Trainwreck - Review

One of this year’s quickly rising stars has been Amy Schumer, the riotously funny comedienne and actress, currently starring in her sketch comedy show Inside Amy Schumer. Trainwreck provides Schumer with her first starring role in a film and proves her to be one of the funniest and talented actresses working in comedy. Not only does she star, but she pens the film’s screenplay which, combined with Judd Apatow’s direction, packs surprising emotional punch whilst still being extremely funny and full of heart.

Schumer’s self-titled protagonist, Amy Townsend, is a writer working for a men’s magazine (under the glorious title of “S’nuff” with headlines such as “You’re not gay – she’s just boring”) that lives like her father did, having one-night-stands, only casual relationships and drinking to her heart’s content. Whilst dealing with the difficulty of having her father (Colin Quinn) move into an assisted living home, Amy is approached to interview sports doctor, Aaron Conners (Bill Hader) where romance beyond Amy’s typical one-off encounters blooms.

The relationship between Amy and Aaron is at the centre of this film and while it plays out in fairly standard fashion for a rom-com structurally, Apatow and Schumer subvert this by making the emotional beats honest and the characters relatable. The coming together of relationships and later, conflicts in rom-coms often feel so contrived and tepid, but Trainwreck make these characters and their relationship believable while creating genuine flaws that they must grow from to reach their ‘happy ending’. It’s refreshing to see a mainstream comedy feel this truthful. And it doesn’t hurt that Schumer and Hader have tons of charisma, likability and chemistry together.

As is usual with Apatow’s films, this film is packed with hysterical supporting performances and characters, highlights of whom include Tilda Swinton as the salty and blunt magazine editor and boss of Amy, John Cena as Amy’s stacked but sensitive ex-boyfriend and LeBron James giving a masterful turn as the protective best friend of Aaron. Of course the real standout performance belongs to Amy Schumer who is positively hilarious and has amazingly sharp comedic timing. However, what I wasn’t expecting was how good a dramatic actress she is as she brings such depth to her character and delivers one of the most heart breaking speeches I’ve seen in a romance film.

So even with an overly-familiar plot and a few jokes that maybe don’t land, Trainwreck is still one of the strongest romantic comedies to hit cinemas in ages, packing in so many hysterical moments, performances and one-liners whilst still being honest and sweet. It’s Judd Apatow’s best film since The 40 Year Old Virgin and should deservedly shoot Amy Schumer into stardom. 

★★★★

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