Cast: This is absolutely a star vehicle for Amy Schumer. Other prominent roles go to Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Lebron James, Mike Bribiglia, John Cena, Tilda Swinton, Vaness Bayer, Ezra Miller, and many others in about that relative order of importance.
Plot: Amy is a successful writer for a Maxim-like magazine in New York. From a young age, her father instilled in her a desire to love living the single life and it really stuck. She moves through a series of one-night stands until meeting a sports doctor, Aaron (Hader) who she starts to seriously date. At the same time, her father (Quinn) is going to a new nursing home and her sister (Larson) gets pregnant (on purpose with her husband, much to Amy's disapproval). From there, Amy must decide if the relationship route is really where she wants to go.
Thoughts:
I would be remiss to not start by saying this is very funny. Schumer's script is packed with jokes and Apatow lets it breath. If nothing else, if you are looking for laughs, you'll find plenty here. Anyone familiar with Schumer's show or standup will easily recognize her comedic voice in this. Hader plays it mostly straight, as does Larson, who are both sounding boards for Amy most of the time. Colin Quinn seems to be playing older than he really is, at times looking very out of place in the nursing home, but he's brings his Colln Quinn-iness to the part. All the people at Amy's work (Swinton, Bayer, Miller, etc.) are one-not but effectively used.
This is a romantic comedy. Don't mistake it for anything else. Like, think of this as a dirty Sandra Bullock or Drew Barrymore movie and you'll have the right expectation. So, like most RomComs, the best jokes are in the first half and the ending struggles to land comfortably. That's how the genre works as a mainstream product.
While it's definitely Schumer's voice that defines the movie, this definitely feels like Judd Apatow directed it too. There's a much tighter cut possible for this movie. As with his other movies, when the choice is between cutting a joke and keeping one, Apatow always goes with keeping it. There's a lot of riffing and I don't think he's ever said no to a cameo. That's the nature of his movies. If you don't have an opinion of them by now, then you're not trying very hard. Personally, I dig it. I'm in the tiny minority who thought Funny People was great though. I'm clearly team Apatow.
Elephant in the Room: How about Lebron James? He's fine. He's no worse than Michael Jordan was in Space Jam. Overall, I like how he was used even though he is nowhere near as good as the rest of the cast. I'd really like to know how this role came about. Was the script always calling for a sports celebrity best friend or did an initially small part get bigger when he signed on? It's probably some of both. I'm both a basketball and a Lebron James fan, so I enjoyed it. Then again, I can see how people who aren't fans of either could find it completely intrusive.
To Sum Things Up (in 57 Words or Less)
You should see this because you like Amy Schumer or are a sucker for RomComs or never miss a Judd Apatow movie or can't get enough raunchy comedies. I like it for all these reasons and more. It's not a perfect movie, but I laughed a lot. Does there need to be more to it?
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment