Babes (2024)

Brent Marchant May 25, 2024

★ 5/10

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 raun…

CinemaSerf August 17, 2024

★ 6/10

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…

Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots April 4, 2025

I wish Hollywood would give us more movies like “Babes,” a female-driven comedy that doesn’t hold back. Directed by Pamela Adlon and co-written by Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, this outrageous look at pregnancy, motherhood, and female friendship is absolutely hilarious. The humor here is raw, crass, and completely unapologetic, which makes it hard not to laugh at the absurdity of it all, even when the subject matter gets pretty uncomfortable. Childhood best friends Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau) are navigating very different stages in life. Eden is single and really wants to have a baby, and she decides to go it alone after a one-night stand leaves her pregnant. Meanwhile, Dawn is juggling motherhood, work, and the exhaustion that comes with it. Their bond is tested when Eden’s decision to pursue pregnancy on her own shakes up their friendship in unexpected ways.…