Knocked Up (2007)

It’s 5:30 am. The baby’s crying, but you need to finish prepping for your big pitch at work that morning. What do you do? You do the near impossible: both.

Workin’ Moms, created by Catherine Reitman, is a Canadian-produced comedy series that follows four different moms as they try to balance their work lives and their families. Currently streaming on Netflix, the series dives deep into these characters, as new situations continuously put them to the test.

I knew nothing about this show prior to watching it. I heard it referenced on a podcast and one night when I was looking for something new to watch, I decided to give it a shot. Within the first five minutes, I was immediately hooked. I binged the first four seasons. Workin’ Moms is brilliantly written, and led by fantastic actors who have such an innate sense of comedic timing. It feels genuine, and the passion behind this series is palpable on screen.

First and foremost, I have so much respect for the work Catherine Reitman puts into this show. She created it, she writes and directs a lot of the episodes, and she plays the leading role of Kate Foster. She fearlessly puts herself out there in terms of what she does on screen. I had no idea until researching later that Catherine Reitman is the daughter of Ghostbusters (1984) director Ivan Reitman, and is the sister of Up in the Air (2009) writer/director Jason Reitman. They were already a talented family, to begin with, but adding in Catherine’s work only ups the ante.

What I’ve always appreciated about writer/director Judd Apatow is that he’s able to bring a layer of depth and complexity to dumb, fun comedies. Movies such as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Trainwreck are raunchy comedies, of course, but they also have something more to say about their characters; they focus on people with cases of arrested development who struggle to mature. In many ways, Apatow’s films tap into a universal feeling we all share to some extent: an apprehension towards growing up.

Apatow’s latest film, The King of Staten Island, is no different. The movie tells the story of Scott (Pete Davidson), the 24-year-old son of a deceased firefighter who passed away when Scott was 7. Struggling with mental health issues, Scott has been unable to move forward in life. However, everything Scott knows completely overturns when his mother, Margie (Marisa Tomei), begins dating a man (Bill Burr) for the first time in 17 years.

Davidson co-writes and co-produces this movie, and it is clear that so much of his personal story is deeply embedded in the film. It feels as if we are getting a raw and intimate look into who Davidson is; his thoughts and experiences. One of the oldest screenwriting tips in the book is to “write what you know,” and there’s a reason why it is so effective. I have always felt that some of the best art comes from a place of someone simply telling their story because what are movies if not the stories of people’s lives?

While playing a version of yourself isn’t necessarily the greatest litmus test for one’s thespianism, Davidson is fantastic in the leading role; he brings with him his dark and dry sense of humor and a willingness to scathingly call out other people’s B.S. Scott is a character who is seemingly always getting in his way; he keeps telling people he is not ready to move up in the world — to get a job or get his apartment — because he’s still trying to “figure his s*** out.” The more he repeats this mantra, the more he puts off the next stage of his life.