Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Trainwreck

When is a Judd Apatow film not a Judd Apatow film? When it’s written by the incredibly talented Amy Schumer. Her natural comic timing and self-deprecating humor are a perfect fit for the average filmgoer who wants something a little raunchy, a little smart and a whole lot of funny.

Apatow has made a career out of senseless, tasteless jokes that feel as repetitive as they are crude. He tries very hard to create a unique environment for comedy to thrive, but seldom succeeds in creating something more than passably funny. His films from Knocked Up to This Is 40 have a stunted view of adulthood that borders on unrealistic with characters that are barely passable as simulacrums of human beings. His abbreviated style of directing is ill-suited for comedy and while he can create some intensely funny situations, his knack for editing and pacing is entirely off.

Trainwreck has a number of things going for it, but Apatow isn’t one of them. Anytime the feels uncomfortable or tedious, it’s his style of direction that is impressed upon the scene. As funny as Schumer is, and here she’s incredibly humorous, she can’t completely overcome Apatow’s lazy style. Apart from Schumer, the film is populated with some surprisingly astute humor from the likes of John Cena, Marv Albert, Chris Evert and Lebron James. Strangely, it’s the non-comedians that seem to be better at the comedy than their comic counterparts like Bill Hader, Colin Quinn and Mike Birbiglia. That’s not to degrade what they do. Hader and Quinn are quite funny at times.

If it sounds like I’m being a little hard on the film, it’s quite possible. I need a bit more time to ruminate on its merits as there are quite a few of them.