Director / Screenwriter: Gillian Robespierre
Actors: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffman
This is the kind of movie people and insiders should want when they say they want to see more female filmmakers. The star vehicle this creates for the incredibly impressive, talented, and raw performance by Jenny Slate will surely catapult her career past her stand-up comedy and SNL background. 'Obvious Child' will be one of 2014's best Independent films and hopefully will be the beginning of an incredible director/star collaboration.
Jenny Slate is Donna Stern, a crazy funny standup comedienne who we first see delivering a killer set at the cost of losing her boyfriend who has been sleeping with her friend. Donna is raw, original, sarcastic, and confused about everything except for the one place that she owns a couple times a week delivering her standup at a bar in Williamsburg. Donna's crazy, random hookup post-breakup gets her pregnant right at about the same time that she finds out she is losing her used bookstore job she has had for five years.
For marketing purposes I suppose labeling 'Obvious Child' as the "abortion rom-com" creates buzz (and box office considerations) for it but ultimately it does it a disservice. It's the most honest, realistic, funny romantic comedy of the last five years that features a protagonist dealing with having an abortion which in 2014 is still being pressed as a hot-button issue. It's a film that you don't want to end and want to continue this journey with Slate's character. Some critics will call this the liberal response to 'Knocked Up' which might be hard to argue. But like in 'Knocked Up' how there wasn't a decision to make she knew she would definitely keep the term of the pregnancy like Slate's Donna knew instantly that as a 28 yr old unemployed standup comedian who got pregnant on a first date hookup that she must have the abortion.
