Movie Review: Trainwreck

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 4/5 stars

Bottom Line: An awkwardly hilarious movie but not in the laugh-out-loud way.

Amy Schumer is at her comedic prime.  She’s just killing everything.  If you have not seen her “12 Angry Men” parody, you need to do so.  If you don’t like it you are no longer my friend.  She continues that streak in “Trainwreck”.  Schumer’s comedy can be best described as awkwardly hilarious.  Amy wrote as well as starred in the movie so it is just chock full of Schumerisms.  What’s a Schumerism?  Take gender norms, turn them on their head, spin them around until they throw up, and then make fun of them.  And you have a Schumerism.  Her humor comes at you sideways and you often don’t even see it coming.  It’s like an aneurysm only of laughter.

“Trainwreck” is a somewhat stereotypical raunchy rom-com only almost every gender role is completely reversed.  And yes, Judd Apatow directed it.  Beacuse of course he did.  Schumer plays Amy, a hard-drinking, raunchy woman who sleeps with just about anyone with a penis.  That is until she meets a guy and falls in love and screws it up and must mend her ways to get him back.  So, yeah, nothing groundbreaking with the plot.  But it’s in the execution where this movie succeeds.  There are some great awkward sex scenes as well as some surprisingly good supporting acting jobs by the likes of John Cena as Amy’s go-to boy toy, Colin Quinn as Amy’s dad, and LeBron James as some Bizzaro World version of himself.  Amy Schumer herself stands out as well.  She has some decent dramatic acting chops to go along with her impeccable comedic timing.  If she ever decides to drop the straight comedy thing she should certainly have a career as a dramatist if she wants it.

My one complaint about the film is that is could have done with some strategic editing.  A few of the scenes went on for a little too long and could have benefitted by some tightening up.  You don’t see many two-hour long comedies and while the movie was still really good, it felt like two hours.

“Trainwreck” was an incredibly fun movie.  It’s one of those movies that you’ll find yourself illegally streaming every few years to relive the laughter.  Sure, it’s a plot that’s been done before, but the comedy has all sorts of uniqueness to it that will have you coming back for more.

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