No Hard Feelings (2023)

Written by GenerationofSwine on October 29, 2023

Something Something Grooming... yeah, I didn't really get that vibe from this movie.

But it was creepy that a kids parents would basically pay someone off to... doink... their son.

unfortunately it doesn't work, Jennifer Lawrence is just a horrible person in this. From pretty much start-to-finish she is a horrible human being, and in order for this story to work she needs to be likeable. She needs to be relatable. She needs to be someone that the male protagonist would actually fall for...

... and instead she's the type of person that you don't want to know. She's not even a rougish charmer. She's not a lovable con artist. She's just completely unappealing. And that is why the film doesn't work.

Andrew Barth Feldman comes across as legitimately socially awkward, but he also comes across as someone that doesn't want to be around her, and doesn't like her because of her completely toxic qualities.

The script is at least aware enough to include that... but then does a 180 where he has to pretend that, after dealing with her, he actually wants to be around her... because the plot requires it.

For some reason he doesn't want to have sex with her because HE is awkward, not because she is awful. Which makes it a little unbelievable.

I suppose in their effort to show that Jennifer don't need no man, they forget that they were making her into someone no one would want to be around long enough to bang. If they wrote her as someone that at least hesitated to ruin the fun of little kids.... they could have had a win. Instead they went for completely charmless.