Womb Envy (2023)

Max is stuck in a rut. Nearly 30 years old, he is wanting more than the tired beat of the Toronto gay dance floors and is seeking purpose in life. His childhood friend Mary is pregnant and desperate to escape the clutches of her religious zealot mother, Dorothy, and the small town they grew up in. Showing up on Max's door one day after years of separation, Mary convinces him to pretend to be her baby daddy, since he was the only man her mother ever approved of, after reminding him of the years she spent being his "fake girlfriend" as a teen. They create rules to ensure the success of their half-baked idea, which splinters Max's fragile queer ego to create a drag queen apparition - The Divine - who constantly fights against this new assimilation to be hetero-normative. Confusing things even more, Max soon falls head over heals in love with their Lamaze instructor, Patrick, which throws a huge wrench in their charade for Dorothy. Internalizing the chaos in his life, Max develops a rare condition known as Couvade Syndrome, bizarrely displaying pregnancy symptoms which become increasingly more difficult to hide, even from his new crush Patrick, who is partially-sighted. Everything in their lives quickly unravels, leaving Max and Mary to pick up the pieces in time to welcome their babies into the world and into a new nuclear family.