Babies Big on Cute, Short on Insight

Critics are generally won over by Babies, a documentary that follows four infants' first years in San Francisco, Mongolia, Tokyo, and Namibia. Some samples:

• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "As an advertisement for the wonders of figuring out how to be alive, the movie is an engaging proposition."
• Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "The 'awww' without the 'shock' definitely makes Babies a very huggable movie experience, just not a primer on parenthood."

• Claudia Puig, USA Today: "The photography is stunning," she writes. "The procession of youthful behavior is almost hypnotic, but Babies is delivered with refreshing immediacy and joyful humor."
• Eric D. Snider, Film.com: "There is almost literally no difference between watching Babies and just watching a baby. Alfred Hitchcock said drama is 'life with the dull bits cut out.' Babies is life with the dull bits intact."

(More Babies stories.)