BABIES
RYAN: One of cutest trailers we’ve ever seen is for the documentary, Babies, which is out in theaters now.
CAROLINE: It’s only in limited release but it managed to crack the top ten last weekend, which is really impressive. There’s really no other word to describe this movie than “cute.” The cute factor is off the charts. It is what it is; a movie about babies.
RYAN: Specifically, four babies from different cultures around the world. There are some really amazing moments. You actually leaned over to me during the movie and said, “I can’t imagine how many hours they must have shot to get these perfect moments.”
CAROLINE: Well, you can imagine that shooting all these hours must have gotten very boring; until that one perfect moment happens, and they were like, “Yes! That’s going in the movie!” It’s like shooting a special for the Discovery Channel or something. You never know what the babies are going to do next.
RYAN: They captured all the defining moments of the first year of a baby’s life – smiling, throwing a tantrum, nursing, crawling, playing and finally standing up. They even showed pooping.
CAROLINE: Minimally, thank God.
RYAN: Even if you’re someone who doesn’t have kids or particularly like kids, I think you’d still enjoy this. It’s entertaining and fun.
CAROLINE: There’s no narration or dialogue in the entire movie, other than what the parents are saying in the background. And most of the time it’s in another language anyway. It’s very international in that respect. Anyone can watch this movie and understand it no matter where they’re from or what language they speak.
RYAN: It was really effective for the first hour. After that, I started wishing there would be a little bit more of a story. Luckily, the movie’s only 80 minutes long.
CAROLINE: Yeah, there were a few times I would have liked sub-titles or a little explanation. The traditions are very different in each culture so it would have been nice know, for example, why the Namibian lady was rubbing red powder on the baby’s head.
RYAN: Overall, they did a nice job of illustrating the different cultures though.
CAROLINE: Totally. I just didn’t understand why they had two Asian babies. Granted they were from two very different regions, one rural and one urban; but still. Then they also showed two babies from pretty primitive areas. A little more diversity would have been nice. 
RYAN: Yeah, why didn’t they have a South American baby or a European one?
CAROLINE: I’m sure they had their reasons. But the baby from Mongolia and the one from Africa had a lot of similar experiences what with growing up around lots of farm animals and interacting with them regularly, living in the middle of a remote area in a hut-type thing, etc. That seemed like an odd choice.
RYAN: I’m with you. Nonetheless, it’s a very life-affirming movie, and it really opens your eyes to different ways of doing things. It shows you how much we all have in common while still being so different.
CAROLINE: Being a Westerner, you can’t help but laugh at yourself a little when you see how relaxed other cultures are about their kids. They’re playing in the mud, drinking water off the ground, having close encounters with roosters. One of the parents even takes the newborn home from the hospital on a motorcycle. Can you imagine if someone did that here?
RYAN: They’d be in jail, honey.
— BOTTOM LINE —
RYAN: It’s a very cute movie if you like babies. And who doesn’t? It’s a little mind-numbing in the sense that you can just sit back and enjoy without thinking. You’ll definitely giggle and ooh and ahh, and even be grossed out at a few things. It’s a very fun documentary.
CAROLINE: I really liked it too, as I knew I would. It’s very sweet and, of course, cute. I think kids and adults alike will enjoy it. I’m so psyched that it broke the top ten despite only being in about 500 theaters. I guess people really like to watch babies.
RYAN: It kinda makes me want to have one.
— RATING —
