No Hard Feelings (2023)
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No Hard Feelings Movie Review
No Hard Feelings is a 2023 comedy film directed by Gene Stupnitsky and starring Jennifer Lawrence. It’s a very funny and entertaining, though conventional flick.
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“Does anyone even fuck anymore?“
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On the brink of losing her home, Maddie finds an intriguing job listing: helicopter parents looking for someone to bring their introverted 19-year-old son out of his shell before college. She has one summer to make him a man. Finally, Hollywood has released a full-on comedy in this post-comedy era in our culture. Hopefully, the success of this movie will result in more comedies in the near future.
I have a tendency to not care for romantic comedies and this one is technically a rom-com, but more specifically it’s a sex comedy, which is why it ultimately appealed to me. No Hard Feelings exhibits that typical structural issue that most of these movies face – the first half is quite funny and at times even hilarious, but the second half is where the pace significantly slows down and they have to go through all of the conventional plot beats in order to wrap the story.
Thus, that second half was the least interesting section of the film for me personally. Yes, ending their relationship that was never really a relationship was the only reasonable conclusion to the story and the message that young men should pursue love connection instead of meaningless sex was a sound one (the critique of modern parenting and young people’s awful behaviors was also prominent), but every single plot beat was so predictable during the third act and the laugh ratio suddenly dwindled here.
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But the first half was genuinely hilarious and finally they brought back the raunchy humor and sex jokes and even nudity during this ridiculously sexless period for Hollywood. It was an obvious choice to make an edgy sex comedy but with roles reversed and the girl is the one being all nasty and sexually charged, but the premise worked because it was solidly executed and because Lawrence was perfectly cast in the main role.
Yes, Jennifer Lawrence is one of the rare true movie stars that we have right now. She is particularly adept at physical comedy and her willingness to go there in terms of nudity and disgusting scenes is to be admired. Her star shined bright throughout this movie and she is the main reason why this otherwise only okay story worked as well as it did.
No Hard Feelings needed a more memorable actor than Andrew Barth Feldman as her co-star. He is solid, but far from great. The actor also needed more development and he just wasn’t all that believable. Their dynamic is fun for sure, but hardly deep. The movie flies through the motions in the second half, but its pacing is mostly brisk, leading to a fun time to be had at the movies, especially in company.
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In this ridiculously sexless post-comedy era for Hollywood, a sex comedy No Hard Feelings really came as a breath of fresh air. This is a movie that has that typical issue for the genre – the first half is so entertaining and funny, but the second half has to wrap up the story by going through all the necessary, predictable plot beats, making this section much less interesting. Still though, this was for the most part a surprisingly funny, honest, raunchy movie that benefitted from Jennifer Lawrence’s charismatic, scene-stealing performance. Her willingness to go there in terms of nudity and edgy humor is commendable and her knack at physical comedy is evident. She’s truly one of the rare movie stars that we have right now.
My Rating – 3.5
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