I wanted to love Trainwreck. I didn’t know much about Amy Schumer at the time of its release, but the trailer was hilarious and something I related to on a personal level. Unfortunately, when I finally sat down to watch it, I didn’t like it at all.
Hear me out before you tweet angry things at me.
I fully support Schumer as a writer and an actor. Writing and acting an entire feature film seems like an impossible feat, especially for women in Hollywood. So I applaud her for getting it done.
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What I don’t like about Schumer is the style of comedy she used in Trainwreck. It’s the same style that was made popular by Lena Dunham’s show Girls. And basically, it’s all about showing women being terrible people. I’m not a fan.
I get where it started. Women’s roles in movies and on TV all followed one basic concept: clueless girl can’t do anything right in her life until she falls in love. It was boring and completely unrelatable for most of us.
Creating characters who were complex with complete lives was a necessary and welcome change. But, in an effort to get away from the damsel in distress theme, Schumer and others have swung into this other theme where women are inconsiderate and kind of annoying.
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The most annoying part of Trainwreck was Schumer’s character took no responsibility for her behavior, particularly when she treated her boyfriend terribly. She labeled it being independent, blamed it on her father or was downright oblivious that any of it was rude.
But here’s a general life rule: Making someone feel insignificant in your life isn’t self-love or independence. And when you’re in your 30s, your parents’ divorce can’t be the reason you’re a jerk. You’re an adult getting away with bad behavior because you don’t let people who call you out on it stay in your life.
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This can’t be the new version of women we write into all of our movies and TV shows.
I don’t think Schumer will be stuck writing all her characters this way. And I don’t have a bad opinion of her in general. I just don’t think Trainwreck was a good movie.
OK, now you can tweet me angry things if you want to.
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