Hard and Fast: is No Hard Feelings the Modern Millennial Comedy We’ve Been Waiting For?
Too old for TikTok, too young to buy property: Millennial angst is real, and they’ve found their Queen. Jennifer Lawrence hits the bullseye, and learns some hard truths about Gen Z, letting go, and how far she’d go for a free Buick Regal.
good.film
2 years ago
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What social causes does No Hard Feelings explore?
Family & Community. Female Empowerment. Poverty & Inequality.
Discover other top movies & TV shows that explore these themes - and more - at good.film.
Why should I see No Hard Feelings? On a brain-off, popcorn-munching level, this is your next fun Friday night movie. But there’s more to chew on than some swear-laden zingers and a shock-value naked fight scene. No Hard Feelings has a bunch to say about Millennial disillusionment, Gen Z hyper-awareness, and even women’s body autonomy that will keep you thinking long after the LOLs have faded.
Want to go see No Hard Feelings? Grab a Good Tix to watch the movie for less!
We all know a helicopter parent. That Mum or Dad who is always hovering overhead like an Apache chopper, ready to tackle any issue that threatens a hair on their little one’s head. Like say, getting bullied… bad grades… not losing their virginity before leaving for college…
[NEEDLE SCRATCH]
Look, before you judge Allison & Laird Becker, they just want their 19 year old son Percy to “come out of his shell”. He’s glued to his room, doesn’t drink or party, and just needs a bit of confidence before he heads off to Princeton. So they do what any* concerned parents would do… advertise to give away their spare car to any woman who’ll date their son.
(*Okay, not “any” parent. But hey, this is Hollywood! And believe it or not, No Hard Feelings is based on a real ad that was really placed by real people for this exact scenario).
Enter Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence), who’s as sus on this deal as the rest of us, but she’s desperate. Owing a pile of taxes on the beloved family home, Maddie’s doing her best as an Uber driver in the holiday spot of Montauk. That’s until her car gets repossessed - for not paying her taxes. Catch-22s don’t come much more 2023.
To keep her house, she needs a car. To get the car, she needs to win Percy over. Easy, right? Just slip into a tight dress and a sultry voice and she’d surely make any late teen’s dreams. But there’s more to Percy than meets the eye. For a shy, introverted dork who suffers anxiety rashes, it turns out Percy’s got a surprisingly strong moral code.
Which means for Maddie, there’s no instant wham-bam and no thankyou ma’am, here’s your car. She needs to win Percy over. And since their first meeting climaxes with Percy mistaking her for a rapey kidnapper and spraying her full-force with a faceful of mace, it’s gonna be an uphill climb.
Where does No Hard Feelings go from there?
A red-eyed Maddie manages to talk a wary Percy off the mace ledge and into a first date, but as personalities go, they’re worlds apart. She’s confident and brash - he’s reserved and jittery to the point of leaping off his seat (hilariously, we gotta say) when someone cracks a break on the pool table across the bar.
Maddie’s approach isn’t working, so she steps it up. It’s night, they’re near the beach… how about some skinny dipping? For most guys, hearing JLaw suggest a nude night frolic together would be fist-pump central - but again, Percy isn’t most guys. He nervously pulls out every excuse (trespassing… not enough lifeguards… too many sharks!?) before tugging off his dacks.
What we’re treated to then is up there with There's Something About Mary's “beans above the frank” and Bridesmaids' “grey meat” scenes for hall of fame comic shock value, as Jennifer Lawrence grapples and slap-tackles a trio of pranksters who steal their clothes - totally in the nude, without a speck of shame.
It sets the bar for this MA15+ comedy, and it’s a hilarious insight into Maddie herself. She’s not about to let a bit of social impropriety stop her getting what she wants. It’s a metaphor for the bigger picture: Maddie needs to save her home, and with it, the memories of her Mum who raised her alone. If that means sharing some intimacy for a free car, she’s in. And she won’t let a socially-imposed label (like “sex worker” - more on that below) stop her.
Okay… so No Hard Feelings is a pretty lightweight comedy then?
Not exactly. Yes, definitely a comedy, but there’s some proper moral heft under these sight gags and nude stunts. There’s an invitation, for example, to decide for ourselves where we draw the line on what’s “okay” here. Sure, it might be cool for Maddie to exercise her own body autonomy by making the deal with Percy’s parents - but without his consent, the morals of this deal get a little more… iffy.
The movie’s attracted its fair share of controversy as a result, being called out online for promoting sexual grooming (based, it must be said, on the trailers alone). Writing for feminist magazine Bust, Carmella D’Acquisto poses: "Think about if this film would be made if the genders were reversed. No one would make that movie. But it's presented as funny and quirky when a grown woman does the manipulating."
But actor Andrew Barth Feldman, who plays Percy, highlights that No Hard Feelings is more interested in heroing sex for men that’s based on love and connection. "The film never condones the things that Jennifer's character does or that my character's parents do”, he said in a recent interview. “This is a movie about flawed people! You're meant to sit with those uncomfortable feelings."
Interesting. What else is going on with No Hard Feelings?
There’s a decent clutch of thinking points built throughout the movie’s premise that, in our opinion, give No Hard Feelings much more weight than your standard serving of American Pie. Some of the other social elements we left the theatre mulling over:
- Summer People: set in a holiday town in upstate New York, there’s a running theme that wealthy vacationers are squeezing out “year-round” residents like Maddie, who’s lived in the same home her whole life. The idea that people can’t afford to live in areas swooped upon by the rich resonates with current crises in housing affordability.
- Bodily Autonomy and Consent: Who gets to decide what’s okay when there’s a transaction of goods and sex on the table? Maddie’s comfortable with her body, and uses it on her own terms. But the waters get murkier when Maddie develops an authentic sympathy for Percy, and when he starts falling in love with her for real.
- Millennial vs. Gen Z Morality: Woke teens on TikTok come in for plenty of criticism from Millennials, but you might call into question who’s on better terms when it comes to consent and choice. While Percy’s timidity is played for laughs, if you listen to what he’s saying, his words and actions all reflect a strong respect for women, and for his own wants and needs. (Interestingly, this is backed by real stats: Socius found that Gen Zers are having less casual sex than their Millennial counterparts at the same age. While 38% of young adults had casual sex in 2007, this number dropped to 24% in 2017. And The Balance found that Millennials care more about looks than Gen Z does.)
- Flipping Gender Roles: we’ve seen countless “comedies” where the guy is pressuring the girl for sex. In holding out for real connection before he’s ready for intimacy, Percy models a male on-screen who doesn’t prize physicality as the sole goal.
What are critics saying about No Hard Feelings?
- “It is one of the first comedies to foreground the Millennials vs Gen Z culture-clash, contrasting Maddie’s sex-positive but callow confidence with Percy’s intense fragility.” ~ Leslie Felperin, Financial Times
- “Much better appreciated as an unlikely friendship story than the raunchy comedy it’s billed as, No Hard Feelings is formulaic but fun, fuelled by the lead pair’s engaging chemistry.” ~ Sophie Butcher, Empire Magazine
- “No Hard Feelings is surprisingly smart and tender, and balances the difficult task of being gross-out funny and achingly sweet.” ~ Wenlei Ma, News.com.au
- “An easy-breezy, uninhibited good time, anchored by two killer comedic performances and surprisingly moving insights... just the right kind of sweet, intoxicating comedy cocktail to kick off the summer.” ~ Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
So… what’s the takeaway from No Hard Feelings?
If there was an Oscar for comic stunt work, Jennifer Lawrence would need to clear some space on her shelf. Aside from the aforementioned naked beach fight, she spends half the movie on rollerblades, clings to the windscreen of a moving car, and reverses a Corolla off a tow truck at 45 degrees. On the dialogue front, her comic timing is unsurprisingly sparkling.
Like we mentioned, the movie has some pretty cogent points to make about female bodily autonomy (always good) and helicopter parenting (always problematic). They've also squeezed just about every drop of comic juice out of the gulf between Lawrence's frustrated, sailor-mouthed 32-year-old and today's consent-conscious college generation.
Frozen in her twenty-something development phase, Maddie isn’t quite stepping up to adulthood, while Percy is wise beyond his years and not quite as socially inept as he seems. So they mutually benefit from their bizarre pair-up. Maddie teaches him how to unbutton himself (literally and figuratively) and Percy helps her open up about her past familial trauma, including her absentee Dad. As “sex comedies” go, that’s a pretty solid base.
So while the premise might have super left-leaning filmgoers raising their moral flags, we’re giving No Hard Feelings the green light: director Gene Stupnitsky’s newie is immensely likeable, risque while keeping the funny, and often cleverer than you'd expect.
