Jennifer Lawrence’s new R-rated comedy “No Hard Feelings” was a solid 6/10. It meshed together the heartfeltness of a ’90s rom-com, the raunchiness of the early 2000s rom-com and the coming-of-age trend in recent media.
The movie has the same beats as a romantic comedy. An extroverted girl who lives in a small town tries to save her childhood home, and the Princeton-bound guy with helicopter parents are brought together by his parents wanting him to break out of his shell. By breaking out, they mean hiring Maddie, who desperately needs a car, to date their son; however, this movie flips the script.
Instead of ending up in a romantic relationship, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) form a solid friendship through misadventures. The ending speaks more to the trend that not every relationship is built on romantic love. The movie is a comedy, but the rom-com vibes still fit.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was Andrew Barth Feldman’s performance as the awkward young adult having to face growing up. The struggle of transitioning from youth to adulthood can be very tough to navigate, and it felt very relatable, though the movie exaggerated it a little.
Watching the dichotomy between a teen and a woman in her early thirties was fun. Especially when Maddie ends up at a party full of young adults, chaos ensues. The underlying metacommentary about Gen Z hit the nail on the head.
While the movie was full of quirkiness and humor, it fell flat. Some parts of it were hilarious, thanks to Jennifer Lawrence’s acting chops, but it wasn’t non-stop humor. For a comedy, it didn’t feel like it.
Some scenes feel out of place for the heartfelt movie masquerading as a comedy. Jennifer Lawrence beats up three teens that stole her clothes while skinny dipping. She does this in full-frontal nudity. I did enjoy seeing her terrorize them.
The movie was very predictable, except for an unresolved plotline. Maddie tells Percy that she can’t bring herself to try contacting her father, and by the end, she never does.
However, heartfelt is the key word for this movie. At its core, the film is a coming-of-age story for both characters. Percy learns how to take on the world of adulting on his own, and Maddie comes into her own and breaks free of her childhood to forge her path.
The movie is marketed as a return to fun film. The type that you can just sit back and enjoy without the pressure of looking for every easter egg and theorizing for hours on the plot.
It’s not the greatest movie of all time, but it is a good time.
