Babes
Neon | Release Date: May 17, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 22, 2024
With Pamela Adlon (“Better Things”) directing in a style reminiscent of the best Woody Allen and Nora Ephron movies of the 1970s and 1980s, a sharp and hilarious and poignant screenplay by Glazer (“Broad City”) and Josh Rabinowitz, and winning performances from the co-leads, “Babes” is one terrific friend-com, or should we say a mom-com, and I can already picture Eden and Dawn making fun of that latter term. Read full review
88
ObserverOliver JonesMay 20, 2024
[Adlon] has crafted a film that is at once sophisticated and aggressively sophomoric, profoundly romantic and deeply cynical, and as feminist as a barbecue at Gloria Steinem’s house and yet seemingly apolitical enough to appeal to your average Entourage fan. Read full review
88
Washington PostAmy NicholsonMay 17, 2024
Glazer and Rabinowitz’s script can be patchy and manic, but it does its best work showing the contortions women undergo to prove their support, especially in today’s “yaaaas queen” era where everyone is a goddess. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comNell MinowMay 17, 2024
This is a smart and loving movie about female friendship. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMay 16, 2024
At its heart, this is a film about sisterhood. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastColeman SpildeMar 20, 2024
Babes’ benevolent humor skims the great heights of a Nora Ephron film for a modern take on womanhood that feels close to classic on arrival. Read full review
83
The Film StageChristian GallichioMay 15, 2024
It might not break new ground, but Babes is nevertheless something quite rare these days: both emotionally complex and hysterical. Adlon has perfected this form of comedic earnestness in her TV work; it’s a welcome move into feature filmmaking. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 22, 2024
It’s caustically funny, albeit wincingly uncomfortable at times. Where the film really excels is not so much in the snappy, trash-talking vag banter, but in the perceptive depiction of the gear changes in a female friendship as the besties start to realise that their paths might be diverging. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 8, 2024
You needn’t have the faintest idea who Ilana Glazer or Michelle Buteau are. It’s enough that this pair of US comics spark and connect, hilariously, as two lifelong friends who complete each other’s sentences. Read full review
80
Time OutSophie Monks KaufmanAug 8, 2024
Better Things creator Pamela Adlon’s directorial debut deftly juggles fast-paced anecdotal comedy with rich, moving character work, while upending pregnancy myths with the ferocity of a woman stamping on her oppressive breast pump. Scene-stealing work from the likes of Sandra Bernhard, John Carroll Lynch and Elena Ouspenskaia layer up the sense that, in the world of Babes, every life is a tiny miracle. Read full review
80
Little White LiesLeila LatifAug 5, 2024
Even in the most crass jokes, where fluid pours out of orifices, Babes is a delightful and profound study in growth. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraMay 16, 2024
Glazer and Buteau make their characters deeply believable in their differences as well as their connection, the jokes are plentiful, beautifully, er, delivered and at times painful in their truth-telling. Read full review
80
TheWrapMatthew CreithMar 10, 2024
Babes may deal with weighted adult issues like motherhood, friendship, connection and the struggles of moving on, but, rest assured, it is a comedic gold mine of delightful punch lines. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 10, 2024
Even more than the gloriously gross-out stuff, designed for big laughs and OMG body-horror reactions, it’s the blunt, unfiltered way they treat the ties that bind these two women that sticks with you. The humor is hormonal. Everything else is pure heart. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 16, 2024
Generous and warm and howling funny, there is such a light touch to Babes, you might not even clock the depth of its observations – its inspections – of body and heart both. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 13, 2024
Life, as a character in Babes points out, isn’t always like a Nora Ephron movie, but it’s a pleasure to watch these two stumble toward their own happy ending. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckMay 15, 2024
All these elements, wacky or not, come together in a charming mishmash that adds something ultimately very important to the childbirth comedy genre: the message that childbirth is profound, yes, and full of wonder. But also, like life, it can be funny — and a bit of a mess. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRocco T. ThompsonMar 11, 2024
By turns tender and raucous, Pamela Adlon’s feature-length directorial debut, Babes, spins the uneasy, unwelcome, weirdly cool corporeal realities of pregnancy into heartfelt comic gold. Read full review
75
SlashfilmJacob HallMar 10, 2024
Babes would be a stressful film if it wasn't such a funny one, if its leads weren't so charming, their chemistry so lived-in. Read full review
75
IndieWireChristian ZilkoMar 10, 2024
While Babes begins its approach to domesticity with the same aversion to responsibility that powered “Broad City,” it ultimately settles on a more mature attitude that illustrates the way many of Glazer’s fans are growing up alongside her. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 21, 2024
How much you enjoy all this will depend on how much you like Glazer. She’s funny, no question, and sometimes intentionally grating. But she also gives off a genuineness. Maybe she is just saying out loud what other people are thinking. Read full review
70
ColliderMatt DonatoMay 17, 2024
Babes succeeds as a comedy with enough primetime laughs — that’s (typically) what happens when hilarious comedians join forces — but never fully jells into a balanced experience between prenatal jokes and dead-serious subplots. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineB. PantherMay 15, 2024
By the time the title credits for Babes slide in on the hospital elevator doors, Dawn has left a steady, hilarious stream of screams and fluids in her wake. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 10, 2024
With Adlon there to spot them, Glazer and Buteau trust-fall into their respective parts, potentially unlikable qualities and all. At times, the pair get so filthy, you may not believe your ears. But strength, as the saying goes, comes from the mouth of babes. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMar 10, 2024
Although Babes nails its comedic swings, the film strains to build the narrative tension and stakes needed to land its more serious moments. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMay 17, 2024
I cried at the end of Babes, despite thinking that it wasn’t working all that well for most of its run time. Movies can be funny that way, leaving you indifferent for long stretches and then walloping you with an emotional moment that’s even more effective for how you didn’t see it coming. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonJun 6, 2024
There’s substance here, and talent in spades, but it needed a little more time to gestate. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerMay 15, 2024
The buddy comedy “Babes” offers keen insights into pregnancy, parenting and longtime friendships, although many get lost in the movie’s bodily function-joke jamboree. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 5, 2024
An awkward mix of gross-out comedy and big emotional sincerity, which may be authentic to the experience of pregnancy but feels clumsily balanced between these two characters. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesMay 17, 2024
Babes is the kind of comedy that makes you wonder what jokes are, exactly, and if what you just saw contained any. Read full review
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