Let me be clear: I am always rooting for Amy Schumer, though sometimes she makes it difficult. When she is good, she is great – and, for the most part, that was on Inside Amy Schumer, her zeitgeist-y Comedy Central sketch show that ran from 2013-2016. Schumer’s brand of comedy – bawdy, self-deprecating, pointing to overarching sexism while skewering certain types of white women – was both native to and critical of the pop feminist era, your oversharing best friend during the personal essay boom.
For better and, at least on the big screen, for worse, Schumer’s sensibility has remained there. Kinda Pregnant, her new film at Netflix, plays the hits Schumer is known for – shameless physical comedy, frank discussion of bodies, brash refusal to play good girl – but feels stuck in the past, unable to generate new sparks. Written by Schumer and Julie Paiva and directed by Tyler Spindel, Kinda Pregnant continues a string of underwhelming Hollywood vehicles since 2015’s Trainwrecked that have hamstrung Schumer’s talent with sub-par writing (2018’s I Feel Pretty) or plotting (2017’s Snatched).
