Trainwreck

Amy Schumer, renowned for her subversive humour, makes her screenwriting debut with a romantic comedy disguised as a takedown of gender constructs. Schumer plays Amy, a promiscuous journalist working at a lads’ mag called S’nuff, where stories like “You’re Not Gay, She’s Boring” are commonplace. Amy’s destructive lifestyle is ripe for director Judd Apatow’s style of redemptive storytelling and her saviour arrives in the form of a sports doctor she’s commissioned to interview.

Caught somewhere in the schism between Schumer’s liberal feminist humour and Apatow’s palatable wholesomeness, the film begins as a progressive comedy that plays on social norms but quickly regresses to something more conventional, with Amy forced to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and embrace monogamy. Despite a genuinely hilarious first-half it soon becomes clear Trainwreck is hurtling towards a cliched rom-com finale. It’s a fun ride, it’s just a shame the film mislays its sense of irony along the way. [Patrick Gamble]