Trainwreck

This wildly funny film, from director Judd Apatow, is the screenwriting debut of spunky stand-up and sketch show favourite Amy Schumer, who also stars. Her promiscuous and commitment-phobic namesake is a merry mess working at a lowest-common-denominator men's magazine, under the direction of a brassy editor (an excellent Tilda Swinton). The film gets great mileage out of the publication's baser impulses, as well as its protagonist's bemusing sexual encounters (including a scene that puts Fifty Shades of Grey firmly in its place). Amy's complicated relationships with her cantankerous father (Colin Quinn), more settled sister (Brie Larson), and her budding romance with an earnest sports doctor (Bill Hader) provide the emotional pull. Schumer's brilliant, deceptively laid-back comic delivery is supplemented by her flair for dramatic scenes and she's superbly supported throughout. Given its gender reversal, autobiographical origins and casual disregard for taboos, Trainwreck feels somewhat compromised by its decision to wrap things up neatly. But the laughs are hearty and abundant, and Schumer's schtick is so distinct and refreshing that it's miles from the disaster the title suggests.