Amy Schumer proves she's made for romantic comedy on film.
Trainwreck
Grade: A-
Director: Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin)
Screenplay: Amy Schumer
Cast: Schumer (Price Check)
Rating: R
Runtime: 125 min.
by John DeSando
Trainwreck lies somewhere between good comedy and better social commentary. This is not new territory for director Judd Apatow, whose comedies dominated the first part of this century’s romantic, frequently silly and gross, adult humor. However, in Trainwreck he has placed his confidence in writer/star Amy Schumer: She takes him to a higher level of social awareness with less gut-busting comedy.
Amy (Schumer) is a 30 something libertine with a good job at a men’s magazine, where stories like “You’re not gay, She’s boring” and “You call these tits?” are typical. Amy has loads of lovers and little experience with relationships beyond one night stands. To no surprise, for this is a modern romantic comedy whose formula requires redemption, she meets a handsome surgeon (Bill Hader) but has difficulty confronting her urge to go long term, which she is bound to do as Apatow’s comedies inevitably lead to the monogamy elixir.
The love shenanigans are less important than the battle between her married, pregnant sister, Kim (Brie Larson), with conservative values, and Amy’s promiscuous credo hammered home long ago by a dad who taught his kids that monogamy is not realistic.
Meanwhile she meets LeBron James, who shouldn’t surprise us as a competent comedian because anyone who’s seen pro basketball knows comic acting is a part of the game. By the way, for a treat bigger than James, see the dance sequence at the end: It out blasts Napoleon Dynamite’s.
Trainwreck is probably just a beginning in film for Schumer, who has already upended cable TV with Inside Amy Schumer. I am taking colleague Hope Madden’s word for this as I don’t have a TV, but I suspect if I did, Schumer’s comedy would be the first I’d go to. I am already committed to her subsequent comedies in film. After all, with lines like this, who wouldn’t adore her: “I hope this love montage ends like Jonestown.”
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
