Posts Tagged ‘Alex Moffat’

KINDA PREGNANT: 2 STARS. “raunchy material at odds with heartfelt aspects.”

SYNOPSIS: In “Kinda Pregnant,” a new rom com now streaming on Netflix, Amy Schumer plays a woman who, when her hopes of settling down and starting a family are upended, fakes a pregnancy and falls for the man of her dreams. “The belly is fake,” reads the movie’s tagline. “The struggle is real.”

CAST: Amy Schumer, Jillian Bell, Will Forte, Damon Wayans Jr., Brianne Howey, Chris Geere, Alex Moffat. Directed by Tyler Spindel.

REVIEW: “Kinda Pregnant” is kinda funny, with laughs sprinkled throughout, but it works best when it shelves the outrageous stuff in favor of more heartfelt material.

In the movie’s early minutes of seven-year-old Lainy (Jayne Sowers) tells her best friend Kate (Julianna Layne), “being a mom is the best thing a human being can do.”

Cut to modern day. Lainy, now played by Amy Schumer, is a schoolteacher, still best friends with Kate (Jillian Bell) and still obsessed with starting a family when she is hit with a double whammy. Kate gets pregnant after her boyfriend Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.) drops a bomb on her, leaving her feeling that love is a lie.

Jealous of Kate’s pregnancy and despondent over Dave, Lainy, in true screwball comedy form, shoplifts a fake baby bump and discovers that when people think she’s pregnant they’re nicer to her.

Cue the misunderstandings and mayhem.

Those familiar with Schumer’s work will find a great deal of shared territory between her stand-up and “Kinda Pregnant.” Bold, unapologetic and relatable, Schumer’s stand-up is personal, a beguiling mix of social commentary, self-deprecation and gender politics.

Many of those themes are present here.

The movie, like her stand-up and her award-winning TV show “Inside Amy Schumer,” deals with body image, societal expectations placed on pregnant women, insecurities, the intricacies of friendship and the blossoming of real human connection, but the keenly observed insights of her stand up are blunted here, mostly reduced to broad generalizations and rude and crude punchlines.

But don’t get me wrong, some of the raunchy stuff works— South African-New Zealander comic Urzila Carlson is outrageous and funny, and Brianne Howey as the overbearing Megan, who says, “Kindness is my favorite hobby,” raises a few laughs—but it seems at odds with the more heartfelt aspects of the story.

“Kinda Pregnant’s” clichéd message of learning to love oneself before seeking it elsewhere comes a bit too late, long after our love for the movie has gone.

80 FOR BRADY: 2 ½ STARS. “a firehose spray of sentimentality.”

I guess it is fitting that a team of movie MVPs would band together to tell a story about the greatest football quarterback of all time. It’s just too bad the movie, “80 for Brady,” now playing on theatres, is a bit of a fumble.

Based on a true story, the movie is first and foremost, the tale of the deep bond between football fans, octogenarians Lou (Lily Tomlin), Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno), and septuagenarian Betty (Sally Field). The lifelong friends discover football, or more specifically, one footballer, in 2001 when Lou’s television remote broke, leaving the channel stuck on a New England Patriots game.

When the quartet laid eyes on quarterback Tom Brady, they were smitten. “What a beautiful man,” says Trish. “So hydrated,” adds Maura.

Sixteen years later, as the Patriots prepare to take on the Atlanta Falcons at Super Bowl LI, the four fans plan their ultimate get-a-way after winning two pairs of Super Bowl tickets from a local sports call-in show.

“We’re going to the Super Bowl to enjoy men the way the ancient Romans did,” says Lou. “Sweaty and on top of one another in tight pants.”

When it looks like the Patriots are down for the count, Lou, Trish, Maura and Betty, in their bedazzled Brady jerseys, spring into action, providing some much-needed moral support.

“80 for Brady” is a mawkish movie, a firehose spray of sentimentality and easy platitudes. it’s a testament to the collective buddy charisma of the leads that it works as well as it does. The characters may be clichés come to life but without the cast, much of the film’s humour would be as deflated as the footballs used at the 2014 AFC title game against the Indianapolis Colts. Tomlin, Fonda), Moreno and Field’s combined 250 years of on-screen experience breathe life into several showcase scenes.

Moreno earns a laugh or two playing hardball with a scalper and a hot wing eating contest gives Field a chance to heat things up amid the movie’s well-intentioned but overbearingly cheerful bromides.

“80 for Brady” aims to lift up the audience, to inspire, but only in the most superficial ways. There is more edge on any single episode of “Golden Girls” than in the entire running time of this ode to friendship and football.