Thanks Amy, We Needed That

I've seen TRAINWRECK twice. So has Rosey. I promise, it's worth the small fortune a movie ticket costs. 

It's a romantic comedy. But it’s more like a life-that-includes-sex-and romance-and-sometimes-death-too comedy. The film is directed by Judd Apatow, and written by Amy Schumer. Together, they’ve made a new kind of comedy, one that has a place for women and minorities in genre traditionally dominated by a narrow point of view. But this movie isn't good because Amy Schumer is a woman. Schumer is just downright funny, and so is her movie. It’s fresh, interesting, and timely. 

For his part, Apatow has always been interested in women’s experiences. You see it in his desperate attempts to get inside his wife’s head in KNOCKED UP and THIS IS FORTY (using a character played by his actual wife). He executive produced GIRLS. Even FREAKS AND GEEKS was about a teenage girl trying to understand sex and drugs and fitting in. But despite his efforts, his female characters have never quite worked for me. They’re a little too shrill, a little too smug. Apatow has had trouble telling women’s stories partly because he seems to be figuring women out as he goes. But Schumer doesn’t need to figure women out. She is a woman. Her character Amy is feisty, smart, funny, self-absorbed, rude, and not a size 00. She looks and feels like someone you might know. She’s loud, emotionally immature, a drunk, and kind of a slut. She chose this life, and she’s not apologizing for it. Schumer isn’t your typical Hollywood starlet, and her onscreen persona isn’t your typical leading lady.

Her love interest isn’t your typical male lead either. Dr. Aaron Connors (Bill Hader) isn’t a dude with a dark past and a killer smile looking for emotional rehabilitation. He’s not a heart breaker that every woman in the movie wants to bang. In fact, he hasn’t had a relationship in six years--not because he’s immature, but because he’s picky. He’s a smart guy who cares about his job, which is to help people. (Side note: he’s totally BFFs with LeBron James.)

Dealing with more realistic characters means we get a more realistic relationship. I'm tired of watching movies about people who can't function alone. Amy and Aaron are two people who are complete without each other. They're happier together and challenge each other, but they don't desperately need each other. They’re like, real human beings. We’re used to comedies about man children meeting manic pixie dream girls who restart their lives. In this case, Dr. Aaron Connors is the one who pushes Amy to be more vulnerable and accept some responsibility for her actions, and Amy pushes Aaron right back. Spoiler alert: they fall in love.

Case closed, right? We got what we wanted, we can all go home now. Not quite.

TRAINWRECK is more than misunderstandings and dramatic realizations. It doesn't end with them kissing for the first time on a bridge or a roof or on a skating rink. We get to watch an actual relationship and see people learning how to compromise and be together, how to stay together even when it’s hard. We get to watch two people who claim to be in love actually be in love.

There's this amazing moment when Amy first spends the night and Aaron spoons her. And she's visibly uncomfortable and says, "If I'm going to spend the night, can we sleep in a realistic position?" I've seen the scene where the woman lays there uncomfortably and you laugh because you get it, but Amy just outright says it. “Can you move? Can we change this? This isn't working for me.” And he's a little annoyed but says okay and they sleep realistically. 

This is real communication people. It’s not pretty, but it gets shit done. 

And just because it’s not pretty doesn’t mean it’s not sexy or fun. Maybe the most refreshing thing, the thing that makes this a new kind of blockbuster, is how often and how well they communicate. Rewind to the night before the spooning, when they have sex for the first time. Amy is writing a magazine story on Aaron, and the encounter starts out as a simple interview. Aaron is showing her some equipment he works with, when Amy has a little breakdown thinking about her family, and Aaron suggests they grab some food to make her feel better. After dinner, he asks if she wants to get a drink. She agrees.

CUT TO: Lights coming on at the bar, and Amy asks him if he wants to share a cab. He has no idea what is going on until he says “two stops,” and she says "One stop... want to give him your address?"

So he does and then we get to watch the implications of that interaction sink in. Bill Hader plays it perfectly. First, nonchalance. Then the recognition of what actually just happened. Then the shocked, almost panicky stare straight ahead—wide-eyed and adorable. He doesn’t do this kind of thing, like ever. But it’s okay, because she does this kind of thing all the time. Back at the apartment, while he’s busy trying to figure out his next move, she’s already taking clothes off. And the negotiation never stops. No one ever forces anything. As she’s undoing his pants, he asks, "Are we really doing this?" And she says, "We're really doing this. Is this okay?" He says, "It's okay, are you okay?" "I'm okay." They check in because they care about each other. They each want the other to have a good time, to be happy, to not feel pressure. No elaborate schemes or tricks or bets or meet-cutes. They just like each other and decide to bang.

It’s not all roses though. Relationships are hard. Staying in love takes work. Both characters mess it up and make it better. It's a team effort because they're a team. She is selfish sometimes, but so is he.
A few months into their relationship Aaron is giving a really important speech. He’s pretty nervous about it. In the middle, Amy gets a phone call, and she leaves. Bitch, right? Well, kind of. You could argue her phone should have been off in the first place, but she's a journalist and it wasn't off and her boss called and threatened her job. He finds her after and rips her a new one. She apologizes and says she answered the phone because she's worried about her job, to which he responds, "That doesn't matter!"

Excuse me?

She failed to support him when he really needed it. But maybe right now he is failing to support her right back. This is the moment when most movies would let her walk away. Miscommunication, it’s the engine that drives conflict. Not here. When she tries to leave, he stops her. This is just a fight! This is what people do! We fight, we make up, and we make it better. These are two people who genuinely love and respect each other, and we get to watch them figure out how to be good to each other. It’s revolutionary that this is considered important or interesting enough to make a film about. It IS important.

Schumer doesn’t just flesh out her main characters; she gives all the other supporting characters a fair shot too. The Asian guy's jokes aren't about being Asian. The homeless guy is charming, not scary. Amy’s boss (hilariously played by a nearly unrecognizable Tilda Swinton) is a rude, selfish, driven woman who is also a mentor; she gives Amy valuable feedback and encouragement--in the same meeting where she fires her. Schumer plays with stereotypes and expectations in order to generate comedy.

The clearest example is the scene when Amy almost sleeps with her underage intern. Clearly he’s learned about sex from porn, and he easily hits all the notes of a female porn actor. It’s a hard scene to watch. What makes you so uncomfortable is the mismatched male body and coded female behavior. Schumer’s point is this: How we are used to seeing women act in films has nothing to do with being a woman or having a vagina. It’s a cultural expectation and anyone can do it. Although it’s not perfect, this perspective also informs how she presents people of color and other minorities.  

Schumer knows what it feels like to be an outsider. She herself is a minority in Hollywood. As annoying as it is that we’re still talking about this, women don’t usually write and star in blockbuster films. Schumer’s experience is different, and makes for an interesting, fresh and funny movie. TRAINWRECK is proof positive that we need diversity because it actually makes movies better. Maybe in fifty years this movie will be boring. It’s just a set of diverse people being humans, not stereotypes. In a generation or two, best case scenario, this is old news, a snoozefest. But for 2015, TRAINWRECK is a big deal.

Go see it!