Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of August 5th – Fun With ‘Babes’

Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have a cute little comedy from NEON in Babes hitting shelves. Aside from that, this week is a bit on the slim side, aside from some 4K re-releases. Such can be the summer, folks. Read on for more…

Joey’s Top Pick

Babes

I was very amused by Babes, which is plenty dirty, but also surprisingly sweet. Pamela Adlon, Ilana Glazer, and Michelle Buteau combine to give the flick both heart and personality. They walk a line, tone-wise, that’s pretty hard to pull off, but they do it rather deftly. My review here on the site began like so:

A foulmouthed comedy is often music to my ears. Put enough funny folks in a film together and, provided the screenplay is up to par, hilarity will ensue. In the case of Babes, that’s definitely the case, which is a credit not just to director Pamela Adlon, herself a talented comedic actress, but star/writer Ilana Glazer as well. It all winds up making this movie a whole lot of fun, with characters you come to care about, even when they’re being a bit on the zany side.

Babes manages to be both very funny and surprisingly touching, sometimes even in the same scene. There’s a tonal line that’s being walked here that a lesser film would have struggled with. There are occasional moments where the comedy overshadows the story, but by and large, this is very enjoyable, while also being more moving than you might expect.

Also Available This Week

Banel & Adama

Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy (4K)

Collateral (4K)

DragonHeart (4K)

Hackers (4K)

*No new Criterion Collection releases this week. The Criterion Corner will return next week*

Stay tuned for more next week…