Amy Schumer is great in bed.
Before somebody alerts TMZ or Perez Hilton, let’s clarify we’re talking about Amy Schumer in “Trainwreck,” and when I say she’s great, I mean she’s flat-out hilarious, whether she’s waking up in a stranger’s bed and saying to herself, “Please don’t be a dorm room, please don’t be a dorm room”; coaching her hopeless hunk of a boyfriend through some dirty talk; fumbling through a drunken escapade with an inappropriate partner; or setting the rules for a post-sex sleepover, when all she really wants to do is go home so she can, you know, sleep.
Written by Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow, “Trainwreck” is my favorite romantic comedy of the year, and despite (or maybe because of) all its sharp edges and cynical set pieces, it’s a movie you want to wrap your arms around, or at least give a high five.
We know Schumer is one of the smartest and funniest people on the planet based on her stand-up work, her appearances on Howard Stern’s show (where Apatow heard Schumer and was inspired to make a movie with her) and the brilliant Comedy Central series “Inside Amy Schumer.” So it’s no surprise Schumer consistently brings the laughs in her debut as a feature film lead.
What did take me aback was the range and depth of Schumer’s performance. From some scathingly raw confrontations with the people who love her the most (Amy’s got some issues) to the most moving eulogy in a romantic film since “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” Schumer delivers one of the best performances I’ve seen in any genre of film this year.
Schumer plays Amy, a New Yorker who writes for a tragically superficial men’s magazine called S’nuff (best worst magazine name ever), which, according to the pitch meetings, sounds like Maxim if Maxim lost its mind. Amy’s dating a perfectly muscled, sweet but dopey workout maniac named Steven (John Cena), who clearly wants to be on the other team but hasn’t realized it yet, but she’s also aggressively playing the field. Swilling goblets of wine, smoking pot, cracking wise about everyone and everything in her path and then hooking up with a guy – for Amy, that’s called Tuesday.
In keeping with most Apatow films, “Trainwreck” is overstuffed with supporting characters and meandering day trips into subplots that sometimes have very little to do with the main story. Most of these subplots work. A very few scenes are deadwood.
Bill Hader, another comedic performer with impressive dramatic chops, is pure charm and likability as Aaron, a sports surgeon and almost unbearably sweet guy. When Amy’s Anna Wintour-esque editor Dianna (Tilda Swinton) assigns non-sports fan Amy to do a profile on Aaron, boom, we have our setup and potential first grown-up, actual romance for Amy.
This also opens the door to a number of sports-related themes, most notably LeBron James playing a version of himself we hope is close to the real LeBron.
Amy has no idea who LeBron is, but LeBron doesn’t care about that. All he cares about is his best buddy, Aaron, and making sure Amy doesn’t break his boy’s heart.
Schumer’s performance is a tour de force of razor-sharp comedic timing. A Walk of Shame that extends to a Boat Ride of Shame on the Staten Island Ferry is priceless. Even when the comedy in “Trainwreck” goes from sublime to broad, we believe Amy and Aaron and the people in their lives could be sitting at the next table in a restaurant. Rated R.
