Trainwreck
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Written by: Amy Schumer
Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Vanessa Bayer, Mike Birbiglia, Ezra Miller, Dave Attell, Tilda Swinton, Lebron James
Comedy - 125 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 16 July 2015
Written by: Amy Schumer
Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Vanessa Bayer, Mike Birbiglia, Ezra Miller, Dave Attell, Tilda Swinton, Lebron James
Comedy - 125 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 16 July 2015
R-rated comedies in 2015 feel like a breath of fresh air from their stuffy and censored PG-13 counterparts. While chasing the almighty teenaged disposable income, studios forget all about their parents who remember a more relaxed time from the 1980s where executives did not cater to the lowest common denominator. There were movies for the adults and movies for the teens. Somewhere in the 1990s and into the 2000s, a tedious trend took root where the decision-makers assumed they were losing out on ‘x’ amount of dollars by including a couple more curse words and sexual situations. For the last decade, director Judd Apatow led the charge in reclaiming the R-rated comedy’s rightful place. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Knocked Up (2007), and to a lesser extent, Funny People (2009) and This Is 40 (2012) reminded audiences each time there are folks willing to turn out during busy weekends to make time for boobies and swear words.
Amy Schumer stuffed Trainwreck full of delightful colorful language and hysterical compromising positions. I believe the only nudity is male however. I first noticed Schumer pop up on Comedy Central’s roasts where just about everyone wallows in pure insult filth. Schumer is the most recent comedian to make a name for herself from the roasts and catapult up to her own show on Comedy Central. Inside Amy Schumer skewers current pop culture stereotypes for example with a catchy tune about the media’s fascination with women’s butts and determining whether or not Amy is hot enough to even be on television.
Amy Schumer stuffed Trainwreck full of delightful colorful language and hysterical compromising positions. I believe the only nudity is male however. I first noticed Schumer pop up on Comedy Central’s roasts where just about everyone wallows in pure insult filth. Schumer is the most recent comedian to make a name for herself from the roasts and catapult up to her own show on Comedy Central. Inside Amy Schumer skewers current pop culture stereotypes for example with a catchy tune about the media’s fascination with women’s butts and determining whether or not Amy is hot enough to even be on television.
Schumer came up with a great idea for a romantic comedy but in a brilliant maneuver, she reverses the gender roles. Who better than Judd Apatow to turn the script into a film? Well, Paul Feig perhaps. I’ll get back to that in a second. In Trainwreck, Amy’s character plays the dude. She engages in one night stands for sport, makes sure the guy never sleeps over, is either drunk or hung over, and relishes her crazy life. Amy has no plans to change her lifestyle because she doesn’t see anything wrong with it. Amy’s little sister, Kim (Brie Larson, 2013’s Don Jon), went out and got married, inherited a stepson, and has her own little one on the way. Amy looks at Kim’s life choices like she is an intellectually-challenged alien from a distant galaxy.
The other half of the rom in rom-com is Dr. Aaron Conners (Bill Hader, 2015’s Inside Out), a sports physician to America’s top athletes. Name dropping Tom Brady, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Chris Paul is all in a day’s work for the humble Aaron. As the stereotyped ‘female’ in the relationship, Aaron wants his and Amy’s relationship to be exclusive, he wants maybe two kids in the future, and he even has the temerity to call Amy on the phone the day after they first have sex. I’ve noticed it before but have never given proper attention to the fact that none of these characteristics would seem out of place if a woman did the exact same things. Watching Aaron do it is a bit uncomfortable.
The world’s best comedians are effective at holding up mirrors at society and showing us how ridiculous we can be for expecting and accepting certain norms. Schumer’s script expertly tears our expectations to shreds through the standard rom-com best friend characters. Amy’s best friend, Nikki (Vanessa Bayer), wants all of Amy’s dirty details and says she will call the cops on Aaron for perpetrating such a stalker move as calling the next day. Aaron’s BFF is LeBron…as in LeBron James. LeBron encourages Aaron to make the call and refers to the deed as intercourse. He wants to watch Downton Abbey live because he knows all the guys at practice are going to talk about the most recent episode and he doesn’t want to be that guy who DVRs it. This is no cameo for LeBron; his part has weight and it shows he took it seriously – perhaps a second career awaits him once he hangs it up as the NBA’s best player.
Back to Judd Apatow. Trainwreck fits right into his standard M.O. The central character starts out one way, but in order to succeed, right the wrongs, or achieve clarity, he or she must alter their behavior to come out the other side. Sometimes it’s as easy as Steve Carell losing his virginity. Other times it’s more complex with Seth Rogen having to mature out of his stoned, selfish phase because he is about to become a dad or Adam Sandler working out his early mid-life crisis recognizing money did not buy happiness. Amy finds unexpected happiness in monogamy with Aaron yet she must somehow jettison her old philandering ways on the Staten Island Ferry ride of shame.
Trainwreck not only fits Apatow’s narrative mold, it also carries on his tradition of going about 20 minutes too long. Funny People and This Is 40 both started strong yet both began to fade under the burden of so much plot and eventual boredom because they just kept going and going. Trainwreck suffers from the exact same malady. About three quarters of the way through, unresolved problems between Amy and her sister, Amy and her job, and Amy and Aaron kept orbiting resolutions but never concluding. If Apatow’s editor could have persuaded him to cut out some dead weight, Trainwreck would be in the running for 2015’s best comedy. As it is, it’s an entertaining way to laugh for a couple hours, but looking at your watch for the last half hour holds back true enjoyment.
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