As big-screen comedies die out, director/co-writer Gene Stupnitsky’s career comes alive with “No Hard Feelings,” one of 2023’s funniest films. The former “Office” writer had quietly taken the reins from Judd Apatow as the modern master of raunch-coms with 2011’s “Bad Teacher” (which he wrote and spun into a TV series) and 2019’s “Good Boys” (which he wrote and made his directorial debut).
Almost shockingly (ironically), “No Hard Feelings” is not super-raunchy. Yes, it is about a 30-something hot mess (Jennifer Lawrence’s Maddie) who is hired by parents of a sheltered 19-year-old (Andrew Barth Feldman’s Percy) to date him and bring him out of his shell before he goes off to Princeton.
It would be a nutso plot in the Eighties, or maybe even in Apatow’s Aughts, but such a plot actually has happened in real life. Lawrence becomes perfect for this role not merely because she’s the dramatic actor who (wow!) can also be funny (tee-hee, who knew?!!!), but also because she uses her full range.
“No Hard Feelings” (2023)
Director: Gene Stupnitsky
Writers: Gene Stupnitsky, John Phillips
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Matthew Broderick
The way Lawrence’s face conveys feelings so openly juxtaposes against Maddie’s as-scripted closed-off nature to pull us in. She adds a golden-age movie-starlet quality to this very 2023 screenplay. Stupnitsky and co-writer John Phillips allow her to take the spotlight by minimizing the shock-value gags and undercutting the premise’s potential ickiness by regularly mentioning it.
The humor leans toward breezy and light, along with a few set pieces that go a step further to illustrate the difference between uninhibited Maddie and timid Percy, but without going full cliche. When they’re skinny dipping and teen pranksters aim to steal their clothes from the beach, they have very different ideas about modesty and how to solve the problem. It’s refreshing to see J-Law in a “Look, she’s naked – haha!” gag usually reserved for the traditionally hilarious naked man or unattractive naked woman.
Refreshingly strange pairing
Meanwhile, Lawrence herself is generous, allowing Feldman (the equivalent of Anthony Michael Hall in the ’80s) to play off her. You’d be hard-pressed to find a 32-year-old actress and a 21-year-old actor with better chemistry, partly because such pairings rarely happen in film, and even more rarely in real life.
“No Hard Feelings” emphasizes the hard-line generation gap between Maddie and Percy. Often this is through structurally obvious jokes — Maddie doesn’t recognize the word “anime” while Percy thinks the song “Maneater” is about a monster. At other times, the jokes have a specifically 2023 touch. For instance, Maddie searches for Percy at a high school party and gets thrown off track by another teen named Percy.
While “No Hard Feelings” is heartfelt enough to transcend generations (a Bob Seger needledrop isn’t out of place), the characters’ behaviors are of the 2020s. This is not your Hughes-era or Apatow-era party: It’s being chaperoned by adults, and Maddie’s gay inuendo and light bullying are 15 years past being acceptable. The zoomers pull out their cellphone cameras, probably with the aim of canceling her.
Actually, Maddie is too poor to be canceled. She’s a waitress and Uber driver in Montauk, N.Y., who takes this unusual dating gig to try to save her home. Maddie owns the home but can’t afford the skyrocketing property taxes.
The writers understand that government tax policies, not rich people in and of themselves, are changing oceanside towns. But they have to pull back a little since this is a mainstream movie, so later we get a nonsensical detail about Maddie’s friends moving to Florida because they can’t afford Montauk anymore. Try Mississippi next time if you want verisimilitude.
Get off the chopper
More on-point among modern issues is “No Hard Feelings’ ” commentary on helicopter parenting. Percy’s parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Bananti) mean well, but we can see how his opportunity for growth has been stifled. Being a proud Gen-X’er, it’s hard to hear this but I’m glad the film says it: Zoomers are the products of Gen-X parents.
Technology is also partly to blame, as all of introverted Percy’s friends are of the online or four-legged variety. But living – and comedy – come from human interactions, and in that way “No Hard Feelings” is quite traditional.
If Percy can experience a few more interactions, he’ll perhaps meet some good people and get on the right track. Stupnitsky and Phillips make a wise and rather daring choice to not go super-big with Percy’s accomplishments or milestones within the narrative itself. They’re OK with the movie coming off slightly bittersweet, maybe even melancholy, as we always sort of know a true Percy-and-Maddie pairing can’t happen. The world isn’t that woke.
It’s about Maddie giving Percy a nudge rather than changing him from “broken” to “fixed.” In doing so, “No Hard Feelings” might’ve nudged the raunch-com genre back on track.