{"id":1963016,"date":"2023-07-03T03:24:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T07:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/coming-of-age-comedy-no-hard-feelings-gets-sex-right\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T03:31:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T07:31:19","slug":"coming-of-age-comedy-no-hard-feelings-gets-sex-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/coming-of-age-comedy-no-hard-feelings-gets-sex-right\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;No Hard Feelings&#8217; nails sex in coming-of-age comedy."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcoming-of-age-comedy-no-hard-feelings-gets-sex-right%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1963016&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cNo Hard Feelings\u201d is basically an \u201980s coming-of-age movie set in the 21st century. But unlike a typical \u201980s comedy, where everything is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/grassley-demands-doj-fbi-update-status-of-investigation-into-kavanaughs-fraudulant-accusers\/\" title=\"Grassley Demands DOJ, FBI Update Status Of Investigation Into Kavanaugh\u2019s \u2018Fraudulant\u2019 Accusers\">made light<\/a> of with escapist abandon, this one deals with many of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scott-powell-how-the-118th-u-s-congress-could-deliver-lasting-results\/\" title=\"Scott Powell: How the 118th U.S. Congress Could Deliver Lasting Results\">pressing problems facing<\/a> our society as a whole. As is often the case, when Hollywood has a moment of honesty, fundamentally conservative values come out of hiding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The premise is that Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) is trying to pay the increasingly gentrified property taxes on her house in Montauk. She\u2019s in her early 30s, engages in casual sex, and constantly hurts any man who actually cares about her.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1791820497\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e26c17dc829b7e864da6149a9f84c1cc fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e26c17dc829b7e864da6149a9f84c1cc\"><\/div>\n<p>In order to pay her taxes she tries to work as an Uber driver, but her car has been repossessed. So instead, she replies to an ad on Craigslist posted by some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-no-hard-feelings\/\" title=\"REVIEW: No Resentment\">rich helicopter parents<\/a> who are looking for an older woman to date their incredibly withdrawn 19-year-old son \u2014 and by date, they essentially mean have sex with. In exchange, she gets a car. But, here\u2019s the catch: The whole thing has to be a secret.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the typical genre beats and tropes emerge quickly. Maddie initiates the process with ridiculously over-the-top seduction tactics that do not work. But once they get past that stage, she begins to honestly like Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). What starts as a mercenary task becomes a matter of the heart.<\/p>\n<p>Percy is hopelessly awkward \u2014 portrayed as if he\u2019s slightly on the autism spectrum. But they begin to develop genuine intimacy and affection despite the deception. And of course, when Percy inevitably discovers the secret, his heart is broken. It\u2019s not exactly an original plot, except that in the past, the roles would have probably been reversed.<\/p>\n<p>Lack of originality notwithstanding, this film is interesting because the complexities of contemporary young adult life are portrayed with such subtle despair \u2014 to the point where it crosses the line from sex comedy into sex tragedy. Sex is treated with so little mystery or magic throughout the story, making it almost erotically existential.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-152138a6b4722b94e29569af2b8be658 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-152138a6b4722b94e29569af2b8be658\"><\/div>\n<p>Percy is in many ways a stand-in for so many zoomers. The triple threat of the internet, iPhone, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/7-lying-media-outlets-claiming-crt-isnt-being-taught-in-public-schools\/\" title=\"7 Lying Media Outlets Claiming CRT Isn\u2019t Being Taught in Public Schools\">overbearing parents<\/a> has castrated him. For those of us who can still remember a world without those things, it\u2019s difficult to comprehend just how much they\u2019ve changed the way kids grow up. Percy is capable but hasn\u2019t really been given any reason to create a life outside of his bedroom. Maddie, of course, changes all that.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s completely sexually liberated, which is to say she\u2019s actually imprisoned by the millennial preoccupation with sex positivity \u2014 there\u2019s no easier way to degrade eros than by dragging it through the sewer of universal permissiveness. But if nothing in sex matters (except for consent) then, of course, sex does not really matter \u2014 it is on the same level as a bowel movement. This is the perspective Maddie brings. After all, she\u2019s willing to exchange sex for a car.<\/p>\n<p>But surprisingly, Percy doesn\u2019t really place sex on a pedestal, which was Steve Carrell\u2019s problem in the \u201c40-Year-Old Virgin.\u201d Despite sex being central to the plot in many ways, it\u2019s almost a thematic afterthought. There\u2019s nothing erotic in the picture, although Lawrence infamously has a full frontal scene, which is absolutely hilarious \u2014 she\u2019s kicking the crap out of some people who have stolen Maddie and Percy\u2019s clothes while they go skinny dipping.<\/p>\n<p>The point of comedy is to tip over our \u201csacred cows.\u201d And this film is often hilarious \u2014 the nude fight scene being a comedic highlight. Lawrence is one of the most multi-talented actresses of her generation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-239708576681f673679f91bcafbbcc3e fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-239708576681f673679f91bcafbbcc3e\"><\/div>\n<p>But the world we now inhabit has a sort of sexual cloud hanging over it. In the \u201980s and \u201990s, sex comedies made the mistake of presenting sex as the greatest thing ever. As wonderful as sex can be, it certainly isn\u2019t the end-all and be-all of life \u2014 and it\u2019s at its best between people who actually love each other and meaningfully share life together (aka, marriage). But pop culture has come full circle now. HBO shows like \u201cGirls\u201d and \u201cEuphoria\u201d demonstrate this with disturbing clarity, to the point where they feel like conservative propaganda \u2014 the life of a modern liberated woman is one of complete alienation from community, love, and actual eros.<\/p>\n<p>The film puts Maddie on a sort of collision course with herself. Percy isn\u2019t interested in just hooking up with her, which is not Maddie\u2019s normal experience. She is used to guys just wanting to jump in bed with her, and if they want more of a real relationship later, she kicks them to the curb.<\/p>\n<p>But Percy is genuinely interested in her. He\u2019s been so isolated all through high school, and developing a real friendship with a member of the opposite sex does start to open him up. His parents\u2019 creepy plan actually works \u2014 not because of the plan but because of Percy. Someone gave him a chance, and his humanity took over. The normal state of Western people is increasingly becoming one of alienation, but thankfully all it takes to start overcoming this distance is real connection.<\/p>\n<p>This glimmer of hope found in genuine friendship means there\u2019s no reason to completely despair about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/coming-of-age-comedy-no-hard-feelings-gets-sex-right\/\" title=\"'No Hard Feelings' nails sex in coming-of-age comedy.\">societal quagmire future generations<\/a> will have to deal with. But they still face a truly bizarre and disconnected world \u2014 that\u2019s where the title of the movie comes from.<\/p>\n<p>Maddie has no \u201chard\u201d feelings. She treats life as if it\u2019s just a big game that doesn\u2019t matter. But as it turns out, this is really the most difficult way to live. It\u2019s the hard things in life (no pun intended \u2014 this is a review about a sex comedy) that make it meaningful. Sharing pain and difficulty is what really brings humans together.<\/p>\n<p>Hollywood pretends to be woke, ironic, and cynical. But the truth is revealed in stories like these. They know that all the liberal pretense \u2014 all the sex positivity \u2014 is just a front. We all want real connections with people. In the end, we all want hard feelings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f25fa932a3d1d43b7cd39f3b2b726735 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f25fa932a3d1d43b7cd39f3b2b726735\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNo Hard Feelings\u201d is a modern-day &#8217;80s-style coming-of-age film that tackles pressing societal issues. Unlike typical escapist &#8217;80s comedies, it confronts the challenges our society faces head-on. Hollywood seizes the opportunity to address these concerns, as it often does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":721,"featured_media":1963017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1963016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/721"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1963016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1963017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1963016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1963016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1963016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}