Common Sense Media Review
By Sandie Angulo Chen , based on child development research. How do we rate?
age 16+
Raunchy, earnest comedy about fake romance; swearing, sex.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
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Language
a lot
Near-constant strong language includes "f--k," "f---ing," "f----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "d--k," "dumbass," "bitch," "goddamn," "ass," and one use of "c--t."
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Sex, Romance & Nudity
a lot
The movie's premise is that Percy's parents hire Maddie to date and have sex with him as a way to get him out of his shell before college. Lots of sexual innuendo, overt propositioning. Maddie all but coerces Percy to go skinny-dipping, and there's a nonsexual scene with full-frontal nudity as she runs out of the water to physically confront the teens who've taken their clothes. Maddie offers to have sex with Percy, but he wants to wait; later, she wants to wait. Eventually they try to have sex (under the covers). In conversations, Maddie and her friend discuss all the reasons women have sex with men. Percy is found shirtless in bed with a girl.
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Products & Purchases
some
Several brands/products are discussed or seen for more than a brief glimpse, including Toyota, Buick, Tesla, Mercedes, iPhone, MacBook, Calvin Klein. Maddie identifies as an Uber driver and mentions the company several times. Craigslist is also mentioned a few times.
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
some
See AlsoHard Feelings (2023) | Rotten TomatoesNo hard Feelings AMC Tickets | FeverJennifer Lawrence's Raunchy Comedy "No Hard Feelings" Is Based on a Real Craigslist AdNo Hard Feelings (2023) | Rotten TomatoesMaddie is a part-time bartender and is shown serving and prepping drinks. Adults drink at bars, meals, and get-togethers. Underage drinking: Older teens (17- to 19-year-olds who've just graduated from high school) drink to excess and "take pills" at a party. The pill in question turns out to be ibuprofen. Percy's parents let him have a glass of wine at dinner. Maddie and her adult friends share a joint and smoke regular cigarettes on a couple of occasions. A former K-9 dog is known to have gotten addicted to cocaine in the line of duty.
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Violence & Scariness
a little
Percy sprays Maddie in the face with mace more than once, causing her to bawl and fall down in pain. Maddie gets into a physical altercation with three drunk teens who play a prank by stealing Percy and Maddie's clothes while they're skinny-dipping. She punches and pushes them, and they hurt one another in the genitals. Maddie pushes her way through a closed door and pulls Percy out of bed with a woman. Quick glimpse of Percy playing a graphically violent video game. Percy and Maddie each jump on the hood of a car while it's moving. In one case, the car is nearly hit by a train; in the other, the car ends up in the ocean.
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Positive Messages
some
Genuine friendship can develop between two very different people. Parents need to let their children grow and succeed on their own without micromanaging everything for them. Adults need to process their past trauma in order to keep moving forward. Subplot about need for affordable housing so that rich folks don't overly gentrify and push out locals in vacation towns or neighborhoods. Themes also include compassion and empathy.
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Positive Role Models
a little
Not many role models, but Sara and Jim are good friends to Maddie, and she's a loyal friend to them. The Beckers are loving if hovering parents who have to learn to let their son make his own decisions and mistakes. Percy is intelligent and kind, and wants sex and romance to mean something. Maddie has serious commitment issues but is a good friend to Sara and him and was clearly a devoted daughter to her late mother. She grows to truly care for Percy.
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Diverse Representations
very little
Main characters are White, but a few background characters are people of color: Maddie's friend and lawyer is Native American (Zahn McClarnon, who is Hunkpapa Lakota and Irish); Percy's classmate is Asian (Amalia Yoo, who's Korean, Puerto Rican, and Greek). Natalie Morales (who's Cuban) plays Sara, who's of ambiguous heritage. Two teen boys at a party call Maddie out for hurling a hom*ophobic insult about them having sex with each other. The primary form of diversity in the movie is economic: Maddie and her friends are working- and middle-class "townies," while Percy and his family are rich summer people.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that No Hard Feelings is a raunchy comedy about wealthy helicopter parents who hire a 32-year-old woman named Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) to date and seduce their 19-year-old son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), so that he can go to college with more confidence. Things get fairly crass as the movie follows Maddie's attempts to earn her payment (a Buick sedan). Expect tons of sexual innuendo, conversations about sex, and flat-out propositions, as well as one sequence featuring Lawrence fully naked in a nonsexual context. Language is in nearly every scene and extremely strong, with dozens of uses of "f--k" and its variants, plus "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "bitch," and one use of "c--t." Adults have drinks at pubs, dinners, and parties -- one party has excessive underage drinking. Thirty-something-aged friends smoke cigarettes and marijuana in a couple of scenes. Violent moments are mostly played for humor, including Percy spraying Maddie in the face with mace (more than once), physical fights, and characters jumping onto the hoods of moving cars. Set in the ritzy summer beach town of Montauk, New York, the movie also explores the tensions between middle- and lower-income "townies" and rich summer folks in vacation areas. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
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No Hard Feelings
- Parents say (14)
- Kids say (14)
age 16+
Based on 14 parent reviews
Jo R. Adult
July 8, 2023
age 18+
NOT FOR KIDS
Not for kids at all. What is going on with Common Sense Media? Full nudity and a story about someone trying to trick them into sexual relations in order for money? Not a movie I’d want to take my children to see.
Katherine R. Parent of 12, 14, 18+, 18+, 18+ and 5-year-old
July 25, 2024
age 17+
Rate movie
See all 14 parent reviews
What's the Story?
NO HARD FEELINGS is a broad comedy about Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence), a 32-year-old woman from Montauk, New York, whose car is repossessed because she hasn't paid property taxes on the home she inherited from her late mother. Because she only has 90 days to make it right, Maddie is desperate to supplement her bartending income with her Uber gig -- but she needs a car. When her best friend Sara (Natalie Morales) points out a Craigslist ad offering a free Buick sedan to a woman in her mid-20s if she'll "date" the poster's inexperienced 19-year-old son before he heads to college, Maddie figures she's got little to lose. After a quick meeting with helicopter parents Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison (Laura Benanti), Maddie accepts the confidential gig and sets off to meet and seduce their virginal, introverted son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), who volunteers at the local animal shelter. But Percy isn't the kind of guy who's interested in a one-night stand, and he's so alarmed at this beautiful older woman's assertive behavior that he maces her. Eventually, the two have more dates and get to know each other, causing Maddie to regret deceiving Percy.
Is It Any Good?
Our review:
Parents say (14):
Kids say (14):
This is an uneven but amusing comedy about relationships, friendship, and first love. Lawrence, no stranger to playing down-on-her-luck characters, leans completely into her comedic wheelhouse to play Maddie, a commitment-phobe who's not a sex worker but is open to having sex with a younger guy in exchange for a car. After all, she needs the car to work, and she needs to work to make sure the bank -- and rich summer jerks -- don't get ahold of the house where she was raised. Lawrence's performance is buoyed by her chemistry with Morales, who also has finely honed comedic abilities. Feldman is believable as a neurotic, sweet, sheltered young man whose parents have hovered so much that they're misguidedly trying to oversee his love life. Percy and Maddie make an unlikely pair, but that's a big part of the comedy -- both in her context of a local pub and also in his, a swanky party with Princeton-bound seniors. Despite her beauty, there's no doubt that Maddie doesn't belong at a party with 17- to 19-year-olds.
Writer-director Gene Stupnitsky mixes the raunch with earnestness, but he doesn't fully commit to either style. The result isn't always effective, but No Hard Feelings manages to capture how two people with different backgrounds and levels of experience can still connect in a way that's not solely about the physical. Sure, the jokes are mostly sexual, but the story's heart is about relationship building, not some American Pie-style quest about virginity loss. After all, in this movie, it's Percy's parents who want him to get some, while he's looking for much more than a hookup. This isn't the sort of movie that demands a rewatch, but it's funny (and cute) enough to offer a unique twist on the stereotypical coming-of-age comedy.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Percy's approach to sex and relationships -- versus Maddie's -- in No Hard Feelings. Which of them do you tend to agree with more? Why?
What's the movie's message about "helicopter parents" and parenting children over 18? Do you think Percy has a healthy relationship with his parents?
How does the movie depict drinking and recreational drug use? Are there any consequences for either, or both? Why does that matter?
Talk about gender roles in the movie. Why is a virginal 19-year-old boy considered funny? Would this story have worked if the main characters' genders had been swapped? Why, or why not?
How do characters demonstrate compassion and empathy?
Movie Details
- In theaters: June 23, 2023
- On DVD or streaming: August 15, 2023
- Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti
- Director: Gene Stupnitsky
- Inclusion Information: Female actors
- Studio: Columbia Pictures
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Friendship
- Character Strengths: Compassion, Empathy
- Run time: 103 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: sexual content, language, some graphic nudity and brief drug use
- Last updated: August 14, 2024
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No Hard Feelings
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