“No Hard Feelings” Review
Movies about people having sex with other people under false pretense have largely fallen out of favor with the general public, largely due to the implication that it’s actually a rape and if you lie to someone to have sex with them, there’s a level of evilness in you that’s unforgivable. I think in their sense of nostalgia for a movie formula that worked pretty well back in the 1980’s everyone lost sight of the conclusions of the current zeitgeist. The basic premise of the film is just that, she’s a 32 year old woman that’s being paid by the parents of a 19 year old that’s recently graduated from high school but has failed to have sex with an actual human being. There’s a couple scenes (including the entire first ‘mixer’ scene) that brush up against the honest truth that this type of thing is just fine and that the main character played by Jennifer Lawrence is wrong in nearly every aspect of her social stances. To be clear, I knew plenty of dudes that had limited sexual experience before they made it to college and they did just fine with the ladies (or other fellas) if that was what they wanted to do. A few of them straight up were uninterested in pursuing romantic interests, which is just fine. No one needed to be ‘fixed’ by having sex with a uber driver that’s nearly twice their age.
There’s some really funny or poignant scenes in the film, it’s a shame they’re encapsulated in such a problematic film.
