No Hard Feelings Movie Review (2024)

Parents need to know that No Hard Feelings is a raunchy comedy about wealthy helicopter parents who hire a 32-year-old woman named Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) to date and seduce their 19-year-old son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), so that he can go to college with more confidence. Things get fairly crass as the movie follows Maddie's attempts to earn her payment (a Buick sedan). Expect tons of sexual innuendo, conversations about sex, and flat-out propositions, as well as one sequence featuring Lawrence fully naked in a nonsexual context. Language is in nearly every scene and extremely strong, with dozens of uses of "f--k" and its variants, plus "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "bitch," and one use of "c--t." Adults have drinks at pubs, dinners, and parties -- one party has excessive underage drinking. Thirty-something-aged friends smoke cigarettes and marijuana in a couple of scenes. Violent moments are mostly played for humor, including Percy spraying Maddie in the face with mace (more than once), physical fights, and characters jumping onto the hoods of moving cars. Set in the ritzy summer beach town of Montauk, New York, the movie also explores the tensions between middle- and lower-income "townies" and rich summer folks in vacation areas.

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Language

a lot

Near-constant strong language includes "f--k," "f---ing," "f----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "d--k," "dumbass," "bitch," "goddamn," "ass," and one use of "c--t."

Sex, Romance & Nudity

a lot

The movie's premise is that Percy's parents hire Maddie to date and have sex with him as a way to get him out of his shell before college. Lots of sexual innuendo, overt propositioning. Maddie all but coerces Percy to go skinny-dipping, and there's a nonsexual scene with full-frontal nudity as she runs out of the water to physically confront the teens who've taken their clothes. Maddie offers to have sex with Percy, but he wants to wait; later, she wants to wait. Eventually they try to have sex (under the covers). In conversations, Maddie and her friend discuss all the reasons women have sex with men. Percy is found shirtless in bed with a girl.

Products & Purchases

some

Several brands/products are discussed or seen for more than a brief glimpse, including Toyota, Buick, Tesla, Mercedes, iPhone, MacBook, Calvin Klein. Maddie identifies as an Uber driver and mentions the company several times. Craigslist is also mentioned a few times.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

some

Maddie is a part-time bartender and is shown serving and prepping drinks. Adults drink at bars, meals, and get-togethers. Underage drinking: Older teens (17- to 19-year-olds who've just graduated from high school) drink to excess and "take pills" at a party. The pill in question turns out to be ibuprofen. Percy's parents let him have a glass of wine at dinner. Maddie and her adult friends share a joint and smoke regular cigarettes on a couple of occasions. A former K-9 dog is known to have gotten addicted to cocaine in the line of duty.

Violence & Scariness

a little

Percy sprays Maddie in the face with mace more than once, causing her to bawl and fall down in pain. Maddie gets into a physical altercation with three drunk teens who play a prank by stealing Percy and Maddie's clothes while they're skinny-dipping. She punches and pushes them, and they hurt one another in the genitals. Maddie pushes her way through a closed door and pulls Percy out of bed with a woman. Quick glimpse of Percy playing a graphically violent video game. Percy and Maddie each jump on the hood of a car while it's moving. In one case, the car is nearly hit by a train; in the other, the car ends up in the ocean.

Positive Messages

some

Genuine friendship can develop between two very different people. Parents need to let their children grow and succeed on their own without micromanaging everything for them. Adults need to process their past trauma in order to keep moving forward. Subplot about need for affordable housing so that rich folks don't overly gentrify and push out locals in vacation towns or neighborhoods. Themes also include compassion and empathy.

Positive Role Models

a little

Not many role models, but Sara and Jim are good friends to Maddie, and she's a loyal friend to them. The Beckers are loving if hovering parents who have to learn to let their son make his own decisions and mistakes. Percy is intelligent and kind, and wants sex and romance to mean something. Maddie has serious commitment issues but is a good friend to Sara and him and was clearly a devoted daughter to her late mother. She grows to truly care for Percy.

Diverse Representations

very little

Main characters are White, but a few background characters are people of color: Maddie's friend and lawyer is Native American (Zahn McClarnon, who is Hunkpapa Lakota and Irish); Percy's classmate is Asian (Amalia Yoo, who's Korean, Puerto Rican, and Greek). Natalie Morales (who's Cuban) plays Sara, who's of ambiguous heritage. Two teen boys at a party call Maddie out for hurling a homophobic insult about them having sex with each other. The primary form of diversity in the movie is economic: Maddie and her friends are working- and middle-class "townies," while Percy and his family are rich summer people.

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