#gillian robespierre

Favourite Female Film Directors

1. Elaine May

(A New Leaf, Mikey and Nicky)

2. Ava DuVernay

(Selma, 13th)

3. Marielle Heller

(Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

4. Lois Weber

(Suspense, Shoes)

5. Gillian Armstrong

(My Brilliant Career, Little Women)

6. Gillian Robespierre

(Obvious Child, Landline)

7. Nora Ephron

(Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia)

8. Emma Seligman

**Shots of the Episode**

Only Murders in the Building (2021)

Obvious Child (2014) Written and Directed by Gillian Robespierre

It seems impossible that I first saw this movie in 2014.  I saw the star, Jenny Slate, interviewed by Joan Rivers on ‘Fashion Police’.  God how I miss that show and Joan Rivers.  Joan was talking to Jenny about her new movie, Obvious Child which was being called ‘The Abortion Comedy’.

Knowing Slate’s work and trusting Rivers’ assessment, I watched the movie way back then and found it to be (a direct quote from my 2014 blog post) ‘not as funny as you might think’.

Right?  Because safe and legal abortion is not funny.  No one is laughing about it.  I laughed at the hapless couple’s one night stand and repeatedly unsuccessful attempts at condom wrapper opening (why are they so hard to open?)  I laughed as Slate’s character stocks her traitorous ex and his new girlfriend.  I laughed as she talked on stage about having a human vagina.

But I did not laugh when she told her mom she was pregnant and was going to have an abortion.  Neither did Slate nor her mom laugh, as her mom described the abortion she had before they were legal.  Nor did I laugh when her father tells her after her breakup but before the unplanned pregnancy ‘you’re not going to waste one valuable moment of your young precious life mourning that boy’.  Nope - I cried at that part.

And I did not laugh when Slate’s friend explains why she has no obligation to tell anyone about her condition or her choice.  It’s a good movie about a difficult decision.

Obvious Child, 2014 (dir. Gillian Robespierre)

Obvious Child

get to know me - 1/10 films

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m kind of in an emotional crisis right now.