Directed By Tyler Spindel

Starring – Amy Schumer, Will Forte, Jillian Bell

The Plot – When Lainy’s (Schumer) plan to settle down and start a family falls apart, she puts on a fake baby bump, tells a lie, and accidentally falls for her dream guy (Forte).

Rated R for sexual content, adult language throughout and drug use.

Kinda Pregnant | Official Trailer | Netflix

POSITIVES

While a movie that is morally detestable on nearly every measurement of its creative spectrum, there were some depictions of social commentary within the confines of motherhood that I found insightfully eye-opening, particularly when Lainy legitimately learns about the psychologies and difficulties of carrying a child, as opposed to treating it like a gimmick for selfish popularity and inclusion. This obviously comes on the tail end of the third act, with a far more dramatically enhanced tone that clashes forcefully against the consistency of a crude and mean-spirited direction with the material, but I did appreciate the script’s attempt at tapping into barriers about evolving friendships and personal priorities that at least gave its characters some form of ambition and morality throughout the engagement, taking ample time within its conflict to not only zero in on things that most comedies pertaining to pregnancies irresponsibly overlook, but also humbling more of its long-term conflicts with a relatable side to overcoming bodily and psychological adversity, especially to those women who are left to raise a child with no supporting spouse or foundational friendships to lean back on. Aside from this, my only other praise for the movie goes to Will Forte, who is trying his ass off to make some of the revolting dialogue come across as charming with the cadence of a warm and supporting leading man. Forte is a comedian above all else, so he’s not above a humorous attempt when the opportunity calls for it, however he’s the only character in the movie who feels even slightly relatable with an ounce of empathy or humanity, and I praise any actor or actress who makes it out of a movie like this unscathed.

NEGATIVES

When you hear the words ‘Happy Madison Productions’, it should be an urgent warning that a terrible film lurks beyond, but in this case nepotism has even reared its ugly head, as Adam Sandler’s production company hired Adam Sandler’s nephew to direct his first feature length film, and the results have it currently in the running for worst movie of the year at only the second month of the 2025 cinematic calendar. Immediately, I have to discuss the consistency of the comedic material here, which feels so creatively out of touch with its releasing year that it settles for crudely mean-spirited and obnoxious gags of the most classless variety, with a majority of the tone-deaf gags lending themselves to Lainy landing on her stomach, a child stabbing Lainy’s stomach with a knife, or Lainy catching her stomach on fire, all of which when she was attempting to give the illusion of being pregnant. Anymore, slapstick humor is a tight rope to walk, with only the most confident comedians able to elicit impact from it, but Schumer stumbles humiliatingly to the point that these deliveries leave noticeable gaps of silence after their ineffective arrivals, with more emphasis of inexperience towards Spindel that transcends the movie’s fictional encompassing, making it feel like a series of one-off skits that never converge towards attaining a feeling of earned momentum or consistency for the engagement. On top of this, the dialogue feels like it was written by a raging adolescence, with unearned, unfunny vulgarity stretched between sentences that makes it such a chore to interpret and remain faithfully invested to the conversations. While I fully expect an R-rated movie to take advantage of adult language, its overuse here grew tediously taxing at even the ten minute mark of the movie, with nothing in the way of subtlety or nuance that could occasionally elicit a surprising impact to the audience. Speaking of lack of surprises, “Kinda Pregnant” is that movie that unfolds exactly the way that you would expect from a sitcom kind of plot summary, with nothing in the way of legitimate stakes or consequences for Lainy’s actions, which are reprehensible. As expected, reality does eventually catch up to her illusion, but the results and impacts are practically non-existent, as not only does she feel unchanged emotionally by the experience, despite a tone-deaf climax that attempts to suddenly make her sincere, but the typical third act distancing lasts for an entire scene before abruptly resolving it during an ending that could’ve ended at any one of the three different endings that it conjured for itself. The conflicts themselves could easily be resolved in a ten minute conversation, but then they wouldn’t mean anything to Lainy receiving the karma that she rightfully deserves, but because the editing to the film is done so conventionally, it makes her reunions feel like the next day, leaving just enough time for a destructive Zamboni ride down a peaceful neighborhood, also without any kind of consequences to this woman child. That takes me to the performances, the majority of which were obnoxiously exaggerated and compromising towards caring or investing in a single one of these characters. I’ve never been a supporter or hater of Schumer’s, but it’s clear here why so many people find her morally repulsive, as the movie’s incessant need to cater to Amy’s brand of off-beat humor had me overwhelmed from the word go, made worse by Schumer’s lack of an attempt at characterization or emotionality, which instead just feel like extensions of her real-life persona. Because her demeanor is so unapologetically crass and condemning to those around her, it makes it difficult to believe that any man or friend would want anything to do with her character, especially when so many of her motivations are selfishly rendered. However, as bad as Schumer is, she pales in comparison to Urzila Carlson, who attempts Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”, but instead comes across as the anchor through the deck of the ship that sinks this voyage, especially in the film’s aforementioned editing schemes refusing to cut away from one of her several long-winded deliveries towards jokes. To say that her lines go on for a lifetime would even be an understatement, as the demand for improvisation starts to overwhelm the patience of these simplistic interactions to the point where it feels like the camera has been left on to assemble the best lines from her creativity, with Carlson taking ample opportunity to get her wackily creepy character over, with the movie being none the funnier or compelling for it. These abundance of scenes are the single biggest stacking point to the movie’s 92-minute run time, without any kind of dimensions or expansions to the material, and as a result the pacing feels like it’s moving in slow motion, especially with the audience’s advantageous perspective of being predictably ahead of the material at all times constantly waiting for it to catch-up. This made the entirety of the film’s second half fall even flatter than its predecessor, despite the much-appealing deviation into dramatic territory that I welcomed in order to get away from the crude slapstick of the comedy, but this shallow script never takes any unconventional turns towards reaching its intended destination, and as a result it all feels like one big trainwreck that we the audience see happening in the slowest of motions.

OVERALL
“Kinda Pregnant” is one of those special kinds of films that make you question all of your life’s choices, but particularly the one that inspired you to press play to watch it for free on streaming in the first place. In being a morally shallow and painfully unfunny experiment to add to the already haunted hall of offerings for Happy Madison Productions, it wastes away the appeal of such a talented ensemble with material that feels like it was written by an adolescent, proving a grueling engagement that is nearly as tough and as long feeling as pregnancy itself.

My Grade: 2.6 or F-