‘Babes’ Review: Pamela Adlon Delivers an Unapologetically Raw Take on Pregnancy and Female Friendship
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic When Judd Apatow and the boys make an R-rated pregnancy comedy, they call it “Knocked Up.” But when “Broad City” co-creator Ilana Glazer and stand-up comic Michelle Buteau try their hand at the same subject, the every-bit-as-raunchy result comes with a far classier title: “Babes.” That pun is just one of the movie’s many acts of irreverent reclamation, as helmer Pamela Adlon — making a confident switch to feature directing after seminal small-screen contributions to “Louie” and “Better Things” — and her stars de-objectify a label used by dudes and slap it upon themselves.
The cheeky term applies to both lifelong amigas Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Buteau) and the infants they spend most of the movie incubating.
These babes are making babies, and you might be surprised just how much comedy there is still to be milked from that seemingly universal (but still widely underexamined) subject.
Unveiling the still-unrated laffer at the SXSW Film Festival, Adlon delivers an unapologetically crude homage to motherhood, presented here as the awe-inspiring phenomenon by which a human grows another human inside her body.
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