Trainwreck is a 2015 American romantic sex comedy film directed and co-produced by Judd Apatow and written by and starring Amy Schumer along with an ensemble supporting cast that includes Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Tilda Swinton, and NBA player LeBron James with supporting roles by Vanessa Bayer, Ezra Miller, Mike Birbiglia, and Norman Lloyd.
The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 15, 2015, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 17, 2015, by Universal Pictures.
In 1992, Gordon Townsend tells his young daughters Amy and Kim that the impending divorce with their mother was inevitable as monogamy is not realistic, repeating it like a mantra.
Twenty-three years later in 2015, Amy is a heavy-drinking, over-sexed party girl who works as a columnist for a men's magazine in New York City, and is dating gym-addict Steven.
While interviewing Aaron, a text from Kim insisting they move Gordon to a cheaper assisted-living facility causes Amy to hyperventilate.
Amy watches Aaron performing surgery to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl", his favorite song.
Out drinking with her co-workers, the intern takes Amy home; their bizarre sexual encounter is interrupted by his mom, revealing he is only 16.
He rushes over to find an intervention, including LeBron, Matthew Broderick, Chris Evert, and Marv Albert.
After attending a game at Madison Square Garden, he is called back to the court, where the Knicks City Dancers perform with Amy front and center, to Aaron's favorite songs, including "Uptown Girl".
Initial projections had the film opening to around $20 million, with The Hollywood Reporter noting that it could overperform if it was popular with females or underperform given how R-rated comedies had struggled over the summer, with both Ted 2 and Magic Mike XXL failing to meet expectations.
The website's critical consensus reads, "Trainwreck drags commitment out of all but the most rom-com-phobic filmgoers with sharp humor, relatable characters, and hilarious work from Amy Schumer.
"[32] Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun Times praised the performances of the cast, particularly Schumer, Hader, Quinn, and James.
[34] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, stating, "Judd Apatow's latest is rough around the edges, but his focus on a female protagonist refreshes a genre in sore need of change".
"[36] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, saying, "Beneath all of his bad-boy shtick, Apatow's always been a pretty conventional moralist.
"[37] Jacob Hall of the New York Daily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "Schumer raises Apatow's game beautifully.
"[38] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "Sweet is not how Schumer wants Trainwreck to go down.
"[39] Sara Stewart of the New York Post gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Trainwreck is a corrective to a lot of outdated clichés.
"[42] Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "There's nothing remotely fresh about this plotline (or the way Apatow, true to form, makes the movie 20 minutes longer than it should be), but Trainwreck works as comedy more often than it doesn't—and that's rare enough.