We’re gonna play show-and-tell with sex and commitment issues for two hours, and we invited LeBron James to come along for the ride. How’s that sound? We’re going to have John Cena, prompted to talk dirty while humping, explore the sexual metaphoric value of nutrition supplements. It will get riotously worse from there.
Trainwreck is an apt description of Amy (Amy Schumer). She’s just together enough to hold a reporting job down, but her oft-infringing private life is an endless series of ill-advised horizontal encounters and blackout drunkenness. The last time Judd Apatow reflected on characters who don’t have their act together, he implied it was a forgivable side-effect of aging in This is 40. Amy has no such excuse, nor looks for one; this is the magic of Amy Schumer – she knows she’s a Trainwreck, but neither apologizes for it, nor takes any steps to improve. I imagine as a girlfriend, she’s awesome for about 96 hours, give-or-take a day … or three.
Assigned by boss Dianna (another good role for Tilda Swinton), Amy gets assigned to a sports injury doctor, Aaron (Bill Hader). Aaron and Amy are destined to be the core 
relationship in Trainwreck. Amy has no love of sports and fails to recognize LeBron James dropping by the doc’s office to discuss “Downton Abbey.” Yes, LeBron James, playing himself, has a quality supporting role in this film. And you know what? He’s not bad. Is it wrong that I know I’d feel worse about this film had the Golden State Warriors not beaten LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in the most recent NBA finals? Just.so.wrong.
The inclusion of sports (from an outsider’s perspective) in Trainwreck is close to genius. Not only does it allow for a throw-away one-on-one game/conversation between Aaron and LeBron, it also allows for Amy to demonstrate her feelings on random sporting topics like cheerleading and memorabilia collection. People my age will die to see an intervention for Aaron featuring LeBron, Chris Evert, Marv Albert and Matthew Broderick. Few films before this one, and exactly zero comedies, have made star athletes more human. Usually these guys just show up to encourage Adam Sandler.
Amy Schumer, who also wrote Trainwreck, is my favorite “well, she was new to me” discovery of 2015. One need not look further than the movie-in-a-movie The Dogwalker starring Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei, to know Amy is hilarious. The irreverent and uninhibited comedienne has a gift for identifying the idiocies of sexual politics, and –more importantly – exploits them without alienating an entire demographic. Do you know how difficult that is to do? Name any quality comedian who talks sex and I’ll show you somebody who has been accused of sexism. Amy is an expert at making the problem her own – effectively saying, “I’m not talking about people who drink too much or sex addicts or women who can’t get their act together, I’m just saying that
I drink too much, I can’t get enough dick and I certainly can’t get my act together – if you see any of that in you, then sure, come along for the ride.”
Yeah, Trainwreck is far from perfect. For one thing, you’ll probably ask yourself more than once, “hey, Aaron is a high-profile wealthy young doctor with A-List friends and a decent personality … um, why is he available?” You also might wonder if the conclusion fits or if Amy is good enough for Aaron. I love Amy Schumer, but, as I say, even in that fantasy alternative universe where she’s my girlfriend – our fun lasts between 24 and 96 hours. You can certainly enjoy her here for 2.
♪She can score with the valet before the entrée
She can empty a flask into her Earl Grey
And wearing same dress again means “Thursday”
She friends like a child
But she’s always a woman to me♫
Rated R, 125 Minutes
D: Judd Apatow
W: Amy Schumer
Genre: Are you ready for the next step … ever?
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Trainwrecks
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Prudes
♪ Parody inspired by “She’s Always A Woman”
