SHE’S ONE OF America’s most talked about comedians, and now Amy Schumer is coming to Ireland, with director Judd Apatow and SNL favourite Bill Hader in tow.
The trio are gracing us lucky folk with their comedic presence at a very special screening of Schumer’s new film, Trainwreck, in Dublin on 14 August.
34-year-old Schumer has swiftly become one of the US’s top comedy stars, having made her name on the standup circuit. The New York native’s fierce observational comedy with a feminist edge eventually led to her own show, Inside Amy Schumer, on Comedy Central.
She’s seen her sketches on sexting, the sexiness of female actors, and women wearing make-up go viral, after taking apart serious topics with a scalpel in hand and glint in her eye.
It’s no surprise, then, that she’s being hailed as a new feminist hero – and appearances like this definitely help prove that she is really, really funny:
Inside Amy Schumer has been going since 2013, but it is particularly with the latest season that Schumer – whose ribald jokes and sexual innuendo might not be everyone’s cup of tea – has seen her name go global.
Now comes Trainwreck, a movie which trades off Schumer’s self-perpetuated reputation as a booze-loving party girl and serial dater.
The film, directed by Apatow (of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Girls and Knocked Up), stars Hader as the guy who Schumer (as Amy Townsend) falls in love with, and, in a unexpected appearance, basketball player LeBron Johnson as Hader’s best friend.
Many of the elements of the character Amy Townsend are plucked directly from the real Amy’s life: the divorced parents, the married sister, the father with multiple sclerosis, the dating, the social life.
Rather than being a comedian, Townsend is a journalist sent to review a sports doctor, and sparks fly.
It’s a big-time role for Schumer, bringing her off the domestic small screen and onto an international stage, but it also one that she’s more than ready for.
How’s Trainwreck being received?
The film’s been raking in the good reviews in the US. Variety said:
Beat for beat, this is one of Apatow’s most consistently funny and charming films, right up to one of those extravagant displays of a character’s affections that would seem terribly corny if it weren’t so heartfelt.
Screencrush pronounced it “nearly flawless”, and The Guardian gave it a three-star review, calling it “rough around the edges” but added:
What makes Trainwreck initially so interesting is its portrayal of a woman who is unapologetically sexual and utterly repulsed by the idea of marriage and children. What’s smarter is that we’re not talking about a broadly sketched Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher, but a layered and complicated character, who uses sex at times of unhappiness as a temporary form of release.
A massive fandom
The news of Schumer’s impending Irish trip is exciting her fans no end:
Tickets for the show – which is on as part of the Dublin International Film Festival – are already sold out. But you can browse the DIFF festival website here.
Next year, DIFF runs from 18 to 28 February. If this is a taster of what we can expect, things are boding well for the next festival installment.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say