Review of No Hard Feelings, directed by Gene Stupnitsky

You have no idea how many times I got the trailer for No Hard Feelings when going to the movies. One of my greatest purchases was when I ended up subscribing to an AMC A List subscription, which means I can see three movies a week at an AMC movie theater anywhere in the country.

Sometimes I go once a week, other times twice a week—I never go the full three times. But because I go to the movies so often, I end up getting the same trailers over and over again.

I never saw this in theaters because man, I hated the trailer. It reminded me of the kind of movies I thought we were done with making at this point of time, and I didn’t find any part of the trailer funny. But when the movie was added on Netflix, I was curious, needed something to do because I had finished my internship work early, and so I decided to press play.

This is my review of the movie!

Desperate for a car and some cash, Maddie agrees to date a just-legal teenager.

Our main character in this movie is Maddie, who is 32 and doesn’t have much going for her. She lives in the home her mother left her in Montauk, and she barely gets by through being an Uber driver and a bartender.

But when her car gets repossessed because she was unable to afford the property taxes on the home, she decides to do whatever it takes to find a gig to pay off those taxes. While going through Craigslist, Maddie finds a posting from a local rich family asking for someone to date their son.

Maddie decides to take a gamble and shows up to interview with the parents. As it turns out, they want someone to date their son because they feel like he hasn’t had any experiences in life so far.

The payment is a car. They specifically want their son to go out and experience things like dating and parties before he goes off to an Ivy League, Princeton, in the fall. Presumably, this will leave him better off.

Maddie convinces them to hire her because she’s older, making her more mature. They agree, and she sets off to find the son, Percy. She heads off to the animal shelter he volunteers at, makes a bunch of sexual innuendos in front of his boss, and when she offers a ride home, he pepper sprays her thinking she’s going to kidnap him.

After clearing that fact up, they agree to a date. They go skinny dipping that night, but when teenagers steal their clothes, Maddie, who is naked, chases after them and is willing to fight.

This freaks Percy out, who says no to having sex. She tries to leave him without his clothes, he jumps on the car, and they have to escape from the police. When they make up, they try to have sex, but Percy develops a rash and they have to give up.

Somehow, they continue to date after this, and make a pact to go to his prom together. While at the restaurant, Percy serenades Maddie, now kind of in love with her (or the idea), while Maddie gets jealous when a classmate of Percy’s invites him to a party.

After arguing, as Percy says he won’t go to Princeton if she won’t visit him, he flees and goes to the party. Maddie heads after him and ventures into the home full of teens, finding Percy in bed with the girl from before.

Nothing happened, but the parents kick Maddie out for being an adult in a party full of kids. Percy, when leaving with Maddie, confesses he loves her. But in the morning, Percy tells his parents he wants to stay and date Maddie.

The father freaks out and offers Maddie the car if she convinces him to go to school, but Percy hears them.

He then invites Maddie to a dinner with the parents, showing that he isn’t completely ignorant, and Percy goes and crashes the car into a tree while his parents and Maddie argue. He returns and tries to have sex with Maddie, but he doesn’t last past foreplay and ends the relationship.

The car, despite being damaged, comes into Maddie’s hands. She continues being an Uber driver, getting the money she needs.

She then realizes she is staying in town because of her mother’s legacy, and her friends are leaving due to the rising costs. Maddie goes off and finds Percy at Princeton, apologizes to him, then jumps on his car as he drives off. They crash in the ocean and reconcile. She sells the house and moves to California, promising to call Percy during her drive.

Overall Thoughts

I get that this was supposed to be one of those fun summer movies when it came out, and that this was a kind of movie that was popular when it comes to plot in the past, but it honestly made me uncomfortable throughout.

I understand Maddie’s plight and like the fact she was humanized as someone affected by the major gentrification of where she’s from, but that doesn’t make the fact she’s taking advantage of an unknowing teenager to try and make some cash.

As someone who spends some time with women/gender studies, I’m not comfortable with men doing this and depictions of it in entertainment, but I’m also not a fan of reversing it. Let’s treat each other with care.

While they never go too far sexually, I still was uncomfortable at the power dynamic going on here. Someone probably disagrees with me, but we can agree to disagree.