At last, Amy Schumer has come to the big screen and not a moment too soon. With Judd Apatow as her film mentor, she makes the best film debut any fan of her stand-up or Inside Amy Schumer can expect. She is certainly not a trainwreck when it comes to comedy, despite the title of her first film, Trainwreck.
Schumer stars as Amy, a writer at a tawdry magazine who is assigned to write a story about sports doctor Aaron Connors (Bill Hader). Her personal life is a mess, since she was taught at a young age that “monogamy is unrealistic.” She sleeps with any guy who says “yes,” even though she has a steady boyfriend, Steven (wrestler John Cena). The assignment to interview Aaron comes just as she broke up with Steven, who really thought he was the only man in her life.
Her family life is tough too. Her father, Gordon (Colin Quinn) is now in an assisted living facility. Kim (Brie Larson), her younger sister, is now married and has a stepson. Amy can’t see why Kim would fall for this weird guy or how she could settle down. She learns that her life has to change and Aaron may just be the kind of guy to do it.
Trainwreck doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to romantic comedy and you can easily figure out where the story is going. Instead, it subverts the romantic comedy. Amy is in the role that is usually played by the guy - the person who needs to get his shit together, so to speak. Aaron’s life is perfectly fine. His best friend is LeBron James, after all.
Schumer also writes like a surprising veteran, although having Apatow around certainly helped. Still, it’s her wacky, absurd sense of humor that dominates the film. A perfect Schumer-style sequence is a silly “love montage” that begins like a lazy rip-off of Woody Allen’s Manhattan, but turns into a parody of that iconic film. She also has a sparingly used narration that comes in at just the right moments to keep the audience from rolling their eyes.
Trainwreck also features some strong supporting parts, including a completely bizarre performance from James. The basketball superstar makes a cameo at the beginning, but he just keeps hanging around Aaron, like a bug he can’t shake off. One of the longer scenes that could be trimmed (but shouldn’t be) has just Hader and James bouncing off each other about why Aaron won’t go to Cleveland. (James can’t convince Aaron that Cleveland is “just like Miami.”) And the running gag that James never pays for anything is hilarious.
Tilda Swinton also has a hilarious role as Amy’s boss and is virtually unrecognizable. And Norman Lloyd is priceless as Gordon’s rival at the nursing home.
The screening at SXSW was labeled “work in progress,” but it doesn’t look like Apatow and Schumer will have to make significant changes before the film’s July 17 release. Some jokes and scenes did feel a bit on the long side, but most of them worked well with the crowd. Maybe we all just needed a break from more serious indie films and documentaries.
Trainwreck certainly proves that Schumer can carry a film herself, and her brand of raunchy, sex humor survived the jump to the big screen. Her script wisely doesn’t try to go to far off from the romantic comedy track and it works. With a simple story as the framework, she gets to add the jokes she wants to. Thankfully, she’s so funny that this system works.
image courtesy of Universal Pictures
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