A movie like Babes could’ve been a great comedy. Unfortunately, first-time director Pamela Adlon doesn’t have the abilities to squeeze together a coherent story as leads Ilana Glazer (who-co-wrote this cringefest) and Michelle Buteau never really make themselves into likeable characters.
Tommy Chong joked that when the production of their first movie Up in Smoke was underway all Lou Adler as director had to say to him and Cheech Marin were “You ready?” I felt Adlon was the same as Glazer and Buteau have been friends for years playing friends for years who deal with issues of pregnancy, marriage, motherhood and friendship. Adlon has been making movies and TV shows for over 40 years. But sometimes it doesn’t matter how experienced you are if the material isn’t that good.
Glazer plays Eden, an obnoxious yoga instructor who lives in New York City, and has a great apartment where she lives alone and an abundance of money that she can spend about $500 on sushi on Thanksgiving. Her friend, Dawn (Buteau), has her second child but when hospital staff won’t let Eden stay with Dawn and her husband, Marty (Hasan Minhaj), she takes the subway. She meets an aspiring actor, Claude (Stephan James), and they have a one-night stand. But he ghosts her.
Then, she realizes she’s pregnant and this sets off a bunch of vignettes that never seem to mesh together into a plot. It feels more like they gobbled together a script with co-writer Josh Rabinowitz that couldn’t fill a feature-length movie. So, they worked in a lot of scenes of the actors ad-libbing. The only problem is the improvisation doesn’t work. At one point, Dawn and Eden say “Bitch” to each other in so many ways and tones that they think it’s funny, but it isn’t.
And that’s the problem with this movie. I’m sure Glazer and Buteau had a great time filming this movie and goofing around on the set. It’s great to have fun at work. But every now and again, you have to roll up your sleeves and buckle down to get the job done. Eden is such an irritating person that you can understand why Claude ghosts her. I can also understand why her father, Bernie (Oliver Platt in a thankless role), is estranged from her.
Buteau tries to give Dawn some depth. There’s a subplot about her suffering from post-partum depression as she struggles with being anxious and bored with her job and her home life. But this is never handled thoroughly as we get more and more of Eden being a jerk whenever she can. Also, this movie represents everything I hate about comedies now with everyone trying to get the last word on a punchline or gag that isn’t funny.
It’s like someone trying to explain a joke to you that wasn’t funny to begin with. Sandra Bernhard does it briefly in her role as one of Dawn’s partners in her dental business. And John Carroll Lynch, who’s usually a scene stealer, looks bored as Dr. Morris, the OB-GYN of both Dawn and Eden as there’s a running gag of him being unhappy with being bald and trying to cover it up with a comb over or hair plugs. Also, there’s so many scatological jokes here that you wonder if a child themselves added to the script.
I didn’t laugh that much. And you probably won’t either. But there is one good scene where Eden babysits for Dawn and Marty and lets the toddler watch The Omen which later has an effect on another babysitter. Also Glazer is so horrendous to watch that I had to stop watching this movie and come back to it at another time. This is another problem I have with comedies nowadays. There seems to be a constant problem of making characters so mean and ugly as if it’s the joke. A masseuse keeps talking about accidentally killing Eden’s baby. A ticket booth cashier at a movie theater is hostile because he’s working on Thanksgiving. And we get a voice on the PA from a subway operator who is hostile and curt for no reason.
Someone should call CPS on Eden and Dawn and Marty. I just hope this isn’t based on any true events.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 