Quick answer: Lauren Miller Rogen’s Babies stars Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen as a happily married, child-free couple who take in a friend and her young daughter. The comedy explores parenthood and chosen family through a changing household, with Kendrick and Rogen’s chemistry central to its warmth and humour.
Babies review: Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen play a happily married couple without children in Lauren Miller Rogen’s comedy, featured in the Toronto Film Festival review lineup. Their marriage is comfortable; the questions from everyone else about why they haven’t become parents are considerably less welcome.
Written and directed by Miller Rogen, Babies brings that familiar social pressure into a story about partnership, parenthood and chosen family. Its starting point also has a personal connection: Miller Rogen has spent years fielding questions about whether she wants to become a mother.
A full house changes the dynamic
Kendrick plays Annie opposite Rogen’s Aaron, a couple whose life together does not revolve around raising children. Then their friend Eliza, played by Kate Berlant, leaves her husband Luke, played by Dan Stevens. Eliza and her young daughter move into Annie and Aaron’s home.
That arrangement gives the couple a chance to experience something of parenting without having set out to become parents themselves. Aaron compares the opportunity to getting a Baskin Robbins sample—a joke that captures his playful response to a significant change in the household.
The contrast gives the comedy its central situation: two people accustomed to a child-free marriage now share their space with a friend and her daughter. The question of children stops being something other people merely ask them about and becomes part of their daily lives.
Kendrick and Rogen anchor the relationship
The appeal rests heavily on Kendrick and Rogen’s chemistry. Annie and Aaron exchange jokes with the same ease that they show affection and care, establishing a relationship with warmth already built into it.
That distinction matters to the premise. Babies begins with a happy couple, not a marriage defined by the absence of children. Their closeness allows the story to consider the possibilities of parenting while also showing the pleasures of the life they already share.
With Eliza and her daughter under the same roof, the chosen-family theme grows out of a concrete act of friendship: making room for someone whose circumstances have changed. Babies ties its larger questions about adulthood to that intimate domestic setup, with humour and affection at the centre.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Babies about?
Babies follows Annie and Aaron, a happily married couple without children who regularly face questions about parenthood. When their friend Eliza leaves her husband, Eliza and her young daughter move into the couple’s home.
Who stars in Babies?
Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen play Annie and Aaron. Kate Berlant plays their friend Eliza, while Dan Stevens plays Eliza’s husband, Luke.
Who wrote and directed Babies?
Lauren Miller Rogen wrote and directed Babies. The comedy addresses questions about becoming a parent, a subject Miller Rogen has also faced in her own life.
