Obvious Child (2014)

I loved this film. A comedian (an exceptional Jenny Slate) is brutally dumped by her cheating boyfriend mere minutes after she has come off stage, and Donna (Slate) is forced to confront the difficulties of independent womanhood, especially after she inadvertently becomes pregnant after a one night stand with nice guy Max. At first glance Obvious Child might sound like a romantic comedy with a couple of problematic issues thrown in, but it is so much more than that. I absolutely fell in love with pretty much all the characters in this film (bar the clueless dumper boyfriend). It bears certain similarities to Saint Frances (2019) which I reviewed a while back, but the combination of comedy and drama is more apparent and fixed in Obvious Child. That doesn't necessarily make it a better film, but the way it approaches the subject of abortion and fuses it with comedy without ever losing the importance of Donna's thoughts and feelings around her own decision, keeping it front and center without forcing any propaganda on you is magnificent. The fact that the film doesn't end with that decision, and carries you through Donna's story after (one way or the other) just makes you wish that everyone in this film was your friend. 8.3/10