Mum's Not the Word: Identity and Autonomy in Curtis Vowell's 'Baby Done'

Impending motherhood provokes an existential crisis for a self-described 'wild person' with an externally successful life and relationship in this New Zealand romantic comedy. Among its depiction (and subversion) of familiar prenatal anxieties about lost freedom and contemporary 'kidulthood' tropes, the film – directed and scripted respectively by husband-and-wife team Curtis Vowell and Sophie Henderson – also offers some more serious observations about the way women's lives are treated as secondary upon becoming pregnant, writes Mel Campbell.

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Rose Matafeo, Matthew Lewis, Rachel House, Kiwi, Maori, tree climbing, matrescence, manchild, fetish, pregnancy