The Obvious Child.

It makes me mad when things are not allowed to be funny. A blank-faced group of critics decide on the caliber of seriousness of a topic and then they closely monitor the thin-haired border between drama and comedy daring people to see what happens if they tip a little too far in the wrong direction.

So what happens when you laugh at an abortion joke? Struck by lightening. Suddenly burst into flames. The Obvious Child makes viewers laugh, feel slightly horrified and then continue laughing. Why? Because it's fucking funny.

Donna Stern, a between young and getting older stand-up played by Jenny Slate thinks funny is reality by making it a point to clue her audience in on literally everything that's going on in her personal life. A surprise breakup. Then, a surprise pregnancy and decision to get an abortion. On Valentine's Day. Also, an obscenely high number of fart jokes.

I saw this movie in a tiny independent theater in Soho, NY and as I watched it became increasingly clear why The Obvious Child isn't playing at an AMC.

EXHIBIT A- An exchange between Donna and Nellie, her bestie, in the unisex restroom of the comedy bar the day before her abortion and right before her gig.

Nellie: You're going to kill it [tonight]. 

Donna: Tomorrow I am.     

Aside from the hard liquor taste of comedy, Obvious Child surreptitiously weaves a subtle budding romance throughout the film. Slate and Jake Lacy, who plays her baby daddy, radiate an obvious chemistry that makes their on-screen one-night-stand that-became-more feel natural and honestly,  pretty damn enviable. Lacy's sweet nice guy hilariously compliments Slate's bizarre and borderline psychotic.

There was never a moment the theater didn't react to a joke. Maybe it's because the film is set in New York and New Yorkers only really like other New Yorkers. Maybe because a feminist, a gay comidian, and a jewish COD living in Williamsburg (pretty much the holy trinity of NYC society) make for a more honest take on Girls. Or maybe, because we all googled The Obvious Child and found it playing in only two theaters in the entire city and consequently were all bound together with a mutual respect for each others taste in independent cinema. But most likely, because it's just fucking funny.