Rent She's Having a Baby (1988)

Mother Superior - She's Having a Baby review by Steve

A change of direction for writer-director John Hughes as his characters leave education behind and become adults. And he no longer casts his Brat Pack actors. This features Kevin Bacon as a graduate who marries his steady college sweetheart (Elizabeth McGovern). And she eventually... becomes pregnant.

It's mostly from the male perspective as he goes through his post-grad rites of passage, while borderline paralysed by what is now called FOMO. Old friends and alternate potentials drift away replaced by grownup responsibilities. He's also writing a comic novel so there are occasional fantasy inserts based on his anxieties.

This isn't all that original, but Hughes is always good with dialogue and the comic situations are fine. The stars are amiable enough and there's the usual support cast of oddball parents. Plus music from the UK indie charts. This may even be the moment when Hughes realises he will never be another Woody Allen.

It lost money, but his '80s films are often good at how life gets serious. The best scene is the childbirth montage, scored by the extreme heartbreak of This Woman's Work by Kate Bush and the empathy goes up another level; with the bargaining and awful panic. And all the fathers in the audience choke back their sobs.