On February 5, the Netflix streaming service released the comedy film «Kinda Pregnant», starring the popular American stand-up comedian and comedic actress Amy Schumer, who also co-wrote the script. On paper, the novelty looks like an unpretentious comedy from the 2000s, in one way or another related to the topic of pregnancy, such as «Knocked Up» (2007), «Baby on Board» (2008) or «Labor Pains» (2009). In the reviews below, we describe what the movie means in practice.
Pluses:
The authors try to show that pregnancy is not only about smiles and happy moments for expectant mothers;
Minuses:
Almost everything is bad here;
«Kinda Pregnant»
Genre comedy
Director Tyler Spindel
Starring Amy Schumer, Gillian Bell, Will Forte, Damon Wayans Jr, Brianna Howey, Chris Gere, Alex Moffat, Joel David Moore, Lizz Broadway, Francis Benhamou
Premiere Netflix
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb
An ordinary schoolteacher from New York City, Laney Newton, is preparing for an important event: her boyfriend Dave, with whom she has been together for 4 years, seems to be planning to propose to his beloved. However, during a dinner at a nice restaurant, everything goes completely differently than Laney had imagined, and this relationship comes to an end. The news from her best friend Kate, who confesses that she is pregnant, does not add to the joy. When everyone around her, as if in cahoots, is happily building their happiness, lonely Laney no longer hopes for anything like that.
One day, she tries on a fake belly for fun and immediately notices the special attention she receives from others. Indeed, when Laney goes out in the yard in this form, she feels admiration and sincere smiles from passers-by. Moreover, the crazy young lady goes to a yoga class for expectant mothers, where she meets the lovely Megan, and later — her handsome brother Josh. After a long time, the heroine begins to feel really happy, but at the same time, she is increasingly guilty about her lies, which risk destroying her happiness instantly.
If you have come across an announcement of this movie somewhere, including our articles about new products in February, and you immediately thought «what a load of nonsense this is going to be», then you were absolutely right about Netflix’s next opus. «Kinda Pregnant» is such a clichéd and comedy-less movie that it belongs somewhere on the fringes of the genre among a pile of the same junk that has been lying around since the 2000s.
The catastrophic problem with the film is that all of its scenario solutions are predictable without exception. Where there should be room for jokes, instead of laughter, there is a feeling of awkwardness and embarrassment. From the very first scenes, the viewer is hit with a stream of humorous bad taste. There is room for talk about gray pubic hair, bad cosplay, bad teacher and for an unpretentious physical comedy performed by Amy Schumer.
The lion’s share of the comedy is reduced to the fact that something is always happening to the protagonist’s fake belly. Either it suddenly bursts into flames, or one of the kids pierces it, a kind of future Jason Voorhees. If he comes at her with a knife, the clumsy woman will attack him with all her might, to the amazement of everyone around her. Put that damned laughter in there already because it’s not clear where to laugh!
At the same time, watching the local characters is not that much fun, because most of them — from «nailed from behind a corner with a bag» Laney to the silly heroine Lizz Broadway from «Gen V» (2023) — behave strangely and inadequately.
The so-called plot of the film is replete with not only typical, but simply beyond rotten rom-com tropes from the very beginning to the end. Let’s cross our fingers: the protagonist is in love with the perfect partner, but is horrified to discover that he is a complete idiot. To quell her feelings of overwhelming longing and universal injustice, she resorts to a seemingly innocent lie. Everything seems to be getting better. Then this lie comes back to bite her (and in this case, almost literally). But sweet, as honey, the happy ending will not be long in coming.
To complete the picture, there is a missing maneuver when one of the lovers, abandoning all business, rushes to the airport to stop the departure of his or her soulmate, but the budget was probably not enough for an airplane, so the creators had to limit themselves to an ice machine in a calm environment.
Meanwhile, the topic that is raised in «Kinda Pregnant» is extremely important. It is in public that pregnant women, beauties and mothers-to-be, may appear to be infinitely happy, inspired and in a sense elated. But when it comes to the difficulties of the situation, as well as lonely days and thoughts in the bathroom, things don’t look so rosy.
And that’s not to mention the process of childbirth itself, which men will never experience and imagine to something like Cuba Gooding Jr. described in «Rat Race» (2001, see video). However, given the general absurdity of the film, it will be extremely difficult for its creators to reach the audience.
There are people complain about Marvel, that it generates posters for its blockbusters using artificial intelligence. Netflix seems to have moved on a long time ago and is churning out useless one-dayers based on scripts from ChatGPT.
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