Amy Schumer landed in movies with quite a splash; Trainwrecked and I Feel Pretty were both big star vehicles based firmly around her own self-deprecating persona. Both films were popular, but neither of them quite clicked; there was a feeling that Schumer was compromising something to make a satisfying stand-alone feature, and so it’s perhaps not surprising that she’s followed up with a more free-wheeling, less contrived ten-episode tv show, due next week on Hulu in the US and Disney+ elsewhere.
Episode One is a shocker, not just for Beth (Schumer) but for the audience; what starts as an acerbic, caustic view of a New York wine merchant pushing 40 takes an abrupt turn when Beth hears that her mother (Lauren Benanti) has died in a taxi-crash. Beth gets this news just as she’s preparing to go on-stage at a karaoke club; needless to say, the cover of Ace of Base’s classic The Sign she offers is something of a disaster musically, but then again, it probably would have been anyway. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Beth dumps her boyfriend (Kevin Kane), tries to reforge links with her younger sister (Susannah Flood) and errant father (Michael Rappaport), while also starting a hesitant romance with farmer John (Michael Cera)
How I Met My Husband might be a better title for what follows; Schumer married a chef/farmer several years ago, and Life & Beth seems to dramatize that romance, greatly helped by an untypically brusque turn from Cera. Life & Beth’s short, 30 minute episodes aren’t exactly packed with plot-twists or incident, but there are heartfelt truths, considerable honesty, and also some good laughs; Jonathan Groff has a funny bit as a city-loving yokel, while the DJ/MRI technician featured in the penultimate episode is a hoot, and nicely allows space for some unhappy reflection as Beth tries to figure out what’s important to her.
Beth, perhaps like Schumer, is to singular a character to be fully nailed down; Life & Beth does a good job of making the protagonist comprehensible, even if her short-temper and selfishness sometimes makes her unsympathetic. Life & Beth should satisfy its target audience with some quirky rom-com tropes, but is also Schumer’s most mature work to date, and suggests that she’s developing into a real creative force when it comes to capturing the POV of a woman on the verge of self-discovery.
In the US, all 10 episodes of Life & Beth premiere on Hulu on Friday, March 18th 2022.
I’d like to help you out as everyone else is yucking this, but I can’t. Sorry. BIG YUCK, BIG NOPE.
Sigh. What’s wrong with a little romcom light and shade? I’ll rustle up something about Claymore landwines to steady the ship…
Landwines sound good to me.
Right, I’ve rustled up a bonus Jean Clude Van Damme kickboxing espionage movie, just for you. Happy?
What grapes does he use?
For landwine? Only the best…
Ugh. Trailer does not appeal to me at all….I’m not exactly sure why. I think the lead character just seems unlikeable. Hard pass.
I get that Schumer wants exactly that; Beth is quite an unlivable character, and even in the final episode, there’s some really jarring notes. But in the days of virtue signaling, there’s something brave about putting yourself in a bad light that’s against the grain, and I for one applaud her for doing so.
This is the type of thing I’d skip right over if I saw it on prime. The cutesy title tells me all I need to know.
Did you watch it in one big session or one episode a day? I’d think how you watched it would influence how you felt about it.
Watched over three nights; if you’ve seen Schumer’s other work, you’d know that she steps away from cutesy, and this is quite a sexually frank kind of comedy. In short, it’s not really as nicey-nicey as you might expect from the title…
Ahhh, then I dodged a bullet for all the wrong reasons. But I still dodged it and that’s what counts…
There are no wrong reasons to dodge a bullet…
Well, unless you’re Neo of course….
I didn’t think there was a spoon.
But Psychic Grandma KNEW there wasn’t a spoon. That’s why you got no baby food as a baby….
I don’t get much now either.
That’s because now YOU know there isn’t a spoon, so the baby food just sits there in its little glass jar feeling sad that no one will eat it 🙁
What spoon? There is no spoon?
And you wonder why you can’t even eat baby food.
I guess it is non-stop take out for you then!
Sorted. That’s a deal. Pizza?
Absolutely pizza. I’m having “make your own pizza” tomorrow, but that’s not today, so order away!
I’ll take a candied ginger cube pizza please….
Sides, sauces, dips? Napkins?
Oh noooooo, I learned my lesson last time I asked for some “free” napkins. I’m still paying that credit card off….
I’ll digitally remortgage your condo and put what’s left in a PayPal account. Soda?
I’ll take a manly rockstar energy drink. Preferably in the 64oz “heart stopper” container.
You know, if I’m going to remortgage the condo for this, make it TWO manly rockstar “heart stoppers”. Yeah, now we’re talking….
We only have Sprite. Can I supersize your pizza to Avatar Tractor Wheel in return for permanent access to your crypto hoard?
What kind of establishment is this where you only have sprite? My goodness, I want to talk to the manager, pronto!
You’re talking to him, buddy. You’ll take it and like it. Straw?
No straw. Wait, do you have those bendy ones? I do like a bendy straw….
There a crinkled section near the top.
Well, I guess that will have to do. But let me tell you, your tip is going to suffer. I’m knocking it down to 19% instead of the generous 20% I was planning on.
Hah, I bet you’re sad now….
I take the tip with the crypto access. Ice cream?
sulks
I’ll take vanilla…
Ice?
Only if you promise that I’ll never have to watch that movie with him in it ever again.
I spoke to him about your issues, and he’s cool with it.
Cool as Ice.
Oh hell no. This is what I really, really don’t want.
It’s good. Watched the whole show. Why don’t you want a talented, funny comic like Schumer?
To be honest, it’s when you mentioned Michael Cera playing a farmer that I felt a sudden, jabbing pain in my abdomen.
Cera is a really funny guy, and a super actor. Interviewed him back in the day for Superbad in a Glasgow hotel room. Fact!
Well, I hope you at least got some swag out of it. And I’m sure he’s a charming fellow.
Watched the trailer. His rural estate looks pretty gentrified. I like how they put him in jeans and threw some dirt on his face though.
He actually gives quite an untypical performance here; he dials back and is quite gruff, as we farmers are. If swag means, in Gurdjieffian terms, Meetings with Remarkable Men, then yes, lots of swag…