Kids are cool, kids are cute. Babies are just annoying.

The documentary Babies juxtaposes four babies from around the world. We have a tot from, respectively, Tokyo, Japan, the wilds of Mongolia, the countryside of Namibia and the streets of San Francisco.

Babies the movie is an accomplished doc. The film has no voice over and follows the first year of this diverse quartet by simply observing them in their natural surroundings. This is how a documentary film should be made, and similar docs this year like La Danse and Sweetgrass follow the same template.

Babies the movie contains a quartet of the most annoying youngsters ever committed to film. For the first half (thank goodness the doc runs a slim 75-plus minutes) we see these newborns peeing themselves, breast feeding, crying like babies and in general doing things that should never be captured on film.

Perhaps the most interesting moments are provided by the disparity between the different babies. The Japanese and American babes are surrounded by concrete, and walls and cats. The third world babes are surrounded by the most beautiful countryside and glorified nature and cats.

- Michael Bergeron