‘No Hard Feelings’ Is a Reminder That We Like Weird Comedies!!!
The world has seemingly moved on from raunchy, weird comedies but No Hard Feelings reminds us that, when done well, they’re actually really fun to watch. The new Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Bart Feldman movie introduces us to Maddie (Lawrence) a woman in her 30s who is trying desperately to keep her mother’s home in the ever-changing landscape of Montauk. With rich vacationing families taking over the town she grew up in, Maddie is faced with debt, impending foreclosure, and no other options. So she decides to reply to a Craigslist post from a couple looking for help with their son Percy (Feldman).
Percy is awkward and lonely, and Maddie’s job is to date him and maybe sleep with him (or maybe the task is to sleep with him and maybe date him), in exchange for a car, which she needs to drive Uber for those rich tourists. What is so cute about this movie is that it is genuinely so weird and awkward at every turn. Maddie doesn’t really know what she’s doing and is often mean to Percy because of his perceived oddities. When they do have moments of genuine friendship, the chemistry between the two shines. Percy is 19 and getting ready to go to college at Princeton but doesn’t really have any social skills so his parents (played by Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) believe they’re helping to get him out of his shell.
The problem is that Maddie is not exactly a nice sweet employee. She does, at one point, bare-naked fight some young adults who tried to take their clothes while skinny-dipping. Throughout the movie, I found myself laughing at some of the more absurd jokes because it was just pure dumb fun.
Raunchy sex comedies are fun actually
In a sea of big-budget action movies and hard-hitting indie dramas, the simple comedy sort of took a hit. No Hard Feelings feels really unique in the current film landscape. It’s also a nice update on the raunchy sex comedy genre, which has historically been rooted in some pretty gross misogyny.
Personally, I like that No Hard Feelings has a messy woman at the center who doesn’t know where she’s supposed to be in her life at 32 and is struggling to even make ends meet. Maddie is a downright disaster of a human which makes for a more fascinating dynamic between her and Percy, a 19-year-old who is too concerned about every little detail in his life. While they are “dating” each other, it is less about their romantic capabilities and more about these two individuals needing help to move on in their lives. Ultimately, this is a movie about friendship.
Letting Jennifer Lawrence have fun in a movie like this was nice to see. No Hard Feelings isn’t a perfect movie but it’s fun and we all deserve some pure dumb enjoyment. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a resurgence of the sex comedy but if not, at least we have a messy female lead in Maddie to love.
(featured image: Sony Pictures Releasing)
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