One of life’s greatest tragedies is a movie that you were really looking forward to and ended up not enjoying. Unfortunately: Such is the case with “Babes.” All the ingredients that ought to have made it enjoyable were there, starting with two exceptionally funny comic performers, Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, who co produced ‘Broad City’, the quirky cult favourite in which Glazer starred, co wrote the screenplay. And perhaps most importantly, it stars Pamela Adlon, who has made a show about pregnancy, parenthood and adult life called ‘Better Things,’ and she is very very good at it, I truly believe it’s on the list of the best television programs ever made.
Yet sometimes a combination of good ingredients fails to produce a good end product, and I think this is what happened in this case. The promotional material for “Babes” brings to mind “Bridesmaids,” the worldwide blockbuster from 2011 that brought to the fore the fact that bad language female comedies can actually work. One of the reasons why ‘Bridesmaids’ is so effective is its rapid pace and the fast accumulation of both verbal and physical gags.
There is plenty of raunch in “Babes,” but this one is somewhat starkly different. The premise is quite simple: Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Buteau) are childhood best friends who still consider each other’s person, but now Dawn has a kid with her husband Marty (Hasan Minhaj), who recently moved to the Upper West Side. Eden, on the other hand, is wild and single and is settled in Astoria. On Thanksgiving Day, Dawn and Marty welcome their second child, and while Eden’s returning from the hospital with them, she meets Claude (Stephan James) on the subway. There is obvious chemistry between the two, and they hit it off instantly, but after spending the night together, Claude disappears.
However, around one month later, Eden finds out that she is expecting. After all, she made the decision to have the child when Dawn assures her that she will support her. But life, as it is in every relationship, is decisive, including friendship.
The term “Babes” pertains to pregnancy, which leaves much room for body jokes, fluids and openings and so on. However, it is also strongly concerned with friendship and the effort required to make relationships last when things get tough in people’s lives. It is also about how annoying young parenthood is, even if you can afford assistance and have shelter. All in all, one can almost hear the film noise saying, as one is under adult life there are paradoxes and better hang in the seats as the turbulence is for real.
All of which is hilarious. The topic of pregnancy is still untouched in most comedy houses and it was probably, the reason no one is able to make pregnancy jokes it’s because many comedy writers haven’t experienced it. Comedy sketches focus mainly on friendship but ‘Babes’ is quite unique in that it focuses on rather banal aspects of friends, which are more suited to the format of sitcoms than feature length films friendship like doing all sorts of banal things like babysitting your friends kid, going out to watch a movie and just wanting to pop in without informing your friends. There are a ton of others, much better ones, for example the one about Eden’s obstetrician, her husband, John Carroll Lynch, and his changing hairstyles in the course of the movie.
However, there is the performance itself and the way that the jokes are delivered which does not quite fit how frantic the script is. It’s not that there are bad performances, it’s that there is a disconnect, particularly in the scenes where two characters played by Glazer and Buteau are its most intimate for the duration of the entire film. Every once in awhile, the jokes seem to be more self contained for the characters than the audience; that’s what rubs us the wrong way, particularly with things that we don’t enjoy.
As for Adlon’s style, it has seemed to me as if it has been pulled away and naturally drawn in the 70s, so it takes a bit to think, look at the screen and that is shown off to good effect in the contemplative parts of the movie, but that same tranquillity signifies that Eden on the other hand begins to be irritating as a pointer. Usually, Glazer is all over the place in a very good manner but cut in the center in this ‘less chaos’ film, she has become the type of former cute quirky lady in her twenties, who is quite frankly, so off putting in her presence now. Eden knows she is “a lot” as she tells Dawn but again, after some time one gets a feeling that the lady is trying purposely to be cute and some attributes behind that. Whatever it is, it becomes quite a challenge to be in her presence.
As I watched ‘Babes’ I sure was reminded of not only Holofcener’s ‘Walking and Talking,’ and ‘You Hurt My Feelings,’ but those makes focused on the high society New Yorkers as protagonists, weaving a comic light over their romantic conflicts. What is great in those movies. I especially focus on the fact that most of the main characters are unbearable is their excess of self reflection and awareness. Being a friend, sister or parent is a life long appointment in the struggle with failure.
In contrast, whether Eden or Dawn go through change, it is rather difficult to ascertain their arc. “Babes”, accordingly, just leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. Here the substance is there together with the talent in plenty, however, it could have taken more time to build up.
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