NOW ON HULU! Milkwater is the title of a song we never hear by fledgling musician/guitar shop employee, Milo (Molly Bernard). She lives with one of her best friends, George (Robin de Jesus), and her other best friend is the pregnant Noor (Ava Eisenson), who is married to KJ (Jess Stark). Milo is seen at Noor’s baby shower, feeling particularly miserable surrounded by other moms who are neck-deep in diapers and MLM scams. So she leaves and goes to her neighborhood bar. While there, she meets Roger (Patrick Breen), an older gay man.
While hanging out with Roger this fateful evening at the bar, she discovers that he has been trying to adopt a baby for years, and had several surrogacies fall through. So, Milo makes the extremely rash decision that she will be Roger’s surrogate. The heavy-drinking girl with a Peter Pan complex is going to have a baby. At first, Roger and Milo get along swimmingly. She goes to the bar he owns, The Thigh High Bar, and sees his drag show. They hang out and drink a lot. Then, Milo gets pregnant by insemination (on the first try, which usually never happens when trying from what I hear, but it’s a movie, so suspend your disbelief).
Once Milo gets pregnant, she becomes a little obsessed with Roger, showing up at his house unannounced, going to his bar when he doesn’t want her to, and generally possessing zero boundaries. In one particular scene, she lies to Roger in a voicemail saying she’s having stomach pains just because she wants him to meet her, George, and his boyfriend at the bar. She not only pisses off Roger but makes George mad as well. It’s his birthday, and Milo finds a way to make it all about her.
“…Milo makes the extremely rash decision that she will be Roger’s surrogate.”
Milo also meets Cameron (Ade Otukaya), a famous guitarist, while she is pregnant. At first, Cameron is upset, then he doesn’t mind too much, but when he sees the way she acts around Roger in her more unbalanced moments, he takes a hike as well. Around the same time, she gets in a fight with Noor, so Milo is now alone to figure out where it all went wrong and how she can change to keep her friends. Roger ends up wanting to parent the child alone, which takes Milo some time to understand, but eventually, she does.
Milkwater is a kind of a coming-of-age story for those with arrested development. It’s set in Brooklyn, where there are a million other people who won’t grow up, either by choice or design. Milo’s journey from selfish to selfless is sometimes painful to watch, but we all know that she needs to take the lumps to become a better person. The film is quite funny and very well written by writer/director Morgan Ignari. Molly Bernard is perfect in the role of Milo. I have met a million Milos, both male and female, and sometimes have been one myself.
Usually, out in the wilds of reality, people don’t turn around until a huge event, like a pregnancy, occurs, so it’s not an unbelievable concept. It also manages to be a movie with a pregnant woman that isn’t entirely about the baby or the father or how wonderful everything is going to be. It’s about the person who’s having the baby and how they grow and change because of it. That’s a unique premise, and I commend Ignari for creating it. If you like movies like Obvious Child, you will love Milkwater, so check it out!
Milkwater screened as part of the Lighthouse International Film Festival.
"…quite funny and very well written..."
