No Hard Feelings (2023)

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Long before superhero blockbusters ruled the cinematic roost there were comedies. All types of comedies. As long as they were funny, nothing else really mattered. Those days are long gone, sadly, but it’s a genre that isn’t going down without a fight. No Hard Feelings is the latest in a string of recent sex-comedies hoping to restore some of the genre’s luster and box-office potential.

Trailers promised a raunchy, dirty good time, but it’s biggest gimmick wasn’t the promise of sex in a mainstream release, but having Oscar-winning star Jennifer Lawrence play against type as a sexually liberated 30-something willing to trade a little boom-boom for a Buick. Unfortunately, the red-band trailers make an otherwise decent comedy look a lot nastier than it is, which could be a turn-off for those hoping for a little filth in their frolic.

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Maddie Barker (Lawrence) is down on her luck, blaming everyone for her troubles but herself. At 32 her love-life is a series of one-night stands, and she’s working as both an Uber driver and bartender not only to make ends meet, but to pay off back property taxes for the house she inherited from her mom. Her car is seized to pay back taxes, by an ex-boyfriend no less, and a flood of newcomers to the area have been pricing out the locals.

When all seems lost, she pins all her hopes on responding to a strange Craigslist ad where parents Laird and Allison Becker (an almost unrecognizable Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti), who are desperate for their painfully shy son, Percy Becker (Andrew Barth Feldman), to open up before heading off to Princetown. And by ‘opening up’ they want Maddie to show him a good time by becoming his own little Mrs. Robinson by “dating” him. “Date him hard,” Laird tells Maddie. No problem, she says. “I’ll date his brains out!”.

In exchange, she gets a fancy Buick Regal, free and clear. Maddie is already an expert at disassociating sex from feelings, so what could possibly go wrong? She visits him at the local animal shelter where he’s volunteering under the guise she’s looking to adopt, but comes off so aggressive and dominating her tact throws the poor kid off, who initially thinks she’s a kidnapper and maces her (what teenage boy carries mace?).

But soon the two find common ground, their different personalities (and lifestyles) give way to finding commonality that transcends sex. You can see what’s coming miles away, but it’s not long before Maddie finds herself growing attached to Percy, just not in ways she ever expected. There’s subtle commentary about the emptiness of meaningless sex outside of a committed relationship here, even if the film isn’t brave (or smart) enough to say it outright.

For a comedy promising lots of raunch and sex No Hard Feelings is actually light on the actual sex. In fact, there really isn’t any, except some grinding and cringe “sexy” dancing. Minus a few F-bombs this could have easily been rated PG-13. We make due with full-frontal nudity instead, though even these scant moments are played more for laughs, not titillation. After some careful camera angles early on I was genuinely shocked when Jennifer Lawrence went Full Monty during an epic beach fight scene, maybe the funniest bit in the movie. Or should that be…bits?

Kudos to the filmmakers for making Hall & Oates’ epic “Maneater” banger not just integral to the plot, but molding it to feel appropriate whenever it appears. Feldman is a theater kid, so naturally there’s a standout bit with him behind a piano belting out an impressive version, a stark contrast to Lawrence’s, um, bits and bobs. But it works. The whole soundtrack is great, even if it sounds like the playlist of someone 20 years older than any of its leads.

For the most part writer/director Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys, Bad Teacher) crafts a largely by-the-numbers comedy that checks most of the genre’s expected boxes with side-characters doing what’s expected of them. The plot toys with the idea of gentrification but never really goes anywhere with it. Given the setting (Montauk, New York) it’s less a rich/poor dynamic and more rich/less rich dynamic. Every attempt the film makes at social commentary comes off limp and flaccid.

When it comes to the rules of sex-comedies, none is more important than the fact we have to actually like our leads, to cheer them on not just so they’ll “do the nasty”, but find true happiness after the orgasm fades. Otherwise it’s just soft-core porn. We also need to laugh at just how dead serious everyone takes getting laid because we understand why they think sex is the most important thing in the world. Nothing else matters.

Perhaps the insistence on saccharine endings instead of “happy” endings is why the genre never truly recovered after 1999’s American Pie, which also traded horniness for genuine affection. Even by that standards of pie copulation, No Hard Feelings is practically chaste.

And that’s a problem for a comedy promising a sexy good time. Neither Maddie nor Percy are motivated by sex. Maddie just wants the car. Percy may be a dweeby teen, but he’s a nice dweeby teen, held back by shyness and obnoxious helicopter parents more than a defective personality. Had his character been unlikable, less attractive or even obese, the dynamic between him and Maddie might have been more corrosive instead of disarmingly sweet.

But that would have been a different movie, albeit a more outrageous (and possibly funnier) one. Too often, the movie we have plays it squeaky clean, either misunderstanding what an actual sex-comedy is or forgetting it’s still possible to have raunch and circumstance play nice with each other.

No Hard Feelings doesn’t reinvent the sex-comedy, but it’s fun while it lasts and you don’t mind spending time with this cast. It also helps that Lawrence and Feldman have real chemistry, even if they feel more like siblings than lovers. It’s not the sizable age gap (13 years), either. It’s a shame the film doesn’t believe in its own premise, which it mostly abandons midway through. What’s most outrageous is how we’re supposed to believe a 32-year-old Jennifer Lawrence is “old” enough to be a sexual anachronism in today’s PC culture. It never quite works, but there’s enough (non-sexual) chemistry to make this a decent date night out.