No Hard Feelings is a 2023 R-rated coming-of-age comedy film directed by Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys), from a screenplay he co-wrote with John Phillips. Jennifer Lawrence stars and also serves as a producer on the film.

On the brink of losing her childhood home, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to "date" their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy, before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing.

The cast includes Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti, Natalie Morales, Scott MacArthur (Killing It), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear).

No Hard Feelings made its debut in theaters on June 23rd, courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.

THE GOOD

I love me some Jennifer Lawrence, simple as that. She recently starred in the Apple TV original drama from A24 Causeway (our full review here), which she was incredible in of course, but she has been appearing on screen since she made her debut back in 2006 on an episode of Monk. My first impression of her was the 2010 indie drama Winter’s Bone, where she delivered a mesmerizing performance that without a doubt ignited her career. A few years later she would star as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, and would also star alongside Bradley Cooper in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook (2012). If I had to pick my favorite Lawrence role it would probably be her next David O. Russell film, the 2013 crime drama American Hustle, which was just so, so good. The bottom line, she is the entire package; sexy, talented, and supremely confident. So of course when I heard she was going to be starring in an R-rated comedy, I knew I would be seeing it as soon as it was released no matter what. So, did No Hard Feelings keep my Jennifer Lawrence obsession burning red hot or did it turn the heat down a notch? Keep reading to find out!

I genuinely enjoyed this movie, and to be honest it was actually quite a bit better than I expected it to be. No Hard Feelings offered so many things I just cannot get enough of, which is of course Jennifer Lawrence, genuine laughs, a good story, and more than anything else, just an hour and a half of movie theater goodness. I enjoyed the story much more than I expected, and I really liked all of the characters and thought the cast was fantastic from top to bottom. I went in expecting more of a full-on raunchy comedy as the trailer alluded to which I would have been fine with, but instead, No Hard Feelings digs a little deeper while making sure to still satisfy viewers expecting the latter. I felt like the majority of the jokes landed, and I also thought that because the script was a bit better than I had anticipated. Nothing ever felt forced or overdone which can often be the case with comedies. No Hard Feelings is an example of a film that tells an effective and relatable story while providing lots of laughs and feel-good moments along the way.

The cast was an obvious draw for me, and I thought Jennifer Lawrence was great in the lead role. Also if you don’t find her gorgeous, you may need to get your eyes checked. Now she wasn’t exactly flaunting her acting chops here and at times it did feel like she was dumbing things down a bit, but that is par for the course with comedy. She was still really good. What mattered most here was her chemistry with co-star Andrew Barth Feldman, and I felt like the two really hit it off. A successful Broadway actor moving into film who made his debut in the play Dear Evan Hansen in 2019, this is Feldman’s first big film role. I was hot and cold on his performance early on in the film, but he grew on me and I thought that his awkward but good-hearted demeanor really fit his character. Plus acting alongside a seasoned vet like Lawrence is not an easy feat, and the New York native made it seem easy.

Aside from the two stars of the film, I actually really liked the supporting cast in No Hard Feelings. My favorite of the group was without a doubt Scott MacArthur, the hilarious actor who just oozes on-screen personality. Although his screen time is pretty limited, he had me laughing out loud every single time he was involved in a scene. He plays the husband of the best friend of Lawrence’s character, and he is just so ridiculous with his take on dating and life in general. Now although MacArthur has been working his ass off in the industry for nearly two decades, he landed on my radar just last year with the 2022 Peacock original series Killing It, where he starred alongside Craig Robinson. This show is super ridiculous, but if you enjoy a good wacky, and often raunchy comedy it is well worth a watch. I hope MacArthur continues to get opportunities because the man is hilarious, and I’m glad he was given a chance with this film. Even though he also has a small role, my guy Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) delivers yet again. If you like Moss-Bachrach he was also really good in the HBO series Girls. Last, but certainly not least, legendary Ferris Bueller's Day Off actor Matthew Broderick was awesome as one of the aforementioned “helicopter parents”. The man has been around forever, and it was just so much fun seeing him in a role like this, and he for sure added to the comedic element of the film in an effortless fashion.

I went into No Hard Feelings not really expecting much from the overall story, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The script from director Gene Stupnitsky and John Phillips was pretty damn good and felt much more coming-of-age which just happens to be a favorite genre of mine. The film is advertised as a raunchy comedy, which don’t get me wrong, is without a doubt another favorite genre of mine, but it really is much more than that. Now we do get plenty of raunchiness in the film, including a bare-naked Jennifer Lawrence brawl on the beach where she gets blasted right in the baby maker (yup, you read that right), and it was glorious for so many reasons, but there is so much more to the film than meets the eye. Although Maddie (played by Lawrence) is a complete mess and seems to always find ways to screw up her life, her story is relatable, especially for those of us who live in tourist destinations or who just have a hard time letting go of the past. Maddie lives alone in her childhood home after losing her mother, and she is struggling to keep the house after falling behind on her taxes. Desperately trying to hold on to the few things in her life that feel familiar, Maddie slowly begins to learn that sometimes in life you just need to take a leap of faith, and I enjoyed watching her often hilarious journey unfold.

I also liked how relatable the story with Percy, who is played by Feldman, was. In some form or fashion parents today feel the need to put their kids in bubble wrap in the hopes that nothing bad will happen to them, but at the end of the day, they will need to experience the real world for themselves. Percy’s parents begin to fear that they are sending their son to college without the proper tools to flourish, including but not limited to his intact virginity, and they are determined to pull out all of the stops to turn him into a man. The events that transpire in the process are equally hilarious and a bit emotional, which speaks to the writers really making an attempt to tell a real story that holds some weight. By the end of this “experiment”, Maddie, Percy, and his parents all learn more than a few valuable lessons and are better people for it. But back to the story in general, I liked how it all came together and also felt like it had a very satisfying ending.

THE BAD

No Hard Feelings is not a perfect movie, and it has its fair share of issues keeping it from joining the list of comedy classics. In no way does this make it a bad movie, it was just missing the extra “oomph” needed to push it over the top. As I said earlier in the review I thought the story was a bright spot for the film, but it could have been better. I thought the writers had an opportunity to tap a bit more into the backstory of Lawrence’s character in an effort to tug on the heartstrings a bit more but decided not to. Now granted this would likely have meant adding an additional 15 to 20 minutes to the film, and as Margot Robbie’s character pointed out in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City which Andrew just reviewed (full review here), we have to be mindful of long runtimes. I also felt like the cast mailed it in at times, Lawrence included, where it just seemed like they got a little lazy. This is a bit nitpicky, especially for a comedy, but worth pointing out. Luckily I only felt this way a few times throughout the entire film.

THE VERDICT

A satisfying and easy-to-enjoy comedy that is more coming-of-age than it is raunchy with a much better story than I anticipated, No Hard Feelings offers plenty of laughs while also serving up an extra helping of decadent dessert for Jennifer Lawrence fans. I had a lot of fun with this movie, and the blend of effective storytelling and just great old-fashioned comedy was really what did it for me. Jennifer Lawrence remains in my top 5 as far as actresses who are gorgeous and extremely talented, and I’m glad she is still willing to have a little fun and put out an R-rated comedy from to time. If you fancy yourself the combination of a few adult beverages and lots of laughs, check out No Hard Feelings in theaters now.