Babes (2024), directed by Pamela Adlon, stars Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hasan Minhaj, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, and Stephan James. The film follows Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Buteau), two childhood best friends who try to find success while living in New York City. After Dawn gives birth to her second child, Eden begins to feel directionless – as if life is just passing her by. But after a one-night stand that ends in tragedy, Eden discovers she is pregnant. After deciding to keep the baby, Eden enlists Dawn’s help to act as her doula. Throughout the pregnancy, the friends find their relationship both strained and strengthened due to the various ups and downs they are forced to endure. The question is, can Eden’s immature and fun-loving spirit translate to motherhood?

This is the kind of comedy that heavily relies on the performances of its leads and unfortunately, they’re a mixed bag. Buteau provides a serviceable performance as Dawn and succeeds in acting as an effective foil to Eden’s constant buffoonery. That being said, the character isn’t particularly memorable. On the other hand, Illana Glazer goes all in with her performance as Eden, providing hilarious highs and cringe-worthy lows. The character has endless zany energy that just goes way too far. She almost feels like a cartoon at points. Yes, this provides a lot of laughs but the character ends up feeling fake. It’s also jarring when such an over-the-top character transitions into more serious moments. It feels like this character was written with the mentality to sacrifice everything for the sake of laughs. Yes, it’s fun, but a bit forgettable due to its simplicity.

The structure here feels evocative of a Judd Apatow comedy but never succeeds in being as emotionally effective. That being said, this structure does provide this kind of domestic tale with a certain amount of breeziness which keeps the film moving even when it isn’t all that impressive. The pacing is strong and unlike most comedies, the film doesn’t show its hand early in terms of jokes. Thankfully, the film gets funnier as it goes along instead of its’ style becoming stale halfway through.

The film is also able to present current world politics through its characters without feeling pandering or preachy. In other words, these characters feel like real people as opposed to conduits to push a particular opinion/message. This realism also extends to the friendship between the two leads. The film isn’t shy of diving into the ways in which friends can sometimes become a burden and how we are forced to come to terms with that reality. In other words, friendships require work and patience just like any other kind of relationship. At the end of the day, this is the film’s strongest message and biggest success. When life gets hard, sometimes our friends are our only line of defense to keep us in check. 

What irked me by the end of the film is that besides its surface-level exploration of friendships, the film doesn’t have a lot to say. I struggled to find any true theme or message which just resulted in me feeling empty. 

Overall, this is a fun but imperfect comedy that viewers are either going to love or hate. It will not leave them with a feeling of apathy. Hit or miss performances lead to hit or miss jokes which results in a hit or miss film. Women who can relate more to these characters’ struggles may find a lot more to love, but for me, it was just ok. I wouldn’t mind seeing it a second time in the future, but I might forget the film exists before I get the opportunity. C+