YES NO MAYBE SO: Trainwreck

Manuel here to discuss one of last week’s hottest trailers by one of my favorite funny ladies. After the success of Bridesmaids ($288 million worldwide gross and 2 Oscar nominations), it’s not surprising seeing Judd Apatow partnering up with another small-screen comedy talent for her big screen debut.

Written by Amy Schumer and directed by Apatow himself comes Trainwreck ("We all know one" the poster coyingly tells us), which opens this July as a nice bit of counter-programming (it goes up against Apatow-alum Paul Rudd's Ant-Man so you know where my momey that weekend will be going to). The film will first show itself over at SXSW as a "work-in-progress" so we'll have word of what to expect sooner rather than later, though it shows great confidence in the material. It also tells us precisely what kind of demographic they're hoping to muster enthusiasm among. Both Funny People and This is 40 failed to capitalize on the success of Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin so I'm sure hopes are higher for this female-fronted comedy.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, in true TFE fashion, let’s dive right into the trailer giving it the YES, NO MAYBE SO treatment:

YES

Click to read more ...

Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Linkdown

Art of the Title has an amazing 3-part retrospective / interview with title designer Pablo Ferro. His work includes: Bullitt, Married to the Mob, Dr Strangelove, Beetlejuice, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and so many other greats
The New Yorker "why Mean Girls is a classic" even esteemed publications got into the 10th anniversary frenzy. Good piece from Richard Brody
The Dissolve Joaquin Phoenix will headline the next Woody Allen film, the one after Magic in the Moonlight. The prolific auteur isn't slowing down his one-a-year pac. Phoenix isn't slowing down either; remember how just a few short years ago, people thought Phoenix's career was over? The joke was on us.) 

 

Vulture Bilge Ebiri sticks his neck out for "Why Adam Sandler Matters"
Paper Mag 5 Most Swintessential Moments from Tilda Swinton's career. Love this though none are her actual acting & filmography which is tops. 
Playbill Idina Menzel & Julie Andrews talk Frozen, Wicked and The Sound of Music Live! on "Watch What Happens Live". Julie is very magnanimous about Carrie Underwood but I love the hint of 'i'm aware you all think i'm just being diplomatic' utter vagueness of "acting is acting is acting". Ha!

I thought she was great. Listen, she made it her own. But listen: acting is acting is acting."

The Wire pontificates on Emma Stone's career now that redundant superhero movie is in theaters. Shouldn't her career be so much more by now?
Cosmopolitan interviews Amy Schumer on 'sneaky feminism,' Parker Posey, plastic surgery and Judd Apatow's Trainwreck
Pajiba this is how you assemble a damn cast. On Joe Swanberg's wonderful ensembles 
AV Club is fear of TV cancellations a thing of the past? Shows with low ratings are no longer automatically doomed and fan passion counts for far more than it once did.
Gothamist wonders if James Franco is doing okay. Get out of bed! 

Today's Must Read
Cléo wonderfully provocative piece on "Samantha" in Her (now on DVD) from Angelo Muredda:

Early on, Samantha is eager to establish herself as, if not a human, then at least something more ambitious than a machine. She proudly proclaims that what makes her her is the ability to grow through her experiences. “So basically,” she says, “in every moment I’m evolving, just like you.” The latter part of that statement reads as a veiled threat to Theodore, who seems rather stalled in his moody present state as a sad man who writes other people’s love letters for a living despite being unable to sign his own divorce papers. It is a succinct expression of the film’s male smugness: that a girlfriend who begins excited about the world and her boyfriend’s witty emails is still a girlfriend who will one day leave.