I've never really cared much for Amy Schumer's brand of humor. Jokes about penis size and vaginas can only take one so far, but I found plenty to laugh at with Trainwreck, Schumer's debut feature as a screenwriter. Her script is sharp and legitimately hysterical, despite a handful of jokes that don't quite land. There's so many great zingers that it hardly matters anyway. I appreciate that Schumer doesn't repeat the same punchline over and over. She saves enough big laughs for herself but also grants her costars adequate time to shine. I was impressed with the writing of just about every character.
Schumer plays the lead character who is conveniently named "Amy." She's a staff writer for a New York fashion magazine who's afraid of commitment. She's a gifted writer, but when it comes to her personal life, she can never settle on one guy. Naturally, Amy's party-girl proclivities are thrown for a loop when she is assigned to write a piece on sports physician Dr. Aaron Conners (Bill Hader). She falls for his successful, clean-cut nature; a perfect antithesis to her day-drinking, weed-smoking character.
Most of Schumer's characters are very relatable. I mean, Schumer and Hader are the main love interests. Who does that? Neither of them look like your typical Hollywood romantic leads, thus giving hope to the rest of us who don't look like a Hemsworth or Jennifer Aniston. The rest of the supporting cast runs pretty deep, including Colin Quinn as Amy's MS-stricken father, Brie Larson as her "family girl" younger sister, John Cena as Amy's meathead ex-boyfriend Steven, Tilda Swinton as Amy's boss Dianna, LeBron James as an alternate version of himself, and that's just naming the major players. There are loads more cameos that must be seen to be fully appreciated.
Surprisingly, LeBron gets a lot of the laughs among the supporting players. He shows stellar comedic timing and a solid penchant for acting in general. Maybe Space Jam 2 isn't such an awful idea after all.
Director Judd Apatow should be commended as well for probably being America's only true comedy auteur. He consistently makes smart films for adults with characters so realistic and relatable that we're forced to laugh as hard at ourselves as we are at the films themselves. We need more movies like that. We need more writers like Schumer who have the balls to put out progressive stories and characters who take responsibility for their actions out there for audiences to enjoy. Apatow's productions do tend to run a bit long, but in the case of Trainwreck, this is a passion project done right.
PROS:
-Schumer's writing
-Against-type casting of romantic leads
-LeBron
-Some awesome cameos
-Goes against rom-com formula...
CONS:
-...but also indulges it more often than some might like
-Runs long
-A handful of jokes don't land
No comments:
Post a Comment