Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Babymother (1998)
Director: Julian Henriques
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Single mum Anita (Smith) is a peacock - bright and loud. She needs a nice, dun-coloured mate, but instead has Don Byron (Johnson), a reggae star who loves the limelight and panics when singing hopeful 'Nita has a chance to steal it. There's also her preachy sister Rose (Llewellyn), a serious lack of money and a sexist music industry to contend with. In crafting this kitchen sink reggae musical, writer/director Henriques has hardly made life easy for himself. While brimming with life, 'Nita is also self-obsessed, aggressive, posturing and immature. And though she looks after her children, you never feel they have an emotional connection. Clearly you need time to care for such a creature, but the numerous, often tedious musical numbers keep getting in the way. As a vocalist, however, Smith proves convincing and, in two excellent closing numbers, the 'message' that has been clumsily milling around finally assembles itself and hits home.Author: CO'Su
Cast & crew
Director: Julian Henriques
Producer: Parminder Vir
Cast: Anjela Lauren Smith, Caroline Chikezie, Jocelyn Esien, Wil Johnson, Suzette Llewellyn full cast
Genre(s): Musicals
Duration: 82 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now