Up to this point, comedian and actor Amy Schumer has been known as a boundary pusher. The best sketches on her Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer (2013-’17) called out and rejected the ways in which women are expected to adhere to certain beauty standards and behavioral norms in consumer society. Trainwreck (2015), her first starring feature, was a successful extension of her TV show’s themes and her stand-up persona as a raunchy, unapologetic lush. Like Bridesmaids (2011), Trainwreck became a feminist triumph not by emphasizing the differences between men and women but by riffing on their similarities, and by letting the smart and unsparing humor speak for itself.
Based on this and other reductive comments, which the filmmakers treat as not only universally true but profound, the company’s founder (Lauren Hutton) and her granddaughter (Michelle Williams), the CEO, ask Renee to present the line to Target bigwigs in Boston. Yes, in what is, unfortunately, not a cinematic first, a corporation works its way into a film’s climax, muddying the message to an almost comical degree. I Feel Pretty encourages women and girls to be individuals, and also to shop at Target.
Directed by Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn. PG-13, 110 min.
