In 2018, Jennifer Lawrence was 28 and one of the biggest movie stars in the world: an Academy Award-winning actress, a veteran of the "Hunger Games" franchise, alternating between prestige projects and giant action movies.
But not all of those films were all that good, and Lawrence didn't seem to be having all that much fun, either. So she fired her agents and took a break to get married and have a baby. It was a smart move, because Lawrence is back and it's a whole new ball game. She kicks up her heels in the good old-fashioned sex comedy, "No Hard Feelings." which she also produced.
Directed by Gene Stupnitsky ("Good Boys"), "Feelings" is a direct descendant of '80s teen coming-of-age comedies, but evolved for a new generation. It's a "Superbad"-style story with the sensitivity and class consciousness of John Hughes.
There simply aren't enough female dirtbags in cinema, so Lawrence's Maddie Barker — Uber driver and surly bartender — is a refreshing character. Her car's just been repossessed, towed by her ex, Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and with unpaid property tax bills looming, she needs wheels.
Enter the weirdest Craigslist ad of all time: A pair of wealthy helicopter parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) would like to "arrange" for a young woman to date their sheltered, nerdy son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in exchange for a Buick. Maddie needs a car, and she's willing to romance a (legal) teenager, so off she roller blades for what she hopes will be a quick and easy venture into sex work.
But, of course, it's never about the destination but the friends we make along the way, and "Feelings" would never deny us that journey. Maddie and Percy forge a bond after a disastrous date that results in both experiencing harrowing bodily harm while in the buff, and something like a friendship blossoms between these two oddballs, who are odd in different ways. He's 19, she's 32, he's obsessed with rules, she's on probation.
Feldman, a 21-year-old Broadway star ("Dear Evan Hansen") in his first starring film role, shines opposite Lawrence as Percy, the anxious, cautious foil to Maddie's reckless wild child. There's a beautiful subtlety to his performance and a precision to his physicality that make him an incredibly compelling screen presence, and their opposites-attract chemistry is ridiculously charming.
What makes "Feelings" so sharp and funny, though, isn't the raunchy jokes, or the physical comedy (though the sight of Lawrence bouncing Feldman on her knee might be the funniest image on-screen this summer), it's the savagery of the generational social commentary underpinning the script by Stupnitsky and John Phillips, and no generation is safe.
"Feelings" feels more substantive in moments of cultural observation and emotional depth. Maddie needs a car because she needs to save her house, and Percy needs a date because he needs to come out of his shell. But what they both really need, and what they find, is someone to just listen, and to share vulnerability in return. Maddie might push Percy to do embarrassing, scary things, but in return, he pushes her to do the same.
The third act is a bit rushed and rickety — the big climactic moment is too wacky, the denouement all too easy. But the preceding 90 minutes are an easy-breezy, uninhibited good time, anchored by two killer comedic performances and surprisingly moving insights that make "Feelings" just the right kind of sweet, intoxicating comedy cocktail to kick off the summer.
'No Hard Feelings'
*** stars out of 4
Rated: R for sexual content, language, some graphic nudity and brief drug use.
Where: In theaters Friday.
