If anyone deserves a love declaration via Zamboni, it’s definitely not Lainy in Netflix’s “Kinda Pregnant.” On behalf of hockey lovers everywhere, that’s kinda disrespectful to the sanctity of Zambonis. Despite the title, Amy Schumer’s Lainy is (kinda) not pregnant at all. Instead, she fakes a pregnancy just because she’s jealous of her actually pregnant best friend. It’s peak narcissism.
“Kinda Pregnant” could have been a powerful film centering on a woman who’s always dreamt of being a mother and has to contend with the fact that it might never happen. Instead, we get 90 minutes of an insufferable narcissist in a comedy that made me laugh maybe three times and cringe during the other 85 minutes. So, if you watched “Kinda Pregnant” and regret the hour and a half of your life that you’ll never get back, here are five movies like “Kinda Pregnant” but better.
‘Labor Pains’
“Kinda Pregnant” isn’t the first fake pregnancy movie. “Labor Pains,” released in 2009, stars Lindsay Lohan as Thea, a woman who pretends to be pregnant to avoid getting fired. Is it a stellar movie? No. Yet it wasn’t a physically painful experience for me, either.
I have a difficult time connecting to most of Amy Schumer’s characters, but Lainy is particularly insufferable. There wasn’t a single moment in “Kinda Pregnant” where I thought, “Oh, Lainy’s not the worst.” You can’t have a movie premise like this without giving the main character a single redeeming quality. To get on board with the deception, we have to care about the main character first.
“Labor Pains” gets that component right. Thea fakes her pregnancy to prevent getting fired by her awful boss, but she also displays character growth throughout the film and needs the job to take care of her younger sister. Lainy’s motivations are calculated, premeditated, and attention-seeking. Meanwhile, Thea’s trickery stems from a desperate in-the-moment outburst to protect her kid sister. Thea is charming and quirky in a way that connects with audiences rather than alienating them.
►Watch on Peacock
‘Baby Mama’
We love a good Tina Fey and Amy Poehler team-up. The dynamic duo’s “Baby Mama” is a quirky product of the early aughts. Long before “Kinda Pregnant” was a blip on the radar, Fey’s character Kate dreams of being a mother, but discovers that her T-shaped uterus will make pregnancy difficult. Enter Poehler’s Angie, who becomes Kate’s surrogate.
The film is a classic case of Type A and Type B characters butting heads and finding a way to co-exist — with the added pressure of Angie carrying Kate’s baby. The only problem? Angie is lying about the in-vitro fertilization working and has to contend with her lie when she starts getting close to Kate.
Once again, the deception here is more tolerable than “Kinda Pregnant” because Angie is quirky and charming and actually feels bad about what she’s doing. We don’t get an ounce of regret from Lainy until the end — and even that feels forced. “Baby Mama” also has a surprising amount of plot reveals for this kind of comedy, making it a worthwhile and fun watch even if it’s not winning any cinematic awards.
►Watch on Max
‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’
While “Kinda Pregnant” doesn’t focus much on realism, the 2012 movie “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” is an anthology film that features different couples with contrasting paths to parenthood — offering a well-rounded answer to the concept of, well, what to expect when you’re expecting.
The movie features unplanned pregnancy, adoption, infertility and miscarriage, and highlights that pregnancy isn’t always as pretty as glowing skin and luxurious babymoons. There are countless ways to start a family, and “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” covers the gamut without sugarcoating the realities. However, there’s plenty of love in the realistic scenarios — both platonic and romantic. Unlike “Kinda Pregnant,” the characters are much more relatable and likable (for the most part).
►Rent/buy on Amazon or Apple
‘The Switch’
In “The Switch,” 30-year-old Kassie Larson decides to become a single mom. Her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman) offers his sperm, but she decides it would be weird (and finds him a little too neurotic to pass his genes down to her baby). So, she winds up going with a donor. This time, the deception occurs when Wally switches out the sperm. Not cool, dude. Even worse? He doesn’t remember doing it because he was blackout drunk.
While I find it hard to root for Kassie and Wallie, given that his deception is far worse than Lany’s faked pregnancy, the plot points of “The Switch” are at least interesting and chaotic. I would hold the debacle against him much more if he remembered doing it, so it’s a little easier to get on board — not that there’s any excuse for what he did, drunk or not. Ultimately, it’s Kassie’s body and therefore her choice whether or not to forgive Wally. Sufficed to say, it’s one of the wilder pregnancy movies out there and features quite a few laughs.
►Watch on Hulu
‘The Back-Up Plan’
Like Lainy, “The Back-Up Plan” protagonist Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) dreams of being a mom. Yet instead of pretending that she’s pregnant for some weird power trippy attention thing, Zoe takes matters into her own hands and gets artificially inseminated. The only catch? She meets her love interest that precise day after giving up on her goal of finding the right guy and starting a family together.
Not only does the movie succeed in making audiences laugh, but there’s a blended amount of realism, charm, and humor to make it a well-rounded film. Both Zoe and Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) are likable and you want to root for them.
Women choosing to have children alone certainly wasn’t a new concept in 2010, but it was beginning to gain popularity for women who were more career-focused leading up to their mid-30s and 40s. “The Back-Up Plan” wades those modern love waters and tackles the navigation of less traditional family dynamics that push against the status quo as the way we approach family dynamics continues to shift.
►Watch on Paramount Plus
