Pamela Adlon directs a riotous, no-holds-barred comedy in ‘Babes,’ opening Friday in Boston theaters before heading for the suburbs next weekend.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
In terms of films about friendships between women, the iconic one that leaps to mind is “Thelma & Louise” (1991). To that, we can add “Girls Trip” (2017), “Beaches” (1988), “Waiting to Exhale” (1995), the archaeological “9 to 5” (1980), and, of course, the more recent laugh riot and smash hit “Bridesmaids” (2011), which bizarrely produced no sequels.
I don’t think “Babes” is going to reach the heights of the preceding titles. But it is strikingly raunchy and raw and a lot of fun. The action starts beneath the marquee of Greenwich Village’s beloved art house Cinema Village, a theater, where the two main characters, Dawn (stand-up comic Michelle Buteau, TV’s “Survival of the Thickest”), who is very pregnant, and Eden (Ilana Glazer, who also co-wrote the screenplay) traditionally meet. Inside the theater, Dawn’s water breaks, and her response is to beg Eden to go to a restaurant with her and order everything on the menu.
Eden and Dawn are dear friends separated only by space. Eden lives in Astoria, Queens, five subway rides from the theater; Dawn and her doting, devoted husband Marty (Hasan Minhaj, “Haunted Mansion”) abide in the tony and well-to-do Upper West Side. After having a one-night stand with a sexy waiter/actor named Claude (a charismatic Stephan James, “If Beale Street Could Talk”), Eden finds herself pregnant and decides to have the baby and raise the child by herself.
The most prominent feature of the screenplay by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz (“The Carmichael Show”), outside of the frequent puking and defecation jokes, is the brutal, comical, and often profane language used by Eden and Dawn when they address one another. They talk about the intersection of vaginas and excrement during birth. They talk about their love and their body parts. Dawn has conversations with her breasts, which are not producing sufficient milk for her new baby. The second most important men in their lives, next to Marty, whom they adore, are Dawn and Marty’s 4-year-old son Tommy (Caleb Mermelstein-Knox) and their obstetrician Dr. Morris (John Carroll Lynch), whose most noteworthy feature, besides his sense of humor and compassion, is his egregious comb over.
Pregnancy is a funny, filthy business in “Babes.” Almost inevitably, the subject of “The Omen” comes up, ditto for Beyonce and “vagina waters.” Dawn and Eden go on a search for a doula and find a jaded, deeply cynical Eastern European woman ominously named Dragana (Elena Ouspenskaia, who is a scream). Should they hire Dragana or drive a stake through her heart? “Babes” goes where other films about pregnancies have not dared to go, and that is what exactly happens to women who get pregnant and give birth. Apparently, it’s a joyous, maddening, humiliating, beautiful, ugly, and delightful process. Eden is horny all the time, too. With dubious judgment, Eden and Dawn agree to get dressed for prom and take a limo when the time comes for Eden to go to the hospital. “Babes” might be the even more foul-mouthed and female-fronted “Knocked Up” (2007) of its generation. Yes, that is Sandra Bernhard as a fellow doctor at Dr. Dawn’s medical practice. I’ve never heard of “placenta smoothies” until now. Can I unhear it? A neatly tied bow, “Babes,” will end where it started.
Award-winning actor-director Pamela Adlon, best known as a prolific comic actor in productions such as TV’s “Better Things,” handles the directing chores with finesse. “Babes” is both an old-fashioned screwball comedy and a film about pregnancies set in a world of renewed discussions about abortion rights and the politicians who’ve taken them away from women. “Babes” time is now.
‘Babes’
Rating: R, profanity, sexual references, partial nudity, drug use.
Cast: Illana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hasan Minhaj
Director: Pamela Adlon
Writer: Ilana Glazer, Josh Rabinowitz
Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Where to watch: In Boston theaters and expanding to the suburbs May 24
Grade: B+
Boston Movie News 