Last weekend I took the time to see the new raunch-com, No Hard Feelings (staring Jennifer Lawrence, written by Gene Stupnitsky and John Phillips). I did laugh a few times, but overall I found that movie lacking.
No Hard Feelings is the story about a woman in her early 30s who finds herself desperate for a new car so she agrees to a rich couples wish for a woman to start "dating" their introverted son and give him some life experience with girls before he heads off to college.
First off the acting by the leads in this raunch-com is top rate. Hats off to Jennifer Lawrence and newcomer Andrew Barth Feldman who play the sexpot and the introvert, respectfully. I heard some bad things about Jennifer Lawrence going into this movie, with some people doubting whether or not she could do comedy. Boy-oh-boy, can she ever! Not sold as her being a raving beauty, but this little firecracker gets acting and she has RANGE! As for Andrew Barth Feldman, he is this generation's Michael Cera of: Juno, Superbad, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; fame. Andrew does a fine job depicting the sensitive romantic type who is resident about coming out of his shell.
Of all the movies I've ever watched No Hard Feelings was THE FIRST that I thought the director didn't allow the scenes to go on long enough. I think there were lots of more laughs to be had, had some of the key scenes in this movie went on longer.
Overall, I'd rate No Hard Feelings a 6.5 out of 10; more good than bad, but not nearly good enough to top top 25 best romantic comedies of all-time.
The worst thing about this movie was the cliche and outright poor depictions of Percy's parents. Mathew Broderick didn't add anything to the picture, imo. They only seemed to exist in reality to worry about their son, Percy (Feldman's character); and didn't come across as real life people at all.
So how does No Hard Feelings affect the future of the genre? Are rom-com's "back"?
I have the power to revive the genre, E.C. Just not enough power to get this guy off me!
I'd have to say the romantic comedy genre as a whole is still on shaky ground after the release of No Hard Feelings. But at least Jennifer Lawrence is in play now! Back in 2012 she co-stared with Bradley Cooper in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook. I though she was EXCELLENT in that fine romantic comedy as well. My only caveat with Jennifer Lawrence's performance in No Hard Feelings was that she allowed herself to be filmed totally naked in a skinny dipping scene. Those full nudity shots should have never happened. You can film nude shots and not go all X rated on an audience that expects laughs. Had I been on set I would have called for shots of Jennifer's thighs and feet, and upper torso shots above the breasts to cue the audience that she was naked--yet not actually showing her bare breasts and womanhood on the screen.
In a separate note, if you're interested, on my past scripts got reviewed and commented on over at Scriptshadow, Bubblehead Saves the Day. I thought the script was better than it was. Oh, how time changes your perspective on past works. Still, though I failed on most of the early set-up of Bubblehead Saves the Day, I did get some very useful notes. One commenter who goes by the handle of "Montana Gillis" even went so far as to write an improved opening scene that I'm probably going to go with when I get to rewriting that script. So, yes, I do take criticism seriously and if you do offer advice that actually helps past script of mine, I am open to using those improvements. I've never been of the mind to be it's my way or the highway when it comes to my own writing. In the end I just wanna craft the best piece of entertainment I'm capable of.
Lots to do these days, edit the epic fantasy series, crafts a new horror creature screenplay, update Bubblehead Saves the Day, and get a draft of Indians of the Ancient Plains over to Carson Reeves for a paid, script consultation. Yeah, Carson had a half-off scripts notes offer and I took him up on it. Indians of the Ancient Plains is my favorite script. It's the "big hitter" that I wanted Steven Spielberg to do.