Trainwreck

"I had like two drinks... Three max... Four, now that I'm tallying."

While the gross-out sex comedy is hardly a fresh genre, the "woman's" gross-out sex comedy is still finding new ground to break all the time.  On TV, Amy Shumer's sketch comedy series (as well as her stand-up routine) has proved to be bold, crude, and even thought-provoking.  Shumer really knows how to infuse her sloppy, slutty, drunk persona with depth and hilarious charm (something other female comedians like Chelsea Handler with similar schticks can't seem to get a grasp on).  I wasn't sure how Shumer's style would translate successfully to the feature length rom-com world, but I never doubted for a second that it would, especially with Judd Apatow in the director's chair.  And, low and behold, Trainwreck is a pretty great movie, filled with huge laughs fueled by raunchy humor, a deliberate mix-up of gender norms, and even though the plot may be predictable at times, there's enough heart to make it all work.

"You're prettyish, but you're not too gorgeous.  You're approachable."

Ever since Amy (Amy Shumer) was a little girl, her father (Colin Quinn) instilled a philosophy on her and her sister Kim (Brie Larson): monogamy isn't realistic.  Years later, Amy lives in New York, constantly sleeping around, getting drunk, high, and (most importantly) never spends the night with any guy or calls them the next day.  She also works for a magazine called S'nuff, writing tacky articles about celebrities and sex.  She reluctantly accepts an assignment to do a story on a sports doctor named Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), in spite of her hatred of all things sporty.  Against her own rules, she spends the night with him and even begins falling in love with him.   Having never been in a relationship, she feels uncomfortable with sincerity and commitment, afraid she'll end up just like her father.  Meanwhile, said father's heath is declining at a nursing home that she and her sister can barely afford.

"We watching Downton Abey later?"

The cast, led stunningly by Shumer, is clearly having a lot of fun and improvising like the pros they are.   Comedic timing is key to making the material work, and there more than a handful of scenes that rely solely on the ability of the cast to deliver the laughs.  There are even scenes where comedy and drama are mixed, an Apatow staple that never fails to hit the mark. Hader and Shumer have some chemistry, but it's not exactly the Fourth of July when they're together.  The supporting characters add a lot of charisma to the plot, with LeBron James playing himself in a surprisingly sensitive and frugal way that leads to some of the movie's funniest scenes. Tilda Swinton is effectively icey-hearted as Amy's boss Diana, and there are a slew of celebrity cameos in the form of SNL alums and sports stars, adding in tons of unexpected fun.

"Before you judge, you should know, I'm doing fine."

Trainwreck may not be reinventing traditional rom-com tropes, but it does knowingly take those tropes and invert the genders of the characters normally associated with them.  Who's the one always afraid of commitment in a romance?  Who always has their head in the gutter, constantly thinking about sex?  Who has to win back the other lover in the end because of a stupid mistake they made? The man, of course.   However, just like in her TV series, Shumer takes the typical media's depiction of men and women and exposes them for their inaccuracies (a sketch about Disney princesses exemplifies that idea perfectly).  In Trainwreck, the men talk about love, connections, relationships, and trust.  The women talk about their careers and getting laid, objectifying men almost entirely.  This is all done very tongue-in-cheeck so that the characters are kept likable and there's no serious reverse misogyny; I see it as more of a commentary on the ways that most men and women are portrayed in the media. Seeing these cliches displayed with a gender swap exposes the contrivance of it all.  It also shows how much gender roles have already changed in the 21st century, with the script obviously exaggerating them.

"Why would he call? You guys just had sex."

Like most Apatow movies, there are a few scenes that play out a bit too long or that take a joke and run too far with it. While John Cena is pretty good as Amy's sort-of boyfriend in the first act, his "joke" is muddled.  The idea is that he's this big, hulking dude who has a sensitive soul, doesn't like to talk dirty during sex, and is far too clingy (in keeping with the film's gender swapping themes), and that's good enough.  But (and I speculate that this is the result of improvising) his character is built also built on another joke, that he might be secretly gay.  These two things contradict each other, making him stick out badly in a sea of really well-developed characters.  And considering how inconsequential he is to the story, why did he need to be in the film so much at all?  Another character that falls a bit flat is Amy's adopted nephew Allister, who might have been conceived as a mockery of Gary Stu-style child characters, but his scenes are tainted with some juvenile mean-spiritedness.  While that's certainly not the only time the film is juvenile (or mean spirited for that matter), it was the only time it didn't come across as funny.

"Don't hurt him."

What you find funny is, or course, subjective.  However, it's hard to resist that charm and humor of Trainwreck, with its smart script, excellent cast, and its use of sexual humor to actively mock rom-com media while still producing a story with plenty of heart.  Amy Shumer and Judd Apatow seem to be made for each other, with their individual styles perfectly complimenting the other.  My cheeks were killing me from laughing by the end of it all, and I felt like I'd been though something with the characters.  Incorporating her life-inspired stand-up material was a smart but risky move by Shumer, one that could have resulted in a clunky narrative or, at worst, cheaply recycled material.  But the sincerity on display guides the movie along effortlessly, getting me excited to see whatever Shumer endeavors to do next.

8/10