‘Babes’ Review: Ilana Glazer’s Motherhood Comedy is a Hoot
Babes may not reinvent the wheel, but its constant joyous feel anchored by two impeccably-timed performances from Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau makes it quite enjoyable.
I wouldn’t say I had the best week at the movies, so to cap it off with Pamela Adlon’s Babes felt like a blessing in and of itself. The film had its world premiere at CinemaCon, and you can clearly tell why this film begs to be seen with a crowd. This is an old-school comedy we rarely see, with character actors like Oliver Platt, John Carroll Lynch, and Sandra Bernhard rounding up its supporting cast with riotous turns.
The conceit is simple but executed quite well. After an opening scene that sees one of our protagonists, Dawn (Michelle Buteau), go into labor in an over-the-top physical comedy scene that brilliantly sets up the tone and energy of the movie, Babes kicks into gear with Eden (Ilana Glazer) meeting Claude (Stephan James), an actor who recently landed a part in a Martin Scorsese movie. The two almost immediately hit it off and have a one-night stand, unsurprisingly leaving Eden pregnant a few weeks later.
Eden tries to track down Claude but learns that he tragically passed away from a freak accident a day after their one-night stand. Not knowing what to do, she has herself tested, and once the embryo is perfectly healthy, Eden decides to keep the baby. The rest of the film follows her journey to motherhood in a highly conventional light, but one that fully knows what it is and embraces it head-on.
The film works so well mainly due to Glazer and Buteau’s chemistry, as they constantly play off their strengths and respective comedic talents. Buteau’s style is more verbal than that of Glazer, who is a highly talented physical comic. But Adlon (alongside screenwriters Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz) reverses their talents in its aforementioned opening scene, where Dawn is the one who physically represents the pain of going into labor. At the same time, Eden attempts to calm her down through fast-talking.
This reversal of their talents is a terrific way to make us want to see what shenanigans they get into throughout the movie, which, unfortunately, is far more uneven than the incredible opening scene. There are plenty of bits that go on for way too long, such as sequences where Dawn and Eden’s rivalry is at a head. Some of it is funny, but most of it is incredibly tiresome and thinly-written. The pace of the film is also strange, never really fully leaning into its emotions as Eden learns of Claude’s death and preferring instead to present short vignettes into the life of the protagonists.
However, the comedic power of these vignettes can’t be overstated. The best one contains an evern scarier depiction of The Omen than Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen, as Eden watches the original film with Dawn’s four-year-old son, who then becomes obsessed with becoming Damien Thorn. The results are as funny as you think they are. Other scenes of equal talent include Eden’s poignant conversation with her father (played by Oliver Platt, a severely underappreciated talent), as the two understand how their mistakes have made them better individuals in the process.
Perhaps she needed more love for her dad, but he’s more taken aback by how strong-willed and independent she’s become. This break in comedy adds a deft amount of emotional levity through the story, and a far more poignant moment for Eden than handling Claude’s death, in which she gets over relatively quickly. That said, none of the acting here is bad, but the script seems to teeter in surface-level character beats rather than fully-formed ones, which hampers its narrative structure substantially.
Its aesthetic is also incredibly rudimentary, which fizzles out some of the funnier sequences of the picture, with a glossy, almost televisual approach to its filmmaking. In those specific moments, I struggled to find the “cinematic” appeal to its CinemaCon premiere. However, when you get to the “foot massage” scene, and the audience erupts in rapturous laughter, you immediately understand why this comedy should be seen in a room full of people.
Babes certainly won’t reinvent the wheel of motherhood comedies – but the core chemistry between Glazer and Buteau is what ultimately makes the movie worthwhile. Their charm can’t be overstated, and their comedic talents are second to none. With a much tighter, and less “vignette”-driven script, Babes might have been a masterpiece, but we’ll have to contend with this version for now. This relatively fun and harmless motherhood comedy will immediately become a crowd-pleaser amongst audiences.