 | Watch Obvious Child (2014) online Run time: 84 min Rating: 7.1 Genres: Comedy | Romance Stars: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann |
| Storyline For aspiring comedian Donna Stern, everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her hysterical and relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna winds up unexpectedly pregnant after a one-night stand, she is forced to face the uncomfortable realities of independent womanhood for the first time. Donna's drunken hookup - and epic lapse in prophylactic judgment - turns out to be the beginning of a hilarious and totally unplanned journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Written by A24 Films | |
| Plot Keywords: peeing in the street, gone with the wind, first date, puppet, divorce | |
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| Box Office Opening Weekend: $77,315 (USA) (6 June 2014) Gross: $3,050,000 (USA) (22 August 2014) | |
Over the years, the film industry has churned out plenty of comedies about the perils of dealing with unexpected pregnancy, but never has the subject been approached from such a refreshingly different point of view than in Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child.
ReplyDeleteDonna (Jenny Slate) is an aspiring stand-up comedian whose relationship with her long-term boyfriend has just come to a screeching halt, courtesy of his philandering. Angry and despondent, Donna unleashes her frustration onstage, crashing and burning in front of the audience before finding solace in genuine nice guy Max (Jake Lacy), with whom she shares a few drinks - and a bed.
When Donna discovers a few weeks later that she's pregnant, her life is thrown into upheaval. A child certainly isn't on her list of desired acquisitions, and after evaluating her options with best friend Nellie (Gaby Hoffmann), she elects to have an abortion. There's just one problem: Max, the one-night stand who also happens to be the sweetest, most courteous person Donna has ever met, and is obviously interested in more than just a casual fling.
Obvious Child differs from other pregnancy rom-coms by approaching a uniquely feminine issue from a decidedly feminine point of view. This is Donna's story, and while the film is most definitely a comedy, it treats the subject matter with respect and dignity. It's also a standout performance from Slate, who runs the full gamut of the emotional spectrum, gleefully reveling in Donna's raunchy stand-up act one moment, and losing herself in a tearjerking scene between Donna and her overbearing (but not unloving) mother in the next.
Obvious Child will likely bear the unfortunate distinction of being known as "the abortion movie," but to oversimplify the film and marginalize it in such a manner is a huge disservice. Yes, it deals with abortion, but more importantly, it deals with womanhood in a way that few films have ever dared. It's an authentic, emotional, and yes, hilarious portrait of a young woman trying to find her way, and should be considered a landmark achievement in feminist filmmaking.
-- Brent Hankins
Obvious Child is a very ballsy film just for the fact that it deals with abortion which is such a hot button topic nowadays. However, unlike some films, it doesn't take a side. It presents abortion and the effect a decision like that can have on a woman in a very realistic fashion while delivering a very sweet romantic comedy.
ReplyDeleteGood: First off, I have to give endless praise to Jenny Slate for knocking it out the park in this movie. As the main character, she gives a great performance that has her balance drama and comedy seamlessly. She's hilarious and crude, but when the time comes to get serious, she is fantastic. The rest of the cast is just as great and there's definitely a Girls type of atmosphere with its dialogue and humor. However, the movie gets respect from me the most in how it approaches abortion. It doesn't take sides on the issue in regards celebrating the decision to have an abortion or shame her for choosing an abortion. It simply looks at abortion as an important decision that women go through when given the circumstances and views it as realistically as possible. It's refreshing how it deals with it with an honest and yet serious view on it without being preachy or exploitative. At the same time, it works as a romantic comedy as it contains many hilarious jokes and the central relationship is very sweet.
Overall, this is certainly a movie to keep an eye out. It's a funny and sweet romantic comedy that takes on the taboo subject of abortion in a respectful and honest way.
'OBVIOUS CHILD': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
ReplyDeleteA romantic comedy flick about a young Brooklyn comedian who becomes unexpectedly pregnant, after a drunken one-night stand. It stars stand-up comedian, and TV star, Jenny Slate as the comedian and costars Jake Lacy (of 'THE OFFICE' fame), Gaby Hoffmann, Gabe Liedman, Richard Kind, Polly Draper and David Cross. It was directed by first time feature filmmaker Gillian Robespierre and written by Robespierre, Karen Maine and Elisabeth Holm. It's based on the 2009 short film, of the same name, directed and co-written by Robespierre. I found the movie to be very sweet and extremely funny.
Slate plays Donna Stern, a comedian in her late twenties who lives in Brooklyn and works at a book store that's going out of business. As the film opens she's dumped by her boyfriend (Paul Briganti), which causes Donna to have an emotional and mental breakdown. She meets a young man named Max (Lacy), at the club where she does shows, and has a fling that night with him. Later she finds out she's pregnant and turns to her friends Nellie (Hoffman) and Joey (Liedman) for advice. She makes up her mind that she wants an abortion but she decides to tell Max about the pregnancy and starts a reluctant romantic relationship with him.
As the film started I had a hard time getting into Slate's comedic style; I'm not a big fan of stand-up comedy to begin with but her jokes are really awkward and 'out there'. As the movie went on though I found her more and more funny, partially because I learned to care more and more about her character but also because I started to understand her sense of humor more and got more used to her joke style. I also found her character very relatable. She incorporates a lot of her life into her comedy (which makes a lot of people uncomfortable, especially those she includes in her jokes) but in my opinion that's the best type of comedy; humor that's based in reality and deals with subjects that most people are afraid to talk about. That's the comedic style I often try to use in my life (most often on Facebook). The film does turn out to be hilarious and mostly because of Slate; she's adorable and extremely funny as well. Like I said the movie is also really sweet and I found the romantic aspects of it to be really well done. Slate and Robespierre both shine here and so does this movie!
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Obvious Child is the legitimate bouncing daughter of Sarah Silverman and Girls. Like Silverman, heroine Donna is a standup comedian whose schtick is the female genitalia and other bodily functions normal and irregular. Onstage Donna pours out what previous generations were trained to suppress. She carries embarrassing candour to the max.
ReplyDeleteFrom Girls comes the graphic exploration of the contemporary single woman's anxieties, sexual, personal and social. Only when she's dumped, drunk and broken-hearted does her performance lose her audience. Otherwise her comic candour endears her to the crowd. The closing of the classic Leftie bookstore is an emblem for the new cultural climate, which replaces the old progressive and collectivist values and securities -- e.g., gender roles, manners -- with the hookup culture. There a guy breaks up with his girlfriend in the bar toilet. Beyond friendships there is no sense of communal responsibility. In a parody of community, Max's new game machine turns the phone into a video game competition. Girls has supplanted Little Women.
Donna and her one-night stand Max manage to develop an intimate relationship despite having drunken premature sex, mutual misunderstandings and his unwittingly (How can I put this delicately?) knocking her up. Later they claim to dislike romantic comedies but this is a romantic comedy — with grit, like the coffee/boyfriends the gay MC Sam claims to prefer. The film stretches the classic sterilized comic form to include farts, belches, diarrhea, co-ed urinating al fresco and abortion. Pillow Talk this ain't. But like Gone With the Wind, which the couple watches for the first time at the end, it traces the independent young woman's growth from young flippancy into an indomitable survivor.
Max and Donna may seem like an odd match but they work. He's a bright, earnest business exec — who shows unusual heft by having read Robert Botero's The Savage Detectives — but he's open to sharing her zaniness. He's smart enough not to be put off by her embarrassing drunken performance — and sensitive enough to deny having seen it. Donna may seem flighty but she is extremely earnest about making her theatre an honest personal expression. The serious guy and playful gal are a reversal of Donna's separated parents. Her father is a manchild puppet-maker, mom the no-frills business professor.
This superb film has a remarkably frank script, uniform quality in performance and an honesty and candour about modern "romance" that is most bracing. Writer/director Gillian Robespierre is a new talent to watch.