Tag: amy schumer
Endorse This: Amy Schumer’s QVC Gun Show

Endorse This: Amy Schumer’s QVC Gun Show

Amy Schumer’s hit Comedy Central series, Inside Amy Schumer, has transformed the comic from a successful stand-up into a cultural and political force over the past three years. Sketches like “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer” play off of the tension between America’s commercialized sexual culture and the misogyny at its root — they’ve also landed Schumer in the middle of what could be considered an all-out culture war over what exactly is allowed.

Not for nothing that the war over “political correctness” is really only a “war” for one side: At a screening of Schumer’s movie Trainwreck in July of last year, a gunman opened fire on the crowd, killing two, injuring nine, and then committing suicide.

The shooter, John Russel Houser, fit what has become the increasingly clear profile of extreme rightwing terrorism. Still able to buy firearms despite a judge raising red flags about his mental health in 2008, Houser was militantly anti-feminist and praised Hitler in online message boards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

After the shooting, Amy Schumer became an outspoken proponent of gun control, speaking about the issue publicly with her cousin, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, and incorporating gun politics into her humor.

Last night, Amy Schumer confronted the issue head on.

 

Photo: Comedy Cental/ Inside Amy Schumer.

2016 Golden Globes Nominations Blur The Boundaries Among Genres

2016 Golden Globes Nominations Blur The Boundaries Among Genres

By Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

When it comes to comedy, there is the kind of funny that makes you go “ha!,” and there’s the kind of funny that makes you go “huh?”

This year’s roster of Golden Globe nominees in the comedy or musical category encompasses both definitions. It’s reflective of the distinctive identity of the Globes themselves — the only major award that separates drama and comedy — and the complicated nature of some of today’s movie comedies from filmmakers such as the Coen brothers and Wes Anderson.

Among the major Hollywood awards shows, the Globes have the biggest tent, taking in traditional Oscar fare — which has increasingly come to mean smaller, darker independent fare — and the kind of populist movies that the Motion Picture Academy generally overlooks, as well as a few outliers that may not have been on anyone’s radar. This year is no exception, especially in the comedy or musical category.

Alongside two broad crowd-pleasing movies clearly aimed almost entirely at getting laughs — Melissa McCarthy’s Spy and the raunchy Amy Schumer rom-com Trainwreck — are three films that, to varying degrees, stretch the definition of what might be considered a comedy: Joy, The Big Short and The Martian.

All have comedic elements, but none is what you’d call a nonstop laugh riot, nor are they designed to be. Two of the films — David O. Russell’s Joy and Adam McKay’s The Big Short — can be seen as commentaries on the corruption and depletion of the American economy — while Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a sci-fi adventure in which the fate of Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut is at stake.

The films in the drama category are for the most part more traditional award season bait — Carol, The Revenant, Room and Spotlight — although the fifth nominee, Mad Max: Fury Road, is the kind of high-octane action flick rarely acknowledged this time of year.

Whatever the Globes may lack in predictive power for the Academy Awards (as can’t be repeated too often, Globes nominations are made by a small group of members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, not film industry professionals), they frequently make up for in their surprising array of nominations, and a Globes win can imbue a film with a sense of momentum as the awards season rolls on.

That’s especially relevant for The Big Short, which has solidified its standing as an Oscar force to be reckoned with in recent weeks, with a slew of nominations and critics awards. It was directed by one of the industry’s most successful comedy filmmakers, McKay, who also brought us Anchorman and Talladega Nights.

But the film’s subject matter — the 2008 financial crisis — couldn’t be more serious, and alongside many moments of darkly hued comedy, the film delivers a sobering look at the greed and corruption that led to the brink of an economic doomsday.

McKay told The Times recently that he had been looking for years for an opportunity to push beyond the traditional boundaries of comedy.

“The studios like certainty, so I’m a comedy guy and they’ll let me make any comedies I want,” he said. “But there was a little bit of resistance on different types of projects. I just love movies. I’ve always admired Danny Boyle — the way he’s able to jump genres at will.”

The inclusion of Scott’s The Martian raised eyebrows among many who felt that calling the film about an astronaut fighting for survival alone on Mars a comedy bordered on category fraud.

“A comedy’s a film whose #1 goal is to make people laugh,” Spy director Paul Feig tweeted in response. “If that wasn’t the filmmakers’ top goal, it’s not a comedy.”

For his part, Damon said in an interview last fall that comedy was an essential ingredient of the film from the start, as his character, Mark Watney, uses his wry sense of humor to keep his desperation at bay.

“That was one of the things Ridley and I talked about in our first meeting: How do you hold on to the terror and danger and the enormity of what the stakes are for this person and also retain the humor?” Damon said.

The fact is, the Globes’ nominations may simply be reflecting the fact that, both in film and on television, once-rigid genre distinctions are blurring more than ever — something McKay, for one, is happy to see.

“I don’t think genres are as restrictive as they used to be,” he said. “I’d like to keep not obeying the genre so much. The movie I always think about is Something Wild. That had a shocking tone shift halfway through, but it worked.”

The broad spectrum of films nominated by the HFPA is best reflected in the directing category. Five filmmakers who made vastly different movies — including George Miller’s gonzo action film Mad Max: Fury Road, Alejandro Inarritu’s western The Revenant and Todd Haynes’ period romance Carol — will face off.

But while Tom McCarthy’s ensemble drama Spotlight is among the few certified Oscar front-runners, some are predicting the HFPA may give the award to Ridley Scott in part to recognize his entire career.

The acting categories will see Hollywood veterans such as Lily Tomlin, Al Pacino and Jane Fonda face off against relative newcomers such as Schumer, Paul Dano and Alicia Vikander. In a nomination that surely struck a nostalgic chord with older moviegoers, Sylvester Stallone proved a Globes contender for supporting actor in a drama for his understated performance as Rocky Balboa in Creed — 39 years after his last Globes nod for the original Rocky.

“I remember reading that Eugene O’Neill’s father (actor James O’Neill) played the Count of Monte Cristo for 30 years — and I’m past that,” Stallone told The Times of his history playing the perennial underdog boxer. “It’s the one character I actually wanted to follow in perpetuity until maybe his final demise. There’s just something about this journey.”

Now that that journey has taken Stallone to the Globes, could it soon take him all the way to the Hollywood title fight that is the Oscars? Stallone laughed off the prospect.

“My God,” he said, shaking his head. “Listen, I’ve been more than blessed with my share of good fortune.”

©2016 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr

 

 

Amy Schumer Promotes Gun Check Legislation With Cousin Sen. Chuck Schumer

Amy Schumer Promotes Gun Check Legislation With Cousin Sen. Chuck Schumer

Comedian and actress Amy Schumer went to Capitol Hill on Monday, teaming up with a famous cousin of hers — Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — to promote legislation to strengthen background checks for gun purchases.

A visibly emotional Ms. Schumer highlighted the matter’s relevance, after the mass shooting late last month at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.

“For me, the pain I share with so many other Americans on the issue of gun violence was made extremely personal to me on Thursday, July the 23rd when John — I’m not even gonna say his name — when this — he sat down for my movie Trainwreck at the Grand Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana. Two lives were tragically lost, and others injured. And I’ve thought about these victims each day since the tragedy.”

The shooter, John Russell Houser, killed two people and injured nine others, then fatally shot himself. Houser bought his gun legally, despite a history of legal and mental health issues.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, evidence suggests that Houser might have targeted a showing of the movie Trainwreck because of its feminist themes, or his decision may have been driven by anti-Semitism toward Schumer herself.

“We’ll never know why people choose to do these painful things. But sadly, we always find out how,” she added. “How the shooter got their gun — and it’s often something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. And today’s push makes so much sense, because it seeks to address the ‘how.’ We need a background check system with holes — without holes and fatal flaws. We need one with accurate information that protects us like a firewall. The critics scoff and say, ‘Well, there’s no way to stop crazy people from doing crazy things.’ But they’re wrong — there is a way to stop them. Preventing dangerous people from getting guns is very possible.”

(Video via The Associated Press.)

Box Office: ‘Ant-Man’ Tops With $58 Million, ‘Trainwreck’ Impresses With $30.2 Million

Box Office: ‘Ant-Man’ Tops With $58 Million, ‘Trainwreck’ Impresses With $30.2 Million

By Brent Lang

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Marvel’s Ant-Man landed with a solid $58 million at the weekend box office, while Trainwreck‘s Amy Schumer put her own raunchy spin on romantic comedies to the tune of a $30.2 million debut.

It marks Marvel’s 12th consecutive first place opening, although Ant-Man isn’t at the level of other, bigger-name costumed heroes like Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, all of whom performed better out of the gate with their solo adventures. Going into the weekend, some analysts expected Ant-Man to top $60 million, but its opening is similar to The Incredible Hulk, which earned an initial $55 million on its way to a $134 million U.S. haul.

Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis admitted that he wished the movie had done a little better, but still praised Marvel as a model of consistency.

“No one else could take what is really an obscure character and launch it in such a big way,” said Hollis. “It’s a sign that they’re doing so much right and that it’s a brand that has overwhelming momentum.”

Universal’s Trainwreck bested initial projections which had it debuting to roughly $20 million. The story of a commitment-phobic woman who falls for a sports doctor got a boost from strong reviews and a long and winding promotional tour that saw Schumer doing everything from posing provocatively with C3PO to sexting Katie Couric’s husband.

“Amy Schumer is absolutely a star,” said Nick Carpou, Universal’s domestic distribution chief. “Based on exit polling, after the humor, she’s the second biggest reason people went out to see the film.”

Trainwreck kicks off Schumer’s film career on a high note and marks the second biggest opening for director Judd Apatow, behind only Knocked Up‘s $30.7 million debut. Crowds were primarily comprised of women, as females represented 66% of ticket buyers. Universal produced the comedy for a modest $35 million, so it should make a healthy return on its investment.

That’s a fraction of the $130 million that Marvel spent on the story of a thief (Paul Rudd) who becomes a hero after donning a suit that gives him the powers of an arthropod. The superhero film will lean heavily on foreign crowds as it looks for profits. Internationally, Ant-Man opened in 37 markets, including Mexico, the U.K., France, and Russia, pulling in $56 million.

Ant-Man, which employs a more tongue-in-cheek, lighter tone than most superhero movies had hoped to pull in younger crowds. To that end, the domestic audience for Ant-Man was 28% comprised of families. Fifty eight percent of ticket buyers were male, 59% were adult, and 13% were teens.

In its second weekend, Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s Minions captured runner-up status, pulling in $50.2 million. The Despicable Me spin-off has racked up $216.7 million stateside since it debuted, while selling boatloads of merchandise.

In milestone news, Jurassic World became just the fourth film in history to top $600 million domestically. The dinosaur thriller added $11.4 million to take fifth place on the box office chart and propel its North American total to $611.1 million.

Meanwhile, Inside Out pushed past $300 million domestically, joining Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo as the third Pixar film to reach that mark. Domestically, Inside Out racked up $11.6 million for a fourth place finish, bringing its North American gross to $306.4 million.

Among art house releases, Woody Allen’s Irrational Man pulled in $188,115 on five screens during its first weekend, for a per screen average of $37,623. Also opening, Mr. Holmes with Ian McKellen as an aging super sleuth, grossed an estimated $2.5 million on 363 screens, for a per screen average of $6,856.

Overall box office numbers are still being tallied, but it looks like ticket sales will be up more than 30% over the same period last year. It marks the sixth consecutive weekend of gains, a sign that business is booming at the multiplexes. That cuts both ways, as Disney and Marvel discovered.

“It’s great for the business, but what it means is that it’s more competitive,” said Hollis.

Photo: Cast members Michael Douglas poses at the premiere of Marvel’s “Ant-Man” in Hollywood, California June 29, 2015. (REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian)