Big Screen: Schumer pulls no punches in romcom

14 August 2015 - 02:04 By Tim Robey, © The Daily Telegraph

Trainwreck is an attempt to make Amy Schumer - defiant voice of sweetly brash feminist stand-up - into an above-the-title movie star. It's notable that the main characters in Apatow productions are either having way too little or way too much sex. Schumer's character, Amy, falls into the latter category. The film begins with a militantly unsexy one-night-stand montage, which ends with Amy hung over in some dude's bed on Staten Island. We're in a romantic comedy, so this oblivion can't last.The second we clap eyes on sports surgeon Aaron (Bill Hader), whom Amy has been assigned to interview for a Maxim-style men's-interest magazine called S'nuff, we know he's her salvation. He even makes the disconcertingly chivalrous move of phoning her the morning after they've slept together, which one of her colleagues thinks is practically grounds for calling the police.Aaron has only ever slept with three women (the same number of women Amy has slept with).Hader is so sincerely forgiving of all Amy's faults, he's a virtual chaperone in getting the movie where it wants to go. And Schumer aces the job of creating a rounded person with emotional problems that make sense, like her habit of lashing out scaldingly at the people she loves most, whenever they dare to express concern or criticism.Schumer proves she can act playing a penitent grown-up, but she doesn't look like she'll be tamed for long. What others say'Trainwreck' is not very good, but Schumer is frequently amazing in it. Andrew O'Hehir. Salon.comA surprisingly touching and raucously funny R-rated comedy. Rebecca Keegan LA TimesThere's nothing remotely fresh about its plot, but it works. Moira Macdonald Seattle TimesAlso openingFANTASTIC FOURAn unfortunate movie that does an embarrassing disservice to the decades-old property and is a frightful waste of all the talent involved. USA TodayWHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARDBeyond the prurient, there's not much of interest in this dour portrait of middle-class family values. Time MagazineTHE VATICAN TAPESIt's been a few weeks since the last found-footage demonic-possession chiller, so it must be time for another. Entertainment WeeklyLOVE AND MERCYIt's a loving tribute to the Beach Boys and the man responsible for their distinctive sound, but it goes to deeper and stranger places than most movies of its kind. The New York Times..

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