Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, John Cena, LeBron James, and Colin Quinn
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Release Date: July 17, 2015
Trainwreck is a breath of fresh air in Hollywood’s many failed attempts at adult relationship comedies. It brings a new dynamic to an otherwise ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ belief by some writers and producers in Tinseltown. The movie stars comedienne Amy Schumer who is an up and coming superstar and who will one day become a household name. The film thus far has made over $110 million domestically which means chances are the world will be seeing Schumer in another similar film in the future. Trainwreck has several surprise cameos throughout it such as Daniel Radcliffe, Marisa Tomei, Marv Albert, Tony Romo and Chris Evert to name a few.
The movie begins with a flashback of Amy’s (Amy Schumer) childhood when her father Gordon (Colin Quinn) tells her and her sister Kim (Brie Larson) that he and their mother are getting a divorce. The film then shifts 23 years into the present where Amy is a writer for a magazine. She is assigned to do a fun story about an otherwise boring sport’s medicine doctor named Aaron (Bill Hader). Amy’s life at this point is simply chaotic. She is an alcoholic, drug abuser, very lascivious, and finds laughter in everything, even things that are not funny. One steady component in Amy’s life is her (in his mind) boyfriend Steven (John Cena). Steven is a muscle head and has a one track mind but really is an overall good guy but due to Amy’s ‘trainwreck’ of a life she is too blind to see it.
After Steven breaks off the relationship with Amy due to her cheating she engulfs her entire life into her job so she begins shadowing Aaron so that she can write the story on him. While covering Aaron, Amy realizes that she likes him and the feelings are mutual. The two embark on a relationship that can be simply described as a roller coaster. Amy’s father Gordon, who at this point is in an elderly facility with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and confined to a wheel chair, her sister Kim is married and pregnant and living in the suburbs with a man Amy secretly dislikes and her editor is someone who is extremely aggressive and speaks her mind which Amy also despises. See, a roller coaster.
As the relationship between Amy and Aaron progresses Amy begins to open up to Aaron and begins to realize certain patterns in her life that can be improved but as the old saying goes, ‘old habits are hard to break’. This is when the true hijinks ensue which leads to some excellent comedic scenes.
Trainwreck is a film about finding your true self and allowing yourself to be loved, flaws and all. The director of the film, Judd Apatow, did an amazing job of mixing humor with real life situations. Trainwreck gets 8 stars out of 10 stars.