Rating: R | Runtime: 104 minutes
Release Date: May 17th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Neon
Director(s): Pamela Adlon
Writer(s): Ilana Glazer & Josh Rabinowitz

 I don’t want to taste the rainbow no more. I want some sushi.

Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau) are so ride-or-die that they think nothing of going to a very expensive restaurant while the latter is in labor, telling the server (Josh Rabinowitz, who co-writes with Glazer) not to worry about the amniotic fluid on the floor because “There’s more on the way.” That’s how these characters roll and how this film trends with its penchant for the natural gross-out comedy inherent to a pregnant woman’s body. Because while Pamela Adlon’s feature directorial debut Babes may start with Dawn having a baby, it ends with Eden following closely behind.

Both women have no shame when it comes to going wild in public or eating shrooms at home. They’ve been BFFs since childhood and carry the good (support system) and bad (co-dependency) baggage that goes along with the distinction. Even so, however, Dawn is the responsible one. Eden is the “child.” That’s why the former hedges her bets upon declaring that she’d support her friend no matter what decision she makes concerning an unplanned pregnancy post-one-night-stand. She knows Eden will get an abortion since Eden can barely take care of herself. But that’s not the decision. We all must grow up sometime.

What I really enjoyed about Babes is that it isn’t just about that journey for Eden. Yes, she’s the de facto lead considering it spans her child’s nine-month gestation, but the real intriguing drama lies with Dawn’s postpartum adjustment to work, marriage, a second child, and friendship. The more Eden leans on Dawn as a surrogate partner (being that she’s doing this as a single parent), the more frustrated Dawn becomes. Because she can’t be there every step of the way. She’s dealing with a baby, husband (Hasan Minhaj), regressing four-year-old, and now a “wife” on top? It’s too much. And it’s okay to admit it.

With some crazy moments (Adlon’s choice to go back and forth between the duo’s experience on shrooms and reality makes a funny situation even funnier), solid cameos (Stephan James and Oliver Platt are great in limited time with John Carroll Lynch’s Dr. Morris lending a necessary dose of firm yet caring boundaries), and an affecting central love between two women juggling pasts, presents, and futures (personally and societally), there’s a lot to like on-screen. Projects Glazer writes are hit-or-miss for me and some of the more pointed jokes here are delivered like they’re working towards a fourth wall-breaking stare that never arrives, but the whole overcomes its shakier parts.

A lot of that success is due to Buteau delivering an authentic and natural performance that’s as funny as it is resonant. There’s a refreshing honesty to the way she toes the line between supportive and realistic with Eden and a montage of her smile-masked fatigue at home and work is probably the most memorable moment of a movie that delivers projectile breast milk and descriptions of “babying on the poop.” It’s always the heart that shines brightest in work like this and Buteau brings it in full.

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Michelle Buteau and Ilana Glazer on the set of BABES. Credit: Gwen Capistran; Courtesy of NEON.