“Does anyone even fuck anymore?” This is a question that has been hovering around online discourse surrounding life in the 2020s, but also around movies and their lack of sexual content. This question comes right in the middle of No Hard Feelings, exclaimed by Maddie (Lawrence), a down-on-her-luck Montauk local who must go to desperate, ethically murky lengths to keep her head above water. It’s a bold, brash, and brief comedy that seems to ask that same question while examining generational differences in attitudes toward sex. In that, No Hard Feelings mostly succeeds, thanks to its game-for-anything cast and its willingness to take risks with its story.
Maddie usually makes her living over the summer by bartending and working as an Uber driver but is thwarted from her usual work when her car is towed away. Desperate to pay off the property taxes on her mom’s house, she comes across an interesting ad. A couple in town (Benanti and Broderick) is offering their old Buick to any woman who can “date” their son enough to bring him out of his shell before he goes off to college in the fall. Maddie is game for the dubious task, especially as someone who generally keeps people (romantic interests especially) at arm’s length. However, when she meets her mark, Percy (Feldman), and he’s tougher to bed than she realized, she gets a rare opportunity to be vulnerable, even if it’s under very weird pretenses.
A sex comedy like No Hard Feelings feels like a rarity in a film landscape that has championed broad, mostly sterile entertainment for a while. It’s an interesting return to the genre that is also smart and self-aware about its knotty central narrative and age difference (there are so many old jokes directed at Maddie, played by the thirtysomething Lawrence, that anyone expecting a romance should rethink their expectations). Yet it still manages to be bold, surprising, and uproarious, especially with its use of nudity.
There is a lot of talk about sex and less actual sex depicted in No Hard Feelings, which feels like a tepid choice at times. However, the presence of it at all is refreshing. It’s nice to have a complicated, under-two-hours comedy for adults at the theatre again. The casting, with Lawrence and Feldman taking the lead, is another reason the movie works. Feldman is great as Percy; he’s all shaky vulnerability, earnest adoration, and genuine tenderness, playing well against Lawrence’s jaded, guarded, and determined Maddie. It’s also such a pleasure to see Lawrence do comedy, and physical comedy specifically. From hanging off of car hoods to skinny dipping gone wrong, it’s a great and surprising turn for her and hopefully the beginning of more comedic opportunities for Lawrence.
Overall, No Hard Feelings is a breezy, welcome return to the sex comedy, even if it’s a bit more tempered than it would have you think. It’s a breath of fresh air that hopefully signals a change for the better, bolder, and filthier in mainstream cinema.
This article appears in June 23 • 2023.