Into the Hearts of Babes
You and your friends need to see this movie immediately
Babes is now accompanying Someone Great in my list of comforting movies about people continuing to grow and evolve in adulthood. They remind us that even though change is frightening, it is necessary and beautiful.
Written by Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, Babes follows Eden (played by Ilana) — a seemingly immature yoga teacher who accidentally gets pregnant — and her best friend Dawn (played by Michelle Buteau)— a dentist and married mother of two. As they grow into their roles as mothers their deep friendship shifts.
Babes made me laugh and cry in ways that I have never felt moved to while watching a movie before. The laughs were constant and the cries would have been louder and audible if I was watching it at home alone.
If you enjoy Broad City you will like this. It is not nearly as cooky as the Comedy Central show, so the main characters are almost the more realistic versions of Ilana and Abbey.
When the credits started to roll, my friends Jules, Terran and I turned to each other, faces absolutely wet and stained with tears.
“That’s how I feel about you guys,” Terran cried through a smile. We hugged over the seats and quickly wiped our faces to avoid any attention.
The house lights slowly went up, directors chairs placed in front of the screen and Ramy Youssef walked through the door with a mic in hand.
Quick side note - Parasocial relationships are wild because when this man walked out my brain registered him like I was seeing my cousin. I have probably seen 80% of his work and now my mom loves his show. I have never heard her laugh harder. So, Ramy and I have never met yet we are dearly close. I was brought back to reality as he asked the audience for another round of applause.
Ramy then introduced Ilana Glazer, who we knew would be there for this Q&A.
As a mother, a lot of the experiences captured in the film are biographical for Ilana. When they started writing it, her and Josh Rabinowitz wrote down all of the things people don’t tell you about pregnancy (his wife was pregnant at the time). The parts we’ve probably never seen in a movie because…men. Besides having to birth the placenta (which, what the hell, when was anyone going to tell me that?), she told us one of the biggest things is that there is a lot of loss and gain that comes with having a child.
“The gap between your experiences becomes wider and wider…With the closest friends is where it hits the hardest,” Ilana said.
This film has come at an important stage in my life. If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll know my Saturn return has been too real for my Pisces liking. Last year I feel like the talks of evolution were just rumbling under the surface, but now people are acting on their threats of growing up. We are finally listening to ourselves and understanding what we need in order to function the way we want.
For a while my greatest impasse was moving. New York City is expensive, I do not make enough money to keep up with inflation, and Sean and I literally share a room in an apartment with two other people. However, Sean needs to be here to gain experiences at amazing restaurants and frankly I’m not mentally prepared to make community somewhere else.
Last month I spent three hours on FaceTime as my friends and I researched different states we could buy a plot of land to start a commune. A couple of weeks later Sean and I bit the bullet on our first apartment together, just us.
As you can see, I’m holding on for dear life.
This year I’ve also been very stressed about my health, as people keep telling me this is the time my body starts to really “lock things in.” Whatever the hell that means. I hate the idea of being limited. So the fact that there are so many rules to being healthy is a huge drag, especially since every body is different. But I am trying to alter my thinking. If I listen closely and focus on what my body benefits from, then my life will (potentially) be easier as I age.
During the Q&A Ilana got me emotional by saying, “as we get older we hold loss better,” because losing is not something I react well to. But I think the closer I get to becoming the person I’ve always wanted to be, losses seem more like gains.
Anyway, I think we’ve got a 10/10 movie here. Can’t wait to watch it when I need to cry.
Let me know what you thought of this movie in the comments and what upcoming films you think I should see! Sean and I have been so good about hitting those Tuesday theatre deals…