Review: Babes (2024)
You get jokes-aplenty, but you don't expect Ilana Glazer's New York to sound like Woody Allen's
Babes (2024)
Directed by Pamela Adlon
Written by Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz
It's hard to imagine that anyone who sees “Babes” could be unaware of the long-running television comedy “Broad City,” which ran for seven seasons on Comedy Central between 2010 and 2019. That show, which was created by and starred Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, was the epitome of hip comedy for New York Gen X-ers and early millennials, establishing each actress-producer as a major comedy talent.
Then the pandemic happened, and fans had to wait til now to see either one star in a film. “Babes,” co-written by Glazer and “Broad City” producer Josh Rabinovitz, includes plenty of in jokes about New York City and its denizens, especially New Yorkers of the same age as the “Broad City” protagonists. Fans will appreciate the many in-jokes that permeated the TV show. For the rest of us, there are at least 300 other jokes, and they come fast and good. In general, “Babes” is exactly the madcap comedy that you might expect from Glazer. At first, the timing seems a little off, but I think that’s just because the viewer has to adjust to Buteau as the comic partner instead of Jacobson. By a third of the way through, you're definitely getting your money's worth.
The premise: two women who grew up together as best friends, and are now in their thirties, each have babies. First, the married Dawn (Michelle Buteau), then Eden (Glazer) -- who is not only unmarried but was impregnated during a one-night stand with a guy (Stephen James) who promptly dies in an accident the following day. The main conflict in the movie comes not from the differences between the heterosexually coupled Dawn and the independent Eden, but from the elaborate expectations that the lifelong best friends put on each other. Having promised to support each other through their lives, they think of themselves as more than best friends; they are family for each other. But when each grows exhausted by the burdens of pregnancy and parenting, they find that the reality of showing up for the other, no matter what, is harder than they had imagined.
You go to this movie expecting an Ilana Glazer madcap comedy with hip music like you heard on “Broad City.” Instead, what you get is tinkling Gershwin and other Great American Songbook piano music, like you're in the lounge of the Plaza Hotel, or a Woody Allen movie. It's so jarring that I thought that somehow Ilana Glazer had been possessed by the spirit of Mariel Hemingway or something.
This is maybe the time for me to say that when I was going through my twenties during the 1970s, Woody Allen was just about my favorite filmmaker. Watching his movies in the 1970s and 80s, it was pretty much a requirement for the viewer to fall in love with Allen’s fantasy New York. Of course, in the last thirty years the revelations about his personal life, not to mention the lack of imagination and absolute tone deafness of his insistence upon featuring the same plot threads and kinds of characters year after year after year, have pretty much spoiled even those gems of the 1970s. He has become so toxic that his latest films haven't even found an American distributor. Like most other people, I soured on his career for both reasons.
So it was strange to be asked to appreciate the New York of “Babes” with Gershwin piano music on the soundtrack. The soundtrack -- which also features some very white girl-pop anthems -- lacks any music influenced by hip-hop, which characterized the “Broad City” soundtrack. Its absence seems strange considering that the movie prominently features two African American actors, Buteau and James. Nor does it have South Asian-influenced music (Hasan Minhaj has a prominent role as Dawn’s husband Marty) or anything that isn’t white. The casting may be a nod to New York’s diversity, but the soundtrack definitely isn’t.
Of the supporting actors, Stephan James (“Beacon 23”) as the one-night stand who impregnates Eden, and John Caroll Lynch, a very widely known supporting actor who you'll recognize from “Fargo” and from his starring role in “The Founder,” are extremely good. Elena Ouspenskaia is very funny as a deadpan doula whom Eden hires to assist her. On the other hand, Sandra Bernhard, in the role of Dawn’s co-worker, is not. I found her presence off-putting, primarily because of her spiky, crumbling voice, but also, frankly, because when she’s on screen I couldn’t stop thinking “Wow, that’s Sandra Bernhard, she looks and sounds terrible.” Perhaps Glazer wanted to honor Bernhard as a forerunner, but this role doesn’t do her any favors.
But back to the script. As I said, it includes a ton of jokes, which is great. But the three-act framework of “Best friends! Oh, they broke up! Oh, they got back together in a way that works for them!” is pretty by-the-numbers. Aside from the death of Stephan James’s character, you pretty much see everything coming. This doesn’t ruin the comedy, but the Gershwin music almost does.