Editor’s Note: The grading system used here is similar to the 10-point scale used in SDSU courses.
GRADE: B
Amy Schumer has an “image problem.”
Perhaps it was her outspoken views in the 2016 presidential election/gun control debate. Perhaps it was an accusation made against her for stealing jokes from other comedians. Perhaps it’s because she frequently makes banter about how hard it still is to be a woman in 2018’s America.
But ask any group of people and at least one person will tell you they adamantly dislike the female comic for the reasons previously listed.
Whatever it is, this “image problem” is unfortunate, especially given how funny Schumer is in her new comedy, “I Feel Pretty.”
The movie follows Amy Schumer’s character, Renee Bennett. Not to be confused with Schumer’s previous film, “Trainwreck,” but this character is a total train wreck. She has extremely poor self-esteem, dim views about the prospects in her life and is constantly over-apologizing.
Her problem is simple: she wants to be beautiful.
After making a Hail Mary wish on a New York water fountain, she heads to a SoulCycle class and hits her head after falling off her cycle (as anyone would, I assume).
She wakes up, looks in a mirror and finds that her wish came true! She looks gorgeous! Meanwhile in reality, this is the same Renee Bennett we’ve been seeing the entire film.
The real difference with Miss Bennett? Confidence.
And therein lies the real message of the film: the difference between super models and us “regular people” is just confidence. But the message isn’t that boring.
The film even addresses how super models and the affluently beautiful/handsome can feel horrible about themselves. The movie has a great habit of cutting to other people in Bennett’s life: her love interests, her co-workers, her close friends. This wide range of focus provides for a more interesting understanding of how self-esteem affects all of us.
Schumer, herself, is lovely throughout the entire film. She’s funny, original and relatable. The same actress we fell in love with in the 2015 film “Trainwreck” is back in this film, and it seems as if nothing about her has changed.
And yes, this comedy is hilarious. The group of girls who sat behind me in the theater were in uproarious laughter at not one, but several moments while watching the film. But the movie’s best gags come from Schumer of course.
To be completely fair, the film does falter a bit. It seems rather cliché at some points, especially when the movie actually plays Tom Hanks’ 1988 film, “Big” in the background as a reference to this film’s plot.
But as for Amy Schumer’s “image problem,” the movie has a lesson for this subject:
Value, beauty and success is the in the eye of the beholder. It’s been said thousands of times, but this film spells it out in such subtle ways, you have to marvel at how well the entire thing was thought out, how perspectives can shift on a dime.
Even this movie review is simply one perspective of something.
