THE STORY – Struggling with the decision of whether or not to bring a child into the world, Annie and her husband Aaron become instant co-parents when their newly divorced friend moves into their home with her 4-year-old.
THE CAST – Anna Kendrick, Seth Rogen, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Kate Berlant, Zach Cherry, Ed Helms, Ashley Park, Sharon Stone & David Strathairn
THE TEAM – Lauren Miller Rogen (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 97 Minutes
Meet Annie (Anna Kendrick). Annie teaches ceramics at a local art school and has been with her husband Aaron (Seth Rogen) for seventeen years. She and Aaron are living a full and happy life, and they would really prefer it if you stopped asking if they’re going to have kids. Despite saying that they don’t really think about kids that much, Annie thinks about them nearly all the time, as we hear in her inner monologue (“Am I too small to be a parent?” Annie wonders, before reassuring herself that there surely must be some small parents out there in the world). Annie and Aaron love being able to live how they want (mostly by smoking weed indoors and sneaking out of their friends’ parties to get ice cream), but every time someone asks them when they’re going to have kids, they get uncomfortable, at least in part because they aren’t quite sure if they actually want to have kids or not. So, when their friend Eliza (Kate Berlant) announces that she’s divorcing her selfish husband, Luke (Dan Stevens), and needs a place to stay with her daughter, Eve (Delaney Claire Evans), they take the opportunity to have a sort of trial run.
If nothing else, it’s obvious that Lauren Miller Rogen’s “Babies” is a deeply personal project for its writer/director. Despite having the heavily improvised feel of most modern comedies (most notably the ones featuring her husband and star, Seth Rogen), the litany of millennial anxieties expressed through Annie’s inner monologue, which obviously comes fully from the script, feels so perfectly rendered that it becomes cathartic. Kendrick, who has made her name on saying inappropriate things at inappropriate times, is the perfect person to say all the things that you’re not supposed to say about parenting, most notably the fact that everyone likes to say that no one tells you how hard parenting is, despite that being the only thing that every new parent talks about. Annie’s inner monologue is a breath of fresh air in a world that constantly pushes every adult towards marriage and family and treats you like a freak if you don’t want it. Miller Rogen presents Annie with every reason to have a kid and every reason to not have one, ultimately coming to the conclusion that it’s a complicated decision to make, with no universally right or wrong choice.
At first, despite the typical parenting difficulties involving crying and messes at all hours, Aaron and Annie really take to co-parenting Eve. Annie acknowledges that she’s an anomaly, a pretty perfect kid whose biggest problem is that she holds in her poop so long that it starts hurting her. But while incorporating Eve into their lives is relatively easy, Annie and Aaron can also see how much having kids has changed not only Eliza’s life but the lives of their other friends, Becky (Issa Rae) and Ethan (Zach Cherry), and not for the better. Annie and Becky have been working on getting funding to start their own art gallery/studio/workspace, but Becky doesn’t seem to be as invested as she used to be, abandoning the decision-making process and increasingly leaving Annie to deal with their pompous venture capitalist investor (Ed Helms) alone. Her priorities have shifted, and Miller Rogen’s pragmatically empathetic screenplay has both Annie and Becky accept this without letting it ruin their friendship.
Somewhat surprisingly, the parts of the film that are most obviously scripted are just as funny and engaging to watch as the parts that are most obviously improvised by the electric ensemble, who put just as much effort into hitting the emotional beats as they do the laughs. Kendrick in particular nails several tricky emotional beats where Annie’s conflicting feelings towards having kids cause her great distress. She’s a perfect match for Rogen, matching his laidback vibe and facility with improv beat for beat. Berlant’s heightened anxiety and deadpan serve as fantastic foils for Kendrick and Rogen’s mostly upbeat optimism around Eve, contrasting well with Rae’s more easygoing, Earth mother-style energy. Every ensemble member gets a moment to shine solo, but it’s their chemistry whenever they share the screen that truly elevates “Babies” into a new hangout comedy classic. They’re just so much damn fun to watch, even when they’re just throwing ad-libs back and forth. Would that all comedies that centered so much on improvisation had a cast of actors with as much natural chemistry as this. While it’s easy to wish for more depth in the level of shot composition, lighting, and blocking, the cast’s infectious energy and Miller Rogen’s impassioned screenplay make “Babies” a must-watch for anyone who’s had a kid or is considering having one.
