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Trainwreck -rm

We were prepared not to like this film as we assumed it was geared for a much younger demographic than ourselves which may very well have been the case. However, we enjoyed it immensely.

The opening scene showed a father teaching his two young girls a mantra that “monogamy is not realistic” as he tells them about his pending divorce to their mother. One of the girls is Amy, played as a grown up young woman by Amy Schumer who also wrote the screenplay.

From the beginning we had the idea that Amy’s psychology was not founded on traditional family values. She had lots of boyfriends and sex seemed to be mainly an end into itself. It was also mixed with lots of drinking and smoking pot. Interestingly this was in contrast to her sister Kim (Brie Larson) who having heard the same message from her father was now married with an adorable stepson and a new pregnancy.

Amy works as a successful writer albeit with a magazine that seems to view life and sex in a manner similar to hers. With Judd Apatow (Bridesmaids) at the director’s helm we would expect Schumer’s comedic writing and her persona to provide lots of good laughs, which was certainly the case if we were to judge our own reactions and that of our theatre audience. However, the film developed much more than an extended Saturday Nite Live routine (which is where co-star Bill Hader achieved his renowned success). He plays Dr. Aaron Connors, a successful sports doctor, who Amy is assigned to interview for her magazine. The chemistry between them goes beyond the sex and they fall in love. Amy and the good doctor struggled with their differences and their attraction to each other. There are some very poignant and dramatic scenes, which Ms. Schumer carries off extremely well while staying within her character. We read somewhere that she is a classically trained actress and she certainly handled the tearful moments, angry outbursts and the comedy to perfection. The story uses satire especially in the sex scenes but also with the cameo appearances by Matthew Broderick, Marv Albert, Chris Evert, Daniel Radcliffe and some well-known professional basketball players.

We are left with a tour de force about the impact of childhood, falling in love, and growing up, which are all presented to us with a wonderful sense of humor.(2015)

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Election – nf – We recently had a Netflix viewing of this 1999 movie which is a period piece set to take place 20-25 years earlier. It starred Reese Witherspoon as an ambitious determined high school student bound for the student council presidency and Matthew Broderick as her high school teacher who thinks he is a happy dedicated person doing just what he was meant to do. The story based on a novel by Tom Perotta with an Oscar winning screen play by the director Alexander Payne is seen mostly through the eyes of the teacher although pieces of narration are shown through the view of some of the other characters. The main plot deals with the high school election when two other students are drawn into a very contentious race with the preexisting favorite, each having their own motivation. However, in a somewhat comedic and satiric way the film shows how this teacher makes a complete mess of his life and ultimately has to try and reinvent himself. The movie was shot in the Omaha area of Nebraska near where the director grew up. A typical high school was used for most of the scenes with real students playing the extras and some parts including the male student lead who ran for president. Witherspoon and Broderick captured their characters quite well and Witherspoon actually won the Teen Choice Award for the best “hissy hit”. It was fun to watch and done well but at this point in time we can’t recommend that you put it very high in your Netflix queue, as there are much better films available out there. (1999)