Obvious Child

An aspiring stand-up comic (Jenny Slate) has to grow up when she finds herself dumped by her boyfriend, fired from her day job and pregnant from a one-night stand. Writer-director Gillian Robespierre's movie has an earnest indie sweetness that's oddly winning. It's pleasantly prickly and interesting, and Slate's slacker angst is comical and touching by turns. Still, Robespierre can't always conceal the formula we recognize from slicker, more upscale studio rom-coms: the stereotypical rat-bastard ex (Paul Brigante), the handsome nice guy who may offer true love (Jake Lacy), the wisecracking woman pal (Gaby Hoffmann), the gay best friend from Central Casting (Gabe Liedman) and so on. The movie's raunchy-female-Woody Allen-from-the-1970s vibe rings an overfamiliar bell, but it goes down easily enough.