

It was also surprisingly heartfelt and sweet.

Ignore whatever these other reviews are saying. They're clearly made by boomers who can't handle women being hilariously crude and raunchy. It's rare to find actual comedies these days, and this one does not disappoint. GO SEE IT.

The brainchild of Pamela Adlon and Ilana Glazer, is a comedy that tackles the messy realities of female friendship and motherhood. Glazer shines as Eden, a free-spirited yoga instructor whose life takes a sharp turn when her best friend Dawn (Michelle Buteau) becomes a mom of two, and Eden herself gets pregnant from a one-night stand.

The film's strength lies in its unflinching honesty. It doesn't shy away from the gross bodily fluids, sleep deprivation, and emotional turmoil that come with pregnancy and early parenthood.

However, where Babes stumbles a bit is in Glazer's signature delivery. While her brand of in-your-face humor perfectly captured the wild energy of Broad City, it can feel a tad repetitive here. Jokes that landed big on television lose some punch on the big screen, and the constant barrage of profanity and awkward bodily functions can become tiresome after a while.

Buteau serves as a fantastic counterpoint. Her portrayal of the overwhelmed yet fiercely loving Dawn provides a much-needed grounding force. The chemistry between the two leads is undeniable, but the film tends to have a few plot holes and shift in time that forces you put together some of the missing pieces.

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.

I Wasn't sure I was going to like this movie at all when it started, it did have a rough start, amd there were some cringy scenes, but when the story got moving I was engaged and there were some genuinely funny moments. It was interesting to see a realistic view of what pregnancy and motherhood can be like, through the perspective of the two main characters. There where some great side characters, the doctor being especially good. Not my favorite movie of the year by any means, but I liked it a lot more than I would have thought, and although I will likely never watch it again I'm glad I saw it. The music was pretty good as well.

The about to give birth "Dawn" (Michelle Buteau) is married to the perfectly manscaped "Marty" (Hasan Minhaj) and is best friends with "Eden" (Ilana Glazer) who is keen on having a baby but so far lacks a suitable sperm donor. That all changes, though, when she encounters the charming "Claude" (Stephan James) on the train and, thinking her period is sure fire protection against getting pregnant, they have some fun. She is smitten, but he disappears without a trace and she just chalks it up to experience. A few months later, though, she gets quite a shock and what now ensues sees the friendship she has with "Dawn" quite seriously tested, yada yada. There's nothing new to this at all, and after the first twenty minutes of serious over-acting and a scene where a waiter concerned that the amniotic fluid leaking over the floor of his restaurant might not be that hygienic - and it designated a "woman hater", the stall was set out for this frankly quite puerile attempt at comedy. It's structured just as if it's a couple episodes of a mediocre sitcom interspersed by a stand-up routine style narrative from writer Glazer that rehashes a tired girl-power mentality that stopped being funny thirty years ago. I didn't care if their friendship worked or didn't: there's no effort to develop the characters and frankly I'm not surprised "Claude" took an early bath from these proceedings. I'm not really a fan of these buddy-comedies that take a relationship that supposedly works, break it, then try to put "Humpty" together again for the sake of an ending we could all see from space, and this is another off a conveyor belt completely devoid of originality.