Trainwreck

"Trainwreck is the aptly titled Schumer rom-com that goes everywhere rom-coms often go, which is nowhere fast, lasts too long, but makes you laugh, only because you might as well."

Trainwreck – the dirty pitch: Amy Schumer makes Bill Hader & Judd Apatow know just how stupid relationships are, by not wanting one, being in one, loving it, and still telling people it’s stupid… add a dash of jokes & Lebron James.

I like Amy Schumer, I think she’s funny, her spoof of 12 Angry Men was nothing shy of brilliant, and yet this film is nothing close to that. Trainwreck is the aptly titled Schumer rom-com that goes everywhere rom-coms often go, which is nowhere fast, lasts too long, but makes you laugh, only because you might as well.

Great comedians are able to master the art of anticipation in their comedy, even when the setup of a joke runs too long. Schumer’s not there yet. This film is too long, and doesn’t deliver.

The trouble with Trainwreck is that you will laugh, and you will enjoy the setups of Amy Schumer being Amy Schumer, but the anticipation and delivery are not there with this film. That’s because of 3 big problems:

  1. Bill Hader is supposed to be a leading man, funny, BFFs with LeBron James, and a doctor… who falls for Amy Nobody, crude flaws et al.
  2. Colin Quinn is supposed to be her lovable father, despite a chronic history of being an asshole to everyone and their mother… including Amy’s, yet still embody the moral compass of Schumer’s kindred.
  3. Amy Schumer is trying to be a girl-next-door type, isn’t, tries to convince you that she can be one, but at every opportunity bashes the girl-next-door type and illustrates it’s farcicality… because it is, which is why Schumer’s hypocrisy over parody is truly the fail.

I won’t bother with a plot synopsis because it’s frivolous, and I won’t go into why Judd Apatow directed this movie, because it doesn’t seem to fit. Trainwreck is missing the genuine balance of comedy and drama that Apatow normally brings to his films, so maybe he called a mulligan, or maybe this is a sea-change, but I just didn’t get it him being a director on this one.

That’s ok, because this is a film to showcase Amy Schumer, and why not, she’s a hot topic these days! Understandably so, considering Amy Schumer can be the most hilariously poignant cynic (especially about celebrity women in Hollywood) while she brandishes crude jokes coupled with an often adorably innocent masking. HOWEVER, when you wash the material over a number of takes, it can lose its luster fast. I think that’s why they called it a Trainwreck. Schumer’s element is in the raw, visceral moments of immediate conversations and interactions, which hinge on moments where at any second she can make the conversation both gut-wrenchingly hilarious AND seat-shiftingly uncomfortable. That doesn’t always translate well into feature-length material.

Schumer’s like a modern George Carlin, less political, but no less on-point. Carlin never quite nailed the 35mm world, and so it may seem for Schumer-as-the-lead’s freshman effort, but the film is funny. Schumer is funny, LeBron James has his moments, & there’s a weird cameo dream sequence that makes you scratch your head, but overall you can muster out a smile for much of the film. If I had the option, I’d bring the editor back in for another round of cuts, but then you might miss some of the gags. As for Schumer, she should continue to ride the wave of popular “what-will-she-say-next” projects, but Trainwreck is a fail, while her show is a win. For now, Schumer’s riding the rails and hopefully the next stop isn’t a Trainwreck.

Thanks for reading!

Reviewed by: on August 9, 2015