Donna (Jenny Slate) is a New York stand-up comic who’s made a career (well, regular appearances at one comedy club) out of putting her whole life out there up on stage. When her boyfriend turns out to not be a fan of this approach and reveals he’s been sleeping with her friend, she collapses in a heap. So when Max (Jake Lacy), a cute but square-seeming guy turns up at the comedy club (he’s there because one of his clients wanted to check it out), a whole lot of alcohol leads to a one-night stand. So what? These things happen … Then she finds out she’s pregnant.
Up to this point this film’s strongpoint has been Donna’s steady stream of very funny and often fairly inappropriate jokes (her drunken onstage “act” where she just rails against her broken heart is great), but a lot of promising films have been taken down by the US film business’s unspoken rule of “no abortions”. So it’s a massive relief that this film about a woman who’s chosen career is only just beginning and who has no money and no real relationship with the baby’s father (though he does keep finding ways back into her life) does not pretend that having an abortion is just magically out of the question.
The other strongpoint this film has going for it plot-wise is that it never suggests that Donna is going to solve her relationship struggles by watering down or changing her comedy. It’s what she does, and any partner of hers is going to have to live with it. That might sound straightforward, but it really is so rare to see a film (especially an American rom-com) not bending on these issues that writer-director Gillian Robespierre deserves praise just for telling a story that feels always close to how real people live their lives. Also, it’s very funny; let’s not forget that.