+ Best Comedy of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year
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| Amy Schumer looking great but more importantly looking as if she feels like a million bucks fills out the poster for Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein's I Feel Pretty |
Renee is a young woman in New York, who works on the online side of a major, upscale cosmetics company and struggles with low self-confidence. When she hits her head in a spinning class accident, the result is a booming self-confidence, as Renee is certain that her looks have suddenly drastically improved.
I Feel Pretty is the feature directing debut for writer-directors Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (Never Been Kissed (1999)), who have been writing partners for over 20 years. The film is a high concept comedy (think Freaky Friday (2003), Shallow Hal (2001), Trading Places (1983) or Big (1988), the latter of which is actually used actively in two very funny scenes in the film), which seems like it could have come from a typical joke from the film's propellant star Amy Schumer (Snatched (2017)).
But whereas Schumer's on-stage act would have made crude payoffs off of the 'fat girl in the spinning class' accident', the filmmakers wisely create sympathetic characters with issues that ring true here, present them with sincerity and never ridicule. I Feel Pretty feels like the perfect film for Schumer, who is terrific, and whose character's body insecurity reflects feelings and problems that so many will identify with the world over. There is a sorry irony in the fact that Schumer's wildly hyped first film Trainwreck (2015) was cruder and less meaningful but a bigger hit, while I Feel Pretty is a more buoyant, rounded and resounding film - but also a much more criticized and less commercially successful one.
Renee builds a romantic relationship with Rory Scovel (Good at Life (2015), TV movie), who also feels very real as Ethan, who does zumba and has his own self-image insecurity. Renee leaves her crummy office existence with funny co-worker Adrian Martinez (Focus (2015)) to rule the company's reception with a surplus of positive energy that baffles its privileged, attractive CEO Michelle Williams (A Hole in One (2004)) and brother Tom Hopper (Leopard (2013)). In her free time, Renee also injects a new vivacity into her group of friends played by the very affable pair, Aidy Bryant (The Big Sick (2017)) and Busy Philipps (Vice Principals (2016-17)).
I Feel Pretty is a great time out whether you go by yourself or with friends, it is a real crowd-pleaser; it has many infectious laughs and an uplifting message of self-appreciation and a wider understanding of what can be pretty and attractive, which it hits home with a wealth of
charm. Don't miss it.
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Watch Schumer present the film and a trailer for it on Ellen here in this video
Cost: 32 mil. $
Box office: 88.4 mil. $ and counting
= Box office success (2.76 times the cost)
[I Feel Pretty premiered 19 April (Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Singapore) and runs 110 minutes. STX Entertainment bought the North-American distribution rights at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for 15 mil. $. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits A Quiet Place and Rampage, for a 16 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#3-#4) and grossed 48.7 mil. $ (55.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.1 mil. $ (8 %) and Australia with 6.8 mil. $ (7.7 %). The film gets no French release, as the French rights have been sold to Netflix, who debuted it on their streaming platform there on 20 July. It has one market left to open in: Italy on 22 August. Kohn/Silverstein do not have an announced next project yet. Schumer is set to star with Steve Carell and Nicole Kidman in Rebecca Miller's upcoming She Came to Me, which has no production or release dates out yet. I Feel Pretty is rotten at 34 % with a 5.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of I Feel Pretty?
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