Babes (2024)

I totally understand when opinions seem to vary wildly when we see the many "greatest films/films you must see"lists covering specific years that have just gone by, but I was very surprised to see so many people seem to miss, or completely overlook, Babes. Not only is this one of the best comedies of 2024, it's one of the best comedies I have seen in years. I hope this small corner of the internet can allow me to praise it highly enough that others get to discover just how wonderful it is.

Ilana Glazer is Eden, a good friend to Dawn (Michelle Buteau). The pair have been friends for many years, and the film starts with them having to rush to the hospital as Dawn goes into labour with her next child. Eden is happy enough without her own children, but that situation is about to change in a major way, all thanks to a handsome man named Claude (Stephan James). It's not too long until Eden is considering how to cope with her situation, but she starts to discover that Dawn cannot always give her the time and energy that she needs from those she considers more family member than friend.

Co-written by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, both doing excellent work, and directed by Pamela Adlon, smoothly transitioning from helming some TV work to her first feature, Babes is a perfect balance of big laughs and nicely-crafted emotional moments. It has a central message that can be found in many other movies, one about the joys and importance of motherhood and family, but it sets itself apart from the crowd by also delivering the equally important message that family doesn't necessarily mean people you are related to by blood. You can make your own family. Your friends can be family. And the family that you make of your own choosing can be much better for you than the options that you are simply given from birth.

As well as being such a talented writer, Glazer delivers a brilliant comedic turn in her lead role. She's matched by Buteau, who shares a lot of the runtime until division keeps our main characters apart for a while. Not only are both leads great with the material, whether delivering laughs or being serious, but they both feel like they really have been friends since they were children (not surprising as they have apparently been friends for 20 years). It's the kind of onscreen chemistry that elevates everything. James makes a strong impression with his relatively small amount of screentime, Hasan Minhaj is very good as Marty, the husband of Dawn, and there are very enjoyable cameos from John Carroll Lynch (as a doctor as concerned with his own balding as he is concerned with his patient) and Oliver Platt (playing a dad very much aware of his own shortcomings). 

The 104-minute runtime allows for perfect pacing as things move between the jokes and the more heartfelt moments of authentic emotion, there are one or two good needle drops on the soundtrack, and you'll spend the end credits hoping that there's a future where we get to spend even more time with these characters. Babes isn't perfect, but I'll be damned if I can think of one specific imperfection worth mentioning right now. You should all see it. You can thank Glazer and co. for delivering something so fantastic (no pun intended). Then you can thank me for recommending it to you.

9/10

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Rough Night (2017)

2017 ended up being the year in which we had two big cinema releases focusing on women getting together and letting their hair down. But where Girls Trip may have tried to play the premise with a surprising emphasis on some more dramatic moments, Rough Night is content to just go for the laughs, with fleeting emotional moments doled out as and when the character development needs to be prodded to the next point.

Scarlett Johansson plays Jess, a young woman about to get married. She's also hoping to become an elected official, although this is in doubt as too many members of the public don't find her that appealing. She is behind the polls to a man who accidentally sent out a dick pic. He apologised, but only while sending out another dick pic that was obviously intended to go out the first time around. So it's no wonder that Jess is looking forward to some fun with her friends, played by Jillian Bell, Zoe Kravitz, Ilana Glazer, and Kate McKinnon (playing an Australian who is unfamiliar with the rest of the group). Unfortunately, it doesn't take that long for someone to go and accidentally kill the male stripper who was hired as entertainment. Which means the fun plans have to be altered to body disposal plans. And hilarity ensues. Perhaps.

With a plot that seems to mix Bridesmaids and Very Bad Things (without the spiralling chain of deaths), Rough Night isn't going to claim any points for originality. Everyone involved seems to know this, with every main sequence played out almost exactly as you'd expect, but that's not a bad thing when the aim is always to simply amuse and entertain viewers.

Director Lucia Aniello, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paul W. Downs (also starring as Johansson's husband-to-be), makes her feature debut, and shows that she's a safe pair of hands for this kind of material. Keeping the whole thing at just about 100 minutes, Aniello and Downs know just how to pitch the elements that could seem distasteful in clumsier hands (the main death, a plot point that hinges on someone getting themselves involved with a pair of swingers, even the ongoing strand that shows Downs driving across the country, wired on energy drinks and wearing an adult diaper, as he frets that his fiance may no longer love him), and they give

Glazer and Kravitz may be the weakest of the leads, although it's safe to say that they're not given very much to work with at all, but that doesn't matter when you have Bell and McKinnon bickering at one another fine style, and Johansson trying to remain calm and level-headed throughout the escalating madness. Downs is also very good in his scenes, given some fun support from Bo Burnham in a cameo role, and Ty Burrell and Demi Moore have fun in the couple of scenes they're given.

It's not great, it's entirely predictable (seriously, if you can't see how the third act is going to pan out then I assume you have avoided every mainstream cinema release since the mid-1970s), but it still manages to be funny enough to make it a decent prospect to accompany some snacks and the beverage of your choice.

6/10

Rough Night is available to purchase here.
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