Review of Trainwreck (2015) by Ryan L — 17 Dec 2015

Where do I begin with this film. Of course, as you can see from the rating, I genuinely did enjoy this film, perhaps less than I probably would've expected, but by and large, I'd say that this is a more than solid comedy.

Amy Schumer has also made the transition from stand-up comic to movies fairly seamlessly. I do like that her persona, in this film at least, is not necessarily realistic, but she is most definitely a flawed human being and I don't think the movie chooses to glamorize Amy's flaws or pretend that she's perfect.

I don't think it's necessarily risky to do this, but her character, I know, will be considered unlikable by a good chunk of people. But again, I think the character is smartly written because it covers the ups and downs that all of us go through.

We're not all always perfect, approachable or even that nice to other people, but that's just how life is. People are complex human beings and expecting someone to be perfect all the time is simply unrealistic and I think that that's something that Amy Schumer brings to the screen surprisingly well, from both a screenwriting and acting standpoint.

But the problems are obvious once you're done with the film. First, at close to two hours, it is simply too long of a movie for the type of raunchy comedy that this is trying to be. Don't get me wrong, there can be films like this, also at two hours long, that fly by, like Spy, but it's in the minority.

The problem lies in the fact that the pacing leaves a lot to be desired. But, truthfully, the pacing is a symptom of a much bigger problem and that is the fact that, comedically speaking, the film is incredibly inconsistent.

Like there are moments where the film, I won't say is laugh out loud, but there are some really funny bits in the film. Like I thought Amy's scenes with her meathead boyfriend, played by WWE wrestler John Cena, were actually really funny.

And they were funny because of John Cena, because Amy pretty much played the straightwoman role in these scenes. Amy herself has some real funny moments as well, she'd almost have to have them since she is the leading woman.

Bill Hader is always a joy. And LeBron James is, surprisingly, really good in this movie. And I'm being completely serious about that. It's obvious that LeBron isn't experienced or anything, like this may even be his first acting role, but he did great for a novice.

And, obviously, the editing of the film was bound to have made LeBron looked good, but the guy also has to perform in order for them to be able to get the best shots and the guy did great. The scene with LeBron and Bill in the cafe discussing Aaron's relationship with Amy and how LeBron kept turning the conversation about Cleveland's greatness was really funny.

There's also this really great scene where Marv Albert does play-by-play for Aaron's intervention. That's probably the funniest scene here. But, sadly, there's also long bits of the film that just aren't that funny.

A lot of the stuff at Amy's job really didn't click for me. Tilda Swinton is an excellent actress, but her character just wasn't that funny to me. Not that she was designed to be hilarious, but she's given a lot zingers and none of them really click.

A lot of the scenes at the magazine just don't work and I feel like there was a lot of focus on them, not like it took up more than half of the movie, because of the fact that they had Tilda Swinton in the film and if I had Tilda Swinton in my movie then I'd want her on screen as much as possible.

There are also times when there are jokes that don't seem to have much reason to exist other than there should be a joke at the end before cutting to the next scene. I don't wanna say they're completely pointless, but they also don't do a good job at justifying themselves.

So I just don't know what you call that. I thought Amy Schumer and Bill Hader had good chemistry, but I just didn't find their characters to be all that interesting honestly. Amy, pardon the pun, is literally a trainwreck.

She's a drunk, she smokes weed and she's an openly sexual woman. Aaron is the complete opposite. So you'd think they'd play more with that, but they don't. I mean, they do, but not in a completely satisfying way.

The film aims to be subversive rom-com with role reversals a-plenty and I'm more than fine with that. I think we need more movies like this and Spy that play with the basic idea of what roles men and women play in these types of films, but all it boils down to in this film is 'I'm a woman and this is what I do' and that's all there is to it.

There's nothing wrong with that, but that's just a hollow attempt at trying to subvert the usual cliches you see in these kinds of films. What was done was the easiest to accomplish. I don't think they play with the role reversals as much as they could.

And not that they needed to beat you over the head with it, it could've been done very subtle. There's a lot of male nudity, whereas it's usually the women getting naked. That's pretty much all there is in terms of turning the cliches upside down.

It's, literally, like the easiest thing you could've done. It's not clever. So that was really disappointing as, again, I thought so much more could've been done. Honestly, outside of LeBron, and Cena at the beginning, the supporting cast leaves a lot to be desired.

I take that back, I thought Amy's relationship with her sister, in film of course, was strong. But, other than that, the supporting cast of characters isn't great. None are what you would call particularly memorable.

There's one memorable scene with Ezra Miller's character, but that's about it. None of them really stand out or are really anything special. And that's a problem, because when you have a film that's as long as this, you need those characters to give your leads some time to rest.

The film doesn't really have any of that. As far as I can tell, LeBron and Amy only interacted during the one scene. Like had an actual conversation. That was weak, would've been interesting to see some more scenes between the two.

Though, to be fair, if they were filming during NBA season, then they probably had very limited access to LeBron. Amy Schumer isn't afraid to make herself look bad in the film and that's definitely a positive to the film.

But there's not much to the character besides her not buying into the monogamist lifestyle and being a trainwreck. They try some stuff with her father, but it doesn't really work that well, at least to me.

Look, I'm glad the film was successful, as I truly believe we need more movies like this, or more movies that attempt to subvert the typical cliches, but the fact of the matter is that this if Amy Schumer's first, official, attempt at writing a full-length film.

I'm sure she had some help from Judd Apatow, but this was still her baby. Her first script and it definitely shows in the final product. The film is good and it has some real funny moments, but it's unfocused, inconsistent and longer than it needs to be.

Trainwreck, much like Amy's eponymous character, is a truly flawed film. It's a good starting point, but Amy Schumer can only get better from here. I can only really recommend this as a solid rental.

Enjoyable, but should've been much better.