Screenplay Written by Amy Schumer
Directed by Judd Apatow
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
RATED R
For all of the wealth of accolades Writer/Producer/Director Judd Apatow has rightfully received throughout his long and varied career in film and television for the riches he has brought to the world of comedy, I strongly feel that, whether he would admit to it or not, Apatow is truthfully more of a dramatist.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting that Judd Apatow operates within the same existential stratosphere as Ingmar Bergman. But in addition to listing the likes of James L. Brooks, Hal Ashby, Cameron Crowe, Robert Altman, John Cassavetes and even John Hughes as some of his primary filmmaking influences. I just feel that regardless of how riotously funny Judd Apatow's films are, the undercurrent of pain, confusion and palpable angst always seems to provide his films with a most serious core.
Within Apatow's previous four directorial features, which include "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (2005) and "Knocked Up" (2007), as well as the sprawling and considerably darker "Funny People" (2009) and "This Is 40" (2012), Apatow has tackled sexual anxiety, impending parenthood, aging, mortality, isolation, and the ruthless competition that exists in the world of stand-up comedy, all of which are surrounded by Apatow's constant themes of arrested development and the inherent push/pull drama that fuels adult romantic and sexual relationships. This is how and why the actual comedy of those films work so successfully. Not through any prefabricated shenanigans. But with how Apatow has mined that certain sense of truth within the subject matter, always tinging the films with uncomfortable yet relatable realities as we, in some ways or another, have all been there.
With the arrival of his fifth feature, "Trainwreck," Apatow continues on his laugh-out-loud yet emotionally turbulent path but this time, the writing has not emerged from his pen but from collaborator Amy Schumer who also stars. For a film that he has directed which he did not write himself, "Trainwreck" succeeds greatly as the next installment in his on-going cinematic career plus also providing Schumer with a feature that will only elevate her already considerable star power and innovative comedic influence. And again, for all of the considerable and unapologetically R rated humor that is first rate from beginning to end, I think "Trainwreck" will surprise you greatly just by how emotionally resonant, perceptive and profound its sense of pathos actually is.
"Trainwreck" stars Amy Schumer as Amy Townsend, whose pivotal childhood experience was the day her father Gordon (played by the great Colin Quinn) informed her and her sister Kim of his impending divorce from their Mother because of the impossibility of monogamy, a mantra he instructs his children to repeat to themselves...a mantra that Amy will eventually take to heart.
Flash forward 23 years where Amy, now a 30-ish writer for a New York men's lifestyle magazine entitled S'Nuff (which specializes in outrageously vulgar feature articles like "You Call Those 'Tits'?!," and "The S'Nuff Guide To Beating Off At Work") regularly indulges in drink, drugs, partying and promiscuous sex with a seemingly endless stream of male suitors, while she is also sort of dating Steven (John Cena), a bodybuilder who clearly has some internal issues of his own to work through.
Amy's reckless behavior continues much to the chagrin of her sister Kim (played by Brie Larson), now happily married to Tom (Mike Birbiglia) and pregnant, as Kim sees Amy's lifestyle as being too terribly reminiscent of their Father's, a man who now is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis and residing in an assisted living facility. But perhaps, Amy will begin to view her life through a new and more romantic lens as she soon begins to date Dr. Aaron Connors (a terrific Bill Hader), a sports physician she is profiling for an upcoming issue of S'Nuff.
As Amy's shockingly begins to fall for Aaron, who in turn reciprocates her feelings, and combined with her family conflicts, her career path and her variety of never ending indulgences, Amy is forced to confront the full trajectory of her life head on as she discovers precisely just what she needs to achieve her sense of personal happiness and fulfillment.
Judd Apatow's "Trainwreck" is easily the funnest film that I have seen in far too long. It is an exceedingly well acted, written and directed film that fully and wisely understands that no matter how outrageous situations and characters become, if the world within the film is grounded in a tangible reality, the comedy will then be able to soar to its highest points. As with all four of Apatow's directorial features plus some of his films where he served as producer, like Director Nicholas Stoller's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008) and especially Director Paul Feig's "Bridesmaids" (2011) for instance, I again found myself in the company of a collective of characters that I was reluctant to let go of once the end credits began to pop on and off of the silver screen.
As previously stated, for a film that did not emerge directly from Apatow's creative mind and pen, "Trainwreck" feels very much as if it did for how well the film sits alongside his past efforts. That being said, he unquestionably hitched himself to the right talent as he could not have found a more formidable collaborator than Amy Schumer, whose specialized brand of self-deprecating humor and slashing cultural satire made for a combination that was consistently funny from start to finish and is also the most cringe worthy social comedy I've seen since HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Believe me, the character of Amy Townsend could even give Larry David a run for his money!
Aside from the comedy, please allow me to return to my opening statement about how I feel that Apatow is an even more skilled and worthy dramatist that he is given credit for, from himself as well as critics and possibly fans as well. Stemming just from the film's title, Apatow, with Schumer, has created a multi-layered character and film that straddles the worlds of comedy and drama to a most effective bittersweetness and often, a palpable, urgent sadness. As with "Funny People," where Apatow gave us an extremely unlikable leading character with Adam Sandler's embittered, ailing comedian who undergoes a life-altering experience and essentially does not evolve, I certainly applaud both Apatow and Schumer for creating a character who nearly serves the same function.
"You're not nice!" exclaims the muscle bound yet sensitive Steven to Amy Townsend at the end of their final fight, which itself concludes an awful evening at the movies, completely derailed by Amy's riotously inebriated state and the discovery of her arsenal of male suitors via texts on her phone. And with Steven, I would have to agree. The character of Amy Townsend, while hilarious, intelligent and who indeed possesses a certain sexual allure, is definitely someone, for some viewers like myself, would probably avoid. For all of her wild abandon, Amy Townsend is shamelessly narcissistic, selfish, petulant, acerbic, and often insensitive to others to the point of cruelty. Apatow and Schumer wisely understand that it is not their job to get the audience necessarily on Amy Townsned's side and like her, as with most romantic comedy ingenues. It is their job to get the audience to understand her, to see how she has been wound up to navigate the world as she sees it.
As with "Knocked Up" and "This Is 40," Apatow and Schumer utilize the narrative of "Trainwreck" to continue exploring the thematic threads of arrested development and most notably, the consequences of absolutely terrible parenting and how children are sometimes, or at least feel, doomed to just grow up into new versions of their parents, or in Amy's case, her Father. While "Trainwreck" is a romantic comedy, and regardless of her relationship with Aaron and the friction that exists between herself and her married, pregnant sister Kim, I believe that the film is about so much more than a battle between monogamy and promiscuity. Amy Townsend's crisis stems from her internal struggle of wondering if her life is essentially pre-ordained or not and whether it is even worth it to try and go against what she sees is just her nature. Amy is more than aware that she is a prickly, promiscuous drunk (maybe even an alcoholic) but as the events of her life, from her Father, her romance with Aaron and to her career all congeal and conflict, Amy is forced to ask of herself if the life she has lived thus far is the one she actually deserves or can she possibly do better.
Just think of Amy's writing career within the film. Does she honestly think that she will be able to continue to make a mark within this particular cutthroat industry if she is perpetually drunk, stoned and/or hungover daily and entering work each morning after staggering home from some sexual dalliance from the night before? Does she really feel that her professional lot in life is to write terrible articles for a raunchy men's magazine and constantly exist under the thumb of her grotesque Editor (scathingly played by an unrecognizable Tilda Sdwinton)? Then, the prospect of her age also is a factor as Amy is definitely not getting any younger. What was once a fun, free and easy lifestyle will only soon smack of desperation as she would rapidly end up existing as the pathetic party girl who remained long after everyone else returned home (an excursion with an intern played by Ezra Miller is especially cringe worthy). Furthermore, there is the issue of mortality, which also enters the scene as she is indeed confronted with her ailing Father, who even in the throes of a debilitating disease still angers and alienates everyone around him.
All of these elements combine to fuel Amy Townsend's reckless behaviors as she is clearly using alcohol, drugs and empty sex as a means of avoiding the fullness of life itself, the warts of emotional wounds and all. If she's drunk and stoned enough, then she can't feel any sense of existential pain. If she keeps running away from every man she sleeps with, then she will never become emotionally involved with anyone and therefore run the risk of experiencing any realistic emotional wounds. For all of her acerbic humor, Amy Townsend's emotional barriers are 10 ft high and just as thick, with a sizable amount of fear driven self-fulfilling prophecy to boot.
Yes, "Trainwreck" is centered around Amy's budding romance with Aaron but honestly, you already know where that story thread is headed just from the film's one-sheet. Frankly, the core of the film is not her relationship with Aaron, although it serves as the catalyst. The core of the film is Amy's relationship with herself. What matters most is the possibility of Amy realizing that she does not have to become her Father or even her sister, but that she is able to become something, anything different than what she feels she is destined to become. For that matter, she just might realize that she is a person skilled enough and worthy enough to become a writer of some acclaim, perhaps even a screenwriter of a smash hit feature film!
What makes "Trainwreck" transcend the romantic comedy genre and emerge as something truly special is how Apatow, with Schumer, utilizes the romantic comedy genre to essentially make a drama about a woman discovering her own sense of self-worth for quite possibly the first time, a period of growth that undoubtedly contains considerable growing pains. As far as I am concerned, this aspect made for a much more provocative and enlightening feature than any standard romantic comedy could ever hope to be. In fact, I felt that some of the very best sequences within "Trainwreck" are indeed the most painful ones and Apatow with Schumer, who does indeed provide a strong, layered leading performance, are equal to them. A mid film trauma is particularly effective as are the many sequences of conflict between Amy and Aaron, which mine uncomfortable romantic truths to hilarious and squirmish effect (a sequence where an exhausted Aaron is on the receiving end of Amy's vehement tirade yet grows drowsy hit an especially tender nerve for me, I shudder to say).
The entire cast of "Trainwreck" shines brightly, especially Bill Hader, one of my favorite recent "Saturday Night Live" players, who only continues to impress on-screen. Hader made for a wonderfully effective yet awkward and earnestly romantic leading man, quite the contrast from his beautifully rich dramatic turn as the homosexual, suicidal twin sibling in Director Craig Johnson's "The Skeleton Twins" (2014). And let's hear it for LeBron James, in what I believe is his debut screen role, is fully natural and effortless and his rapport with Hader, including a terrific sequence where they play a round of one-on-one is priceless (it actually reminded me of the classic "SNL" sketch featuring Paul Simon playing basketball against the NBA's Connie Hawkins set to Simon's "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard").
The star of "Trainwreck" is unquestionably Amy Schumer who gives a pitch perfect performance that runs the gamut from ribald and raunchy to romantic to regretful and back again. Additionally, she has also written a terrific screenplay and I was greatly impressed by her equal opportunity offensiveness and satirical bite which does gleefully draw blood. Schumer's all encompassing screenplay features her evisceration of the entire landscape of men and women's lifestyle magazines, self-consciously quirky independent art films, as well as subtle digs with aspects of white privilege (a scene where Amy is challenged by Aaron about the amount of Black friends she has is particularly sharp). In addition, and most importantly, what Schumer has achieved is the creation of a full, three dimensional character with a life, history, hopes, career, inner demons and an insatiable sexual appetite who just happens to be female--a cinematic rarity in Hollywood and shamefully so.
Any criticisms I have of "Trainwreck" are minor at best. Judd Apatow has long been taken to task for the elongated running times of his films, a quality that I have enjoyed over and again. Yet, for "Trainwreck," I could think of perhaps two scenes, and one in particular, that could have been either shortened or excised altogether as they really did nothing to enhance the story and characters but seemed to exist to have a few celebrity cameos. And I would also say that for a film that delves into the messiness of life so fearlessly, the film's ending felt to be a tad too storybook for my tastes. Not predictable necessarily. Just storybook.
Aside from those minor quibbles, I have nothing else to say but BRAVO to Judd Apatow for again providing us with a chronicle of modern 21st century adult relationships that works as an outrageous yet honest reflection of how we live and love. And Amy Schumer...phew, what a creative force of nature she is. Together, she and Apatow have created one gem of a film that will split your sides open with laughter while making you pause as you regard the reality of the situations upon display. To that, maybe "Trainwreck" is less of a comedy with a serious undercurrent and more of a drama that just happens to be very funny.
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