When I saw the trailer for this latest Amy Schumer comedy I must say that I wasn't keen to see it. It didn't look good, but I knew I would inevitably get around to it sooner or later. Well, here we are, much sooner than I expected. And let me start off by just saying that Kinda Pregnant is actually kinda funny.
Schumer plays Lainy Newton, a woman who is thrown for a bit of a loop when her best friend, Kate (Jillian Bell), falls pregnant as Lainy sees her life fall apart. Her boyfriend (Damon Wayans Jr.) turns out to be no good, and Kate ends up sharing a lot of her time with another mum-to-be, Shirley (Lizze Broadway). Trying on a fake maternity bump, Lainy is immediately uplifted by the reactions of strangers around her, which is why she decides to repeat the experience, eventually heading to a yoga class for pregnant women, where she meets Megan (Brianne Howey). The pair fast become firm friends, which means that Lainy has to keep up the charade of being pregnant, even when she starts to develop a relationship with Megan's brother-in-law, Josh (Will Forte).
Co-written by Schumer and Julie Paiva, Kinda Pregnant is directed by Tyler Spindel, who seems to have generally improved with each subsequent feature that he's helmed (although he's also been the director on a Rob Schneider TV special, but bills have got to be paid, I guess). It clocks in at about 97 minutes, paces the gags well on the way to a predictable third act, and actually has something running underneath all of the comedy that speaks to how women are treated differently, and have different expectations placed on them, when they have, or are about to have, children.
Schumer has fun in the lead role, whether being in appropriate in front of the classroom full of children she is teaching or being forgetful about the pregnant status she is showing to the world, and many laughs are shared with Bell, Howey, and Broadway. There's also a bit of scene-stealing from Urzila Carlson, who is hilariously blunt and ridiculous for a lot of the runtime, and Wayans Jr. is a very amusing jackass. Forte gets to be super-sweet throughout, and he does a great job of that, while Chris Geere, Alex Moffat, and Joel David Moore are all good fun as three very different husbands/expectant fathers.
A lot of the jokes are obvious, and most of them revolve around pratfalls or people saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but they still made me laugh, and one or two made me laugh hard (a silly little gag about a restaurant band name was my favourite, I won't spoil it here, despite it just being very silly). This is easy enough to throw on and enjoy for the disposable entertainment it is, and it is the best thing that Amy Schumer has been Amy Schumer-y in for years.
6/10
If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do
consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A
subscription/follow costs nothing, and ALL of the links you need are here - https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share
No comments:
Post a Comment