Babes review: Motherhood Is Sweet and Gross

I promise you, you’ll never look at pregnancy the same way in Pamela Adlon’s directorial debut, with comedy stars Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau packing the comedic and emotional punch.

Babes (2024)

Directed by Pamela Adlon
Starring Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hassan Minaj, Oliver Platt, John Carroll Lynch, Sandra Bernhard, Stephan James, Kenny & Keith Lucas (The Twins)

Runtime: 1 hour, 49 mins

Synopsis

After a one-night stand, Eden (Glazer) discovers that she’s pregnant and decides to keep it, with the conflicted support of her best friend Dawn (Buteau), who’s just had her second child and seems to be struggling with her worries. Together, they will have to navigate different stages of motherhood and figure out how to preserve their friendship in the process.

Dang It Bobby

Hmmmm…directed by Pamela Adlon…where have I heard that name before…

King of the Hill?! Ole Bobby Hill himself!

I don’t always look up information about a film until after I’ve watched it. Sometimes, it’s to avoid spoilers (which is hard in my profession, so I’ve mostly given up), but other times, I like knowing as little as possible so that interviews or press junkets won’t potentially sway me in one direction or another. I had naturally assumed Ilana Glazer was directing this one – she did write the screenplay with Josh Rabinowitz, and directed episodes of her hit show Broad City (2014-2019). So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that the voice of Bobby Hill, and a solid comedic stalwart in Pamela Adlon was at the helm.

Adlon may not be a household name outside of comedic spaces, but she’s been involved with so many great projects over the years, either as a voice actor with the aforementioned King of the Hill, writing on the series Louie, starring in her own FX series Better Things (2016-22), and even a stint on the Red Foxx Show (1986) way back when. This may be her directorial debut, but when it comes to comedy, pairing with Ilana Glazer made this a slam dunk.

A Great Comedic Mix

If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know I’ve loathed the state of comedic films the past decade. There haven’t been many standouts that I vividly remember after watching. I blame most of that on the improv, stream-of-consciousness comedy that’s been super popular. You may not know that phrase, but I assure you, you’ve seen it plenty of times.

If two characters just stand in front of each other while the plot screeches to a halt as they just shoot random words and sentences to one another, that’s what I’m talking about. There’s no actual joke setup and zero payoffs unless you happen to find the randomness hilarious.

I don’t…actually, I don’t just loathe, I hate it with a fiery passion.

So, I’ll be honest: the first 5 minutes of this movie almost made me want to walk out. All the hallmarks of just being cringe and providing no jokes was going to irritate me too much.

Eventually, the movie settled down, though, and then I really loved it. Sure, there were still some moments with characters doing the “this is clearly the improv section”. However these moments were better woven between great jokes and moving the narrative along, they didn’t frustrate me at all. Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Buteau) have a scene together that’s destined to be clipped as the “bitch-off” that’s an example of the style I dislike, but done at it’s absolute best.

If you like great joke setups, I won’t spoil this one, but there’s an example of great writing with The Omen (1976) joke; when it paid off (and it pays off well), I was in tears and missed the next couple of jokes. It’s these types of moments that I’ve been sorely missing, and I’m glad that Adlon and Glazer were able to create a good mixture between modern comedic treads and classic joke structures.

Also, the film is hilariously gross without actually showing anything gross. If you think about what you see versus what’s actually said, the film doesn’t actually show anything significant…but man, they aren’t pulling any punches regarding the realities of pregnancy. It mirrors many of the conversations I see online or have with friends who are considering having or have already had kids. Once they go through it, the desire to sugarcoat it goes away, and people get extremely real about their experiences. I’m glad that modern media is being more open about the realities of childbirth, reflecting real-world conversations in a positive and hilarious way.

Pour One Out For The Single Folk

There was a great line by Eden as she’s frustrated by Dawn’s increasing separation as her life gets busier and busier. While I can’t recall it perfectly, it was incredibly impactful as a single person with plenty of married friends and families, etc. Marriage and/or kids seems to immediately create ripples in friendship dynamics, as it totally should. But people’s answer to that test so many times is to simply nope out, which is a depressing reality that many of us are all too familiar with. I won’t spoil this film’s answer to that issue, but I think it speaks to the power of valuing and investing in friendships that become familial bonds. Sure, it can be a bit corny, and I found myself shaking my head a bit, knowing in real-life that’s a hard bridge to cross, but I would like to think more people could or would do what Eden and Dawn do to stay close in each other’s lives.

Many modern comedies tend to slam on the breaks whenever it gets to the real emotional core of the film. It can be painfully jarring, but Babes navigates these elements really well. When Eden and Dawn eventually have their predictable blow-up, it doesn’t come out of left field, and it feels emotionally warranted. There’s all the storytelling signs, either from films you’ve seen before or the occasional awkward moment, that helps the deeper moments later in the film hit harder. Another film did this pretty well recently: Joy Ride (2023), which features a cameo from Daniel Dae Kim in the final act as he helps Ashley Park’s character navigate her feelings regarding her birth mother. I won’t say anymore because that moment is pretty great, but it wouldn’t have worked if the film didn’t have some slower moments between Park and actress Sherry Cola to set up the deeper moment later.

One of the early signs that the film was going to take these emotional beads seriously is when Eden meets Claude (Stephan James). They get stuck on one side of New York on Thanksgiving and have to take multiple trains to get home, building their chemistry and relationship train by train until they eventually decide to have sex later that night. It may seem like a really simple scene of flirting, and sure, there’s jokes woven in there, but the movie doesn’t cheapen their relationship with how they place jokes or the timing of jokes within this scene. We know they are vibing with one another, and something pretty real is happening between them, but we don’t know how it will pay off until later.

Whether these were writing decisions by Glazer or direction from Adlon, it paid dividends in the film’s conclusion, as these threads of singleness, new relationships, navigating grief, and motherhood come together for a really satisfying send-off.

Conclusion / Recommendation

Babes combines the comedic stylings of Glazer and Buteau into a fantastic comedy that plays off their chaotic energy, avoiding the pitfalls and issues of modern comedies while also delivering an emotionally resonant journey that people will return to over and over again.

I highly recommend seeing this with a big group of people. The screening at my local Alamo was dying in laughter, and it made the experience better than watching it solo. Alamo isn’t paying me to say this, but I love their tie-in videos…though I didn’t get the actual Babes intro for my screening…come on, Alamo!

Score: 8.6 out of 10

• Glazer and Buteau Deliver- 9
  • This pairing is gold, and they could easily make some more magic together after this. They worked together effortlessly, and it shows up on screen well.
• Comedic Gold- 8
  • Finally, a comedy film delivers on its actual job: making me laugh and being memorable at the same time, I’m ecstatic.
• My Emotions!- 9
  • I’m a sucker for a great drama woven into my comedy movies, and Babes achieves that and then some.

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