A straight single woman aims to have a baby with her gay best friend in this amusing New York-based indie. The subject’s hardly revolutionary (“The Next Best Thing” trod similar ground back in 2000), but “Gayby” puts a likable and local face on this increasingly common practice.
Hot-yoga teacher Jenn (Jenn Harris, known for her hilarious Jodie Foster impersonation in off-Broadway’s “Silence!”) and comic-book store owner Matt (Matthew Wilkas) attempt to spawn “the old-fashioned way,” which proves challenging: “I shaved my legs,” Jenn says before one try in the bedroom. “But I probably didn’t have to.”
Other hurdles arise in the form of significant others, random trysts and existential crises. Matt’s wise and wisecracking best friend is played by director Jonathan Lisecki, ironically the one casting weak spot; his delivery — over-the-top camp — distracts from his genial stars. But Harris, a talented comic actress who looks more like a real person than a Hollywood facsimile of one, makes every scene she’s in shine.