Trainwreck

Dir: Judd Apatow

2015

*

It seems that Amy Schumer's main intention with her 2015 comedy Trainwreck was to reinvent a tired genre by reversing the gender of the main characters. Unfortunately, she, Apatow and everyone involved, misses the point. The problem with the crude romantic comedy that deals with infidelity, monogamy and basic maturity isn't with the character's sex, the problem is that they have been done to death and were never very funny in the first place. Dick jokes were never clever or particularly funny to those above the age twelve, so vagina jokes aren't either. The idea that Schumer has somehow reinvented or pushed certain boundaries is ridiculous to me. The film is far too long considering most of the script is ab-libbed, especially as very few of the cast are actually any good at it. It's been done a hundred times before but it's never quite been as poor as this. Many of the jokes are aimed at blacks, gays and the homeless. I'm quite surprised by this, clearly meant to be satirical (but it's not) and I don't think the film or Schumer is racist or homophobic, I just don't think she's got much of an imagination or indeed, a funny bone. Seriously, black jokes in 2015? It's rather telling when the funniest person in your 'comedy' is John Cena. The writing is fairly haphazard too, with the film having very little structure to it. There is a running sub-scene throughout the film of a movie playing in the background which stars Daniel Radcliffe as a dog-walker and Marisa Tomei as a dog-owner. It's a black and white spoof of either a Woody Allen type film or a Noah Baumbach romance, it's not really clear and I'm amazed it made the final cut. In time-honoured tradition in such overlong and boring 'comedies' as this, several celebrity cameos are introduced (I understand the relevance of the sports-stars but I have no idea why Matthew Broderick appeared?). This provides familiarity, it's a cheap trick, because the sort of people who enjoy this kind of film are generally the sort of people who will laugh when someone tells them something is funny, rather than actually finding it funny themselves, or people that still think rude words and genitals are the route of all comedy. Even these people would have tired before the end and so familiar faces are brought in to attract their attention. It's like a catchy song, you may really really hate it but it's still catchy. Before anyone points out that I must be sexist or that I must have a problem with female-lead films or female comedians, I would like to point out that this is far from being the case. The truth is I think there needs to be far more women in film and comedy of all shapes, sizes and ages, but a poorly written and terribly unfunny film isn't really going to help that happen. The finale is a puzzling anti-climax of colour/movement/titillation that was pretty far from being the fairy-tale ending Schumer had hoped for. Somehow all is forgiven when Schumer dresses and dances like a cheerleader, like that's an acceptable form of apology for cheating on someone, with someone underage no less, and generally being a horrible person to everyone. The relationship was never even remotely convincing in the first place. Reverse the gender again and see how acceptable people find it, either way, it’s bad writing and not particularly funny (or shocking). I think women and cinema-lovers deserve better personally.