When I say “Babes” is one messy comedy, I mean that in the best possible way.
Ilana Glazer’s Eden and Michelle Buteau’s Dawn have been besties since they were 11 years old — but now that Dawn has just given birth to her second child and Eden is about to become a single mother, their friendship is put to the test as they each cope with the emotional and physical messiness of life.
With Pamela Adlon (“Better Things”) directing in a style reminiscent of the best Woody Allen and Nora Ephron movies of the 1970s and 1980s, a sharp and hilarious and poignant screenplay by Glazer (“Broad City”) and Josh Rabinowitz, and winning performances from the co-leads, “Babes” is one terrific friend-com, or should we say a mom-com, and I can already picture Eden and Dawn making fun of that latter term.
With bodily fluids abounding and frank talk about the gassy and scatological realities of giving birth, and the added bonus of delivering the placenta and the production of breast milk, “Babes” is a celebration of the miracle of new life, and an unflinching look at the realities of what it means to become a mother.
We already know Pamela Adlon is a first-rate comedic actress, writer and director from her television work — and Adlon immediately announces herself as a skilled filmmaker with her feature directorial work. “Babes” never makes a misstep even as it delves into a number of familiar tropes and we’re pretty sure we know where things are going. The journey is joyful and also darkly funny, and the ending … well, I just loved the ending, and that’s what sleeves are for, man, wiping away this weird moisture from one’s eyes.
From the moment when Eden, a yoga instructor still trying to find her way in life, and Dawn, a successful dentist with a husband and 4-year-old son, appear onscreen, we believe they’re best friends. Coming of age together in Astoria, Queens, they have the shared history, the catalog of inside jokes, the rapid-fire banter of lifelong friends — and the unspoken bond that they’ll always be there for one another. When we’re introduced to Eden and Dawn, they’re continuing their annual tradition of seeing a movie on Thanksgiving morning, even though Dawn has recently moved to the Upper West Side and is very pregnant, and it takes Eden three trains just to reach her.
Dawn’s water breaks while they’re in the theater — not in the usual Niagara Falls gush usually seen in movies and on TV, but in slow trickles. It’s time!
Well, it’ll be time soon. Knowing it might be hours before Dawn actually gives birth, the duo makes a detour to a fancy restaurant and orders literally everything on the menu. Once they make it to the hospital and Dawn gives birth, with her ever-supportive husband Marty (Hasan Minhaj) by her side and Eden on hand as well, Eden boards the train for the long ride home to Astoria and has a meet-cute with the handsome and charming Claude (Stephan James), an aspiring actor who has just had a very small speaking role in a Scorsese film. They hook up. It’s sweet, and also quite funny.
When Eden learns she’s pregnant, she attempts to reach Claude, but let’s just say he has ghosted her, and the reveal of that information is hilarious. To the surprise of everyone, including maybe herself, Eden decides to keep the baby. (John Carroll Lynch is a deadpan hoot as her ob-gyn, who has great empathy for his patients and also some serious hair issues.)
Eden expects Dawn to be there for her every step of the way — but Dawn’s kinda busy, what with dealing with a 4-year-old who acts out after Eden allows him to see “The Omen,” difficulties in producing breast milk for her newborn, and feeling guilty every time she walks out the door and heads back to work. (It doesn’t help that Eden doesn’t have a support group outside of Dawn; her mother died years ago, and her father, played by the great Oliver Platt, is an agoraphobic who posits that if he hadn’t been such a terrible father, maybe Eden wouldn’t have turned out so great. Wrap your head around THAT one.)
For all its gross-out hijinks and snappy banter, “Babes” can also deliver devastating emotional gut-punches, as when Eden keeps insisting that she and Dawn are family, and Dawn finally says no, they’re not, that Dawn HAS a family, consisting of a husband and two children. Still, we always have the feeling these two will work it out, that they’ll be in each other’s lives forever. They deserve each other, and that’s almost always a great thing.
