Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb / Wiki

[DavidSeven]

Interesting that they're selling it as "From the guy who brought you BRIDESMAIDS" since Apatow didn't write or direct that movie and has plenty of successes of his own.

[Henry Gale]

It's quite good! Though this is the sort of movie that I definitely think only works as well as it does because exactly the right people got involved with the material and realized it as they did on screen, not because the core of the material itself is anything revelatory.

My main issues with it might mostly stem from Schumer as a screenwriter (with the undoubted help on set of Apatow and the actors' improv), but not that she isn't great with dialogue, comedic hooks and scenarios, as well as significant character developing along the way, but as designer of overall structure and writing scenes that lend to a building narrative, her instincts are a tad weak and formulaic. It follows a fairly basic romantic comedy template and trajectory, despite its elements being more enticingly biting than most others, and that's not unheard of for Apatow, it's just that he usually uses it as the model when making comedies with two platonic male leads sorting out their feelings for each other as their relationship is taken to new levels. Schumer makes her character very nuanced, equally characteristically ugly and charming in any given moment in realistic ways, and pushing the representation of a female comedic lead into exciting territory similar to the ideas she cycles through on her series, but as a storyteller, she's very content with sticking tightly to genre norms, even if the elements that fill in this Rom-Com Mad Libs' blanks are often off-colour, unique, and most of all, genuinely hilarious.

BUT despite those framework issues I had, I really think as an overall on-screen presence who also happened to give herself real juicy material with a surprising and welcome amount of emotional (and physical) range, it's a joyous thing to see from her. There are scenes I was kinda stunned she had in her. Hader is fantastic, because at this point he basically always is. And just like he did with Skeleton Twins, he digs into an incredible dramatic footing that can take his character to such completely believably human places alongside Schumer. The fact that the both of them are primarily known as sketch performers, and that they can get to show this much range while still being extremely funny is an awesome thing to see in such a potentially big studio summer comedy.

As for Apatow, putting any real critical analysis aside, and simply coming from a place of what I happen to love and have re-watched over and over for the past decade, I consider his first three films to be among the very best and easiest movies to enjoy any time, anywhere. Basically perfect comedies in my mind (if sometimes flabby, even before extended unrated versions) that I find such genuine comfort and endless entertainment in, right alongside many of his co-productions of that general time like Pineapple Express, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Walk Hard. But I really feel like he stumbled with This Is 40, allowing his tendencies to paste together scenes from endless, improv-laden spit-balling after covering what's on the written pages managed to preempt that messy process in the script itself. It goes from something that at first is something of a refreshingly formula-free, almost modern and mainstream version of a Cassavetes or Bergman riff of domestic relationship ideas through his own eyes and style, that eventually deteriorates into something formless, if still deceivingly funny enough along the way to prevent you from realizing it's pretty pointless storytelling. It also made me kinda hate Rudd and Mann's characters, something I never want to take back with me when I see Knocked Up further times.

Here though, he's put Schumer's sensibilities and worldview in charge, simply executing her vision and performance, supporting it the best ways he can on screen. It still feels like an Apatow movie, even if it's doesn't come anywhere close to the heights of those first few films in my mind, but it's a partnership that works because of both of their strengths and what they know best both creatively and personally that the other doesn't.

I have some issues with how it frames the stakes of its story (in terms of how exactly it chooses to frame traditional relationship goals in equal balance to getting her life together, without the same necessary impetus or specific-gender baggage of Rogen's circumstances and arc in Knocked Up or Sandler being told he's dying in Funny People), as well as where a how a lot of its third act drama is created -- but these are the sorts of discussions to have when it's actually out in a month, and when everyone sees it, as you should. And the ending comedic setpiece is beautiful enough to have washed away a lot of those sort of misgivings as I walked out of the theatre.

*** / 7.4

It also does contain a brief, bizarro We Need To Talk About Kevin reunion in a scene where Ezra Miller's giddy, nervous intern character gets coffee for ice-queen magazine boss Tilda Swinton, and LeBron James and Amar'e Stoudemire have as much screentime and comedic weight thrown at them as anyone else here. They're decent enough for you to forget they've basically never acted before. (The multi-talented bastards.) I mean, they're no Blake Griffin in any number of random comedic skits he does, but they are good.

[Ezee E]

Weak third act for Apatow? Go figure!

[dreamdead]

This is good stuff, with a quality comedic first act and coda hampered by a drop-off in the middle. It's the sort of film that relies upon various rom-com tropes (voiceover, wacky family, wackier work friends) and alternately uses those tropes and abandons them for whole sections at a time. Schumer's comedic lens works best when studying Amy's character, and her persona is remarkably fluid and suited to her skills, so that the dramatic angles are handled with sensitivity.

Where the film suffers is in integrating Amy's character into a recognizable world and environment. If she only worked at the magazine and had no higher aspirations, her lack of knowledge would make sense. But she seems to be positioned as a better writer than that, and thus early scenes where she's clueless about Doctors without Borders ring false. The joke works in the moment, but it isn't connected to the larger world it's set up for the character. Similarly, Hader's "check please" scene is hammy fun, but it doesn't fit his character. And the magazine is too out there to be logical, and thus a sad misuse of Park, Bayer, and the Glaser. And the film suffers when during the inevitable break-up until the coda, when the jokes dwindle.

But that coda. So much fun. So delirious. And while it's anchored by the sort of genre call-back re: how a certain class of people bring people together, it's just great fun to watch. And Schumer is magnetic even when characters don't quite work.

[Mal]

It's way too long, too many cameos/famous friends, not enough scenes that are actually funny and endearing. Every conversation in this movie feels so awkward and choppy, its like Apatow shot each scene for a few days and pieced it together half-assed and without consideration for the characters and their progression (the exception being John Cena's scenes because he was actually funny and awkward on purpose). Hader and Schumer are a cute couple and Colin Quinn''s small role is alright but there's no reason to see this movie if you find any of these people funny, because this movie doesn't really care about their utilizing their strengths as comedic performers.

[Mal]

Interesting that they're selling it as "From the guy who brought you BRIDESMAIDS" since Apatow didn't write or direct that movie and has plenty of successes of his own.

Bridesmaids is better than anything he's made?

[Dead & Messed Up]

Bridesmaids is better than anything he's made?

Think it's more that saying From the Director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up just reminds you that he made Funny People and This Is 40.

[transmogrifier]

Bridesmaids is better than anything he's made?

This is true....except for Freaks and Geeks, though that doesn't count.

[Henry Gale]

Because I don't really care to do another Marvel one...

APU (Apatow Productions Universe) ranking:

1. Knocked Up
2. Pineapple Express
3. Funny People
4. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
5. Superbad
6. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
7. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
9. The Five-Year Engagement (easily the most underrated for my money, after Dewey Cox)
10. Step Brothers
11. Bridesmaids
12. Trainwreck
13. Get Him To The Greek
14. Wanderlust
15. Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
16. This Is 40
17. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
18. Drillbit Taylor

And of course Freaks and Geeks hovers above them all, with Girls' first two seasons (I've yet to catch up further) not far below it or the top tier of those. Undeclared is always a lot of fun, but more mid-range / this movie's level, as it's about as standardly sitcom-y as this movie is basic romantic comedy-y.

[[ETM]]

One reads the weirdest things these days:

Trainwreck is most successful in its depictions of the dynamics between the leads and their best friends. In traditional rom-coms, the male lead’s best friend is often a crass guy who questions his friend’s commitment. In Trainwreck, Amy’s friend Nikki (SNL-er Vanessa Bayer) gets to make those jabs. One better is Aaron’s confidant, LeBron James, who, playing “himself,” is completely charming and delightful. Here he is the love-obsessed friend and the one looking out for his friend’s best interests. At one point, when seeking Amy’s intentions with Aaron, he asks her, completely straight-faced, “When you listen to the wind, do you hear his name?” More LeBron James in films, please.

[Sycophant]

Man. I gotta catch this when I get back to the States. Sounds awesome.

[DavidSeven]

Bridesmaids is better than anything he's made?

I actually don't disagree with this. I'm not huge on Apatow. The exception is obviously Freaks and Geeks, but Paul Feig had a big hand in that as well.

[Peng]

Isn't it just they use Bridemaids because they want to assosicate with another Apatow-involved project that has female lead(s)?

[Henry Gale]

Isn't it just they use Bridemaids because they want to assosicate with another Apatow-involved project that has female lead(s)?

Yeah, this is where I land. It's a massive, female-driven hit that was also nominated for multiple Academy Awards. A lot of other posters, bus ads, TV spots cite Knocked Up as well, but if they can only fit one, it's going to be Feig's film.

It's funny how all three deal with the protagonist's struggle with facing the idea of shaping their life around commitment, with Trainwreck being the most base-level of such a thing. [

Show Spoiler

Which might be why it's grand sweeping montage trying to visualize that as a huge, skin-shedding gesture of throwing out her booze and bongs is one of my least favourite things in it. Like, you can still do these things if you want to be with Aaron, you know? You guys drink together a bunch.

]

[number8]

Pretty meh outside of Lebron and Cena.

Just based on my familiarity with the creative team's previous works, this really feels like 85% Apatow and 15% Schumer. There's a few of Schumer's desert-dry ironic humor (like the throwaway gag of her mentioning that one of the top things a reporter must never do is sleep with their subjects), but the Apatow rom-com aspect bulldozes over all of it.

I did like how [

Show Spoiler

the signature "grow up by giving up drinking and drugs and embracing monogamy" Apatow message is slightly subverted by Schumer's darker sensibility when it shows her giving all her drugs to Dave Attell's homeless man.

]

[TGM]

John Cena steals this thing. Wouldn't at all be opposed to seeing him pull a Rocky and take a break from wrestling to focus more on movies.

[DavidSeven]

"It could have been edited better." -- overheard from an elderly couple sitting directly behind me after Trainwreck and also general feeling of anyone's who's seen any Judd Apatow film post-40 Year Old Virgin.

I actually think the dramatic weight that Apatow lends the material actually makes it better, but he does need to be less apologetic in the editing room. Many scenes in the film featuring wedged-in famous-friend cameos just needed to go. Daniel Radcliffe walking dogs was off-tone and unfunny. Marv Albert doing play-by-play on an intervention was off-tone and embarrassing. Both scenes completely unnecessary to the story. Overall, it's truly formulaic, but amusing enough. If you've seen (and enjoyed or hated) Apatow's other semi-serious comedies (Funny People, Knocked Up, This is 40), then I'd be surprised if your response to this ended up much different.

[transmogrifier]

59/100


A mix of cliched (most of the side characters, including the "subversive" take on Famous Guy Playing Himself), lazy (the expected end-of-the-second-act split occurs because she took a fucking phone call? She turns herself around only after literally hitting rock bottom, instead of allowing her a little bit of agency?) and mildly affecting (the funeral eulogy, basically) in terms of the main plot, interspersed with moments of inspired ad-lib, raunchy lunacy, or (a weakness of mine), choreographed dancing to deliver a message.

[transmogrifier]

John Cena steals this thing. Wouldn't at all be opposed to seeing him pull a Rocky and take a break from wrestling to focus more on movies.

He's fun, but it's a symptom of how shoddily this thing is put together that he could have been chopped out of the film completely and it wouldn't have made any difference to anything else in the movie. Would it have killed them to have given his scenes with Schumer some point or influence in the actual narrative?

[Mr. McGibblets]

The cast is charming enough, but it really feels like no one involved cared about making a complete finished product; it's a vehicle for bits and riffing and they include the unfunny ones as much as the funny ones.

I think the whole thing would have been much a much better story if Amy's job wasn't terrible. She's positive towards it in the opening voiceover, but every scene with her working is hell, Tilda Swinton is unbearably unfunny playing an oversized cartoon, and it turns Amy's whole life into something that has to be fixed. The texts and phone call that cause their big fight comes out of nowhere and means nothing and anything else would have given that scene more weight.

Some of the visual direction is also atrocious. The first comedy bit with two women sitting on toilets features almost painfully boring camera movement. We just keep moving back and forth between two stalls. Is it funny in contrast to a normal shot/reverse-shot? We already get that they're talking in the bathroom.

The scene where she's on the motion-capture treadmill just keeps cutting between the screen and her. It cuts from something on the screen to her doing the exact same thing and then back. It's like someone trying to create visual humor who has no eye for it.

[Ezee E]

Generic comedy in a blender with Amy Schumer's standup.

Throw in a pretty funny LeBron James and John Cena, and it's enjoyable enough. I really like that they had James as a cheapskate.

I enjoy Schumer's standup a lot, but I think it's far better executed in her TV series.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yeah, kind of with everyone else in that this was a race between Schumer and Apatow's sensibilities, and Apatow won. That said, I was laughing frequently, often at Lebron - I like the conceit that his character has no inner life beyond his interest in helping Hader. In general, though, Apatow... I wish the guy could try more often for comedic scenes. The final one here shows that he can actually escalate to a huge punchline if he tries, but he leans so hard on that improv-heavy conversational quippiness. Sometimes it builds in a fun way, like when Cena's anger in the theater slowly reveals more and more of his repressed feelings about men. I'm probably thinking too hard. Had fun. Good chuckles. Crush on Vanessa Bayer remains steadfast.

[Dukefrukem]

Best comedy of the year for me. Cast was phenomenal. Amy Schumer killed it.

[Henry Gale]

Wow, I got the Blu-ray for cheap and I did re-watch it (with the expectedly scruffier Unrated version, which I think just added more lines of dialogue than a single actual scene, and overally I was surprised how much the eulogy scene and the Uptown Girl moment in the finale actually hit me emotionally this time), but holy shit, in an era when special feature content is dwindling more and more, Apatow manages to put together amazing Blu-rays packages for big studio releases like no one else.

Popstar was an already great comedy where the disc had hours more of competitively funny stuff, but with Trainwreck's content, you see new super-interesting avenues of depths, tones, and wider canvas of characters that the final movie only hints at or simply doesn't have at all. I'm only maybe halfway through it all (since there are literally hours) but it's way more impressive than stuff that was cut should be.

One motif that was cut entirely is that there are a lot of these surreal bits going into characters' heads where they seeing more extreme versions of scenarios they're currently in (a familiar trope, but effective when done well). One particularly involving Birbiglia, Tim Meadows, Kyle Dunnigan in the scene where they're asking Bill Hader's character which athletes he knows and works with. In the final cut it's a pretty normal conversation with them becoming more and more impressed with the names Hader is dropping, super excited to the point of high five-ing, up until they hear A-Rod's name and all snap back in disdain. The deleted version spirals off into a loopy, erotic dream sequence of the guys suddenly spraying each other with hoses in slow motion, seductively barbecuing, jumping into kiddie pools together, just trapped in this weird suburban dad version of a backyard sexual escape (with each other, over athletes' names), ending at the point when they're suddenly rubbing their hot dogs on each other's mouths -- all before cutting back to them calm and collectively snapping back to reality and hearing more of Hader's name drops. It's super funny and equally as stupid, but it goes to show the sort of movie and the type of comedy it almost was, instead of the more formally reserved one it ended up being. (Despite the different sort of cartoonishness of things like the workplace elements.) There are a lot of these dreamy bits for Amy's character too, and humanize and flesh out her fears with those surreal moments, and also more of her narration and an ending that bookends things in a nicely subversive way (though, again, I do kinda love how it chose to finish in the end).

And also, after watching a combination of the behind-the-scenes, line-o-ramas, and other deleted stuff, I genuinely think John Cena is even an funnier improviser and overall performer than the final film lets on. An excised scene with him and his new girlfriend (played by Ali Wong) bumping into Amy during a run in the park towards what I guess what would've been towards the end of the movie that was both apparently the first scene he shot and contains some of the most hysterical and assured moments with his character and performance. Also in the BTS you see just how nervous he was about the prospect of being in it at everything from the table read to after shooting days (worried he'd get the boot) but then the cast and crew stunned at the quality of the riffs he was coming up with. Glad he's been given subsequent roles and the SNL hosting gig since.

Sure, maybe the film maybe didn't need these things, but imagine if it had designed itself to contain them effectively? There is one deleted sequence, seen prominently in the trailers, where Schumer and Hader go between a series of bars (because each one has a new downside), get very drunk and end up stealing a horse drawn carriage. In the middle of those heightened comedic ideas is a beautiful tender stretch where they find themselves at a punk show and then things zero in, the noise falls away, the neon lights spin and they kiss while things all feel very blissful and ethereal in that relative silence that feels similar to the moment in Green Room when they're performing and everything slows down. Following that is a lovely, funny scene of them drunkenly walking together, simply talking with each other and joking about what things they like most about each other. That's the sort of sequence, especially re-watching it, that the film needed. Show them. Let everything else fall away and let us just get to know why so much is on the line for each of them and each other together.

EDIT: Ok, another great, minor exchange that was deleted made me laugh way more than it probably should have:

Schumer: I slept over at the doctor's place last night.
Bayer: The hospital?!