No Hard Feelings (2023)

[Eric Loves Rey]

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[Jonwo]

J-Law beating the shit out of kids while butt naked is an image I won't forget.

 

Film itself is pretty decent, the plot is implausible but for this type of film, you can forgive it. I did think some of the jokes about Maddie being seen as old by the college kids was a bit on the nose and didn't quite work, she's in her early 30s, not ancient! 

[filmlover]

It's not easy for someone to rescue a movie that would've fallen flat in the hands of less talented actors and turn it into something fairly enjoyable to watch all by themselves, but Jennifer Lawrence manages to do just that stepping outside of her usual comfort zone here. This essentially plays out as if director/writer Gene Stupnitsky threw Bad Teacher (which he also wrote), Failure to Launch, and a number of 80s comedies into a blender and the rather messy screenplay was the result, and it feels like they could've taken advantage of the R rating more than they ultimately do (nor does it help that most of the funniest bits were spoiled in the marketing, except for arguably the most memorable unclothed fight scene in a movie since Eastern Promises). But through it all, Lawrence, as she usually does, keeps things engaging throughout, and she shares a solid screen connection with newcomer Andrew Barth Feldman (good discovery) that sells what could've easily been an uncomfortable relationship well. Overall, I felt the same way about this as I did about Stupnitsky's previous movie (2019's Good Boys): it won't reinvent the R-rated comedy genre but it manages to take a premise in questionable taste and make it an agreeably pleasant time at the movies. B

 

Hall & Oates' "Maneater" is a great song and this movie's usage of it gets an A, though.

[Jonwo]

Am I the only one who thought Maddie should have just sold the house for full price rather than give it to her friends at a lower rate.

[Webslinger]

No Hard Feelings is a successful throwback to the era where raunchy R-rated comedies dotted the cinematic landscape about a decade-and-a-half ago, filtered through today’s sensibilities. It’s a little too long and sometimes struggles to find just the right balance between its out-and-out comedic elements and its more poignant moments (though it does both well in isolation), but it hits as breezy fun much more often than it misses. The concept is admittedly eyebrow-raising, but the filmmakers do a good job of milking the provocative elements for laughs while refraining from taking things into overly icky territory. It helps that the performances from the leads both click. Jennifer Lawrence appears to be having the most fun in any of her screen roles in years, hitting all her comic beats just right while somehow also finding a way to shape well-meaning screw-up Maddie as a three-dimensional character. Lawrence is funny to watch in Maddie’s over-the-top comedic moments (especially that beach fight scene, where she truly goes for broke and scores the biggest laughs in the film) and puts in more than enough legwork to make her character arc feel more affecting than it probably should in an R-rated raunchy comedy. Co-lead Andrew Barth Feldman is also winning in his performance as shy, introverted Percy; Feldman succeeds in capturing Percy’s naivete in hilarious ways, but – like Lawrence – also comes across poignantly when he needs to. Lawrence and Feldman succeed in crafting a bond between their characters that becomes surprisingly endearing as the narrative progresses. It hasn’t resurrected the raunch-com to its glory days, but No Hard Feelings is a solid little comedy, and hopefully the beginning of studios committing more to getting enjoyable comedies off of streaming and back in front of audiences where they belong.

 

B

[abracadabra1998]

The first 30/40 minutes are genuinely hilarious, I was not expecting it to make me laugh as much as it did after not being impressed by the trailer. Much of that has to do with Jennifer Lawrence; she is supremely talented, of course, and she seems determined to showcase her range with Causeway and this in a row. Here, in a very physical performance, she carries the hell out of it. As the movie progresses, it loses a bit of its funniness, but still shows a lot of heart. It’s predictable and corny, but as I sat in the theater as the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but feel thankful to see an R-rated comedy still come out in our theatrical world of today

 

6/10