Trainwreck

*

Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray

Trainwreck
"The humour is ugly, if indeed there is any, which is debatable"

American comedy, under the supervision of director/producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin), is taking bad taste to a higher level - or should that be a lower level? To hell with barriers, let's cut the traces and play dirty. Who cares if Granny has a heart attack? This is not for her.

Trainwreck is Amy Schumer's hate child. She wrote and stars in it. No hiding place, girl.

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First off the humour is ugly, if indeed there is any, which is debatable. Amy (Schumer) has few sustainable qualities.

She works for a tabloid magazine that makes National Enquirer read like Vanity Fair. Her editor (Tilda Swinton disguised as Toni Collette's English cousin) admires her writing, or so she says, although it's hard to believe since her cynicism has poisoned critical objectivity and just about everything else.

This is not a satire on the state of popular journalism but an attack on sexual hang-ups and the failure of men to alleviate them.

Amy is what used to be called a nymphomaniac. In these enlightened times, in which the feminist agenda has taken root, you might call her needy. She doesn't wait to be wooed. She goes straight for the zip.

Soppy handheld rose tintelage, perpetuated in teen fiction, has no place here. Amy's in control. She's a one-night-stand-up. No sleepovers allowed.

"Don't breathe on me," she spits, when a casual lover closes in for a cuddle.

And then she meets an emotional virgin and suddenly the aggression wavers and you sense a change of pace. Is sentimentality a whisper away? Surely not!

Ever since her dad abandoned the family and ran off with another woman Amy has been taking revenge on the male species. Her sister, meanwhile, has married a boring guy, had kids and lives in the 'burbs.

Schumer turns herself into a five star bitch. Is this an achievement worthy of an Apatow movie? Amy is so unlikable and so unattractive why waste your well earneds watching her humiliate men only to discover that love is a two way, not my way.

Reviewed on: 14 Aug 2015
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Trainwreck packshot
A woman with a fear of commitment finds herself falling for a man who wants to settle down in a monogamous relationship.
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Read more Trainwreck reviews:

Richard Mowe ***

Director: Judd Apatow

Writer: Amy Schumer

Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James

Year: 2015

Runtime: 125 minutes

BBFC: 15 - Age Restricted

Country: US


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