Credit: Netflix

It’s been quite funny watching No Hard Feelings find a second life on Netflix because so many viewers skipped it when it came out in cinemas back in 2023. Now everybody is discovering it at once and asking the exact same question afterwards: Why did nobody talk about this film more? And to be fair, once you actually watch Jennifer Lawrence throw herself into this mess, it becomes unforgettable.

Everyone knows how fun Lawrence is off the camera, and she finally got to be herself again after spending years doing heavier projects like Causeway and Don’t Look Up. And you can tell she was having the time of her life doing this one because the whole thing has got proper fun energy running through it from start to finish. The film was directed by Gene Stupnitsky as well, who worked on The Office before directing Good Boys, so that awkward-cringe humour was already guaranteed before the film even came out.

The story follows Maddie Barker, played by Lawrence, who is living in Montauk, New York. She is juggling bartending and Uber driving just to stay afloat financially. Then everything starts going wrong at once because her car gets repossessed over unpaid property taxes, and suddenly she is in danger of losing the house she inherited from her mum and all.

So when Maddie spots this bizarre Craigslist ad from rich parents Alison and Laird Becker, she gets desperate enough to actually consider it. And that ad? Let’s talk about it because it is ridiculous. The couple offers her a Buick Regal if she agrees to date their awkward 19-year-old son, Percy, before he heads off to Princeton. You might think that we’re joking, but we are dead serious! That is the plot.

Percy is played by Andrew Barth Feldman, who’d already built a name for himself on Broadway through Dear Evan Hansen before joining the film, and he has played Percy with such an amazing awkwardness that it’s become funny. Percy has been completely sheltered by his parents for years, so Maddie tries to drag him into normal social situations, and you can guess what happens next… disaster after disaster.

Percy keeps misunderstanding Maddie’s intentions while Maddie realises this arrangement IS becoming more tangled than she expected initially. And the film could’ve easily turned mean with the kind of concept it had; instead, it turns into a sweet watch.

Another mad detail about the film is the fact that the premise actually came from a real Craigslist advertisement the writers found years ago. Screenwriter John Phillips explained that he discovered an ad from parents trying to find somebody to “date” their socially awkward son before university, and that turned into an entire Hollywood comedy later on. Jennifer Lawrence reportedly loved the script straight away and ended up joining the project as a producer, alongside starring in it.

And No Hard Feelings also ended up feeling nostalgic for loads of viewers because it brought back that mid-2000s style of chaotic R-rated studio comedy that Hollywood barely makes anymore. During interviews, Lawrence said she specifically wanted to do something broad and ridiculous again because that type of theatrical comedy has slowly disappeared over the last few years. And that is why it feels so incredibly relatable.

The film eventually made over $87 million worldwide during its cinema run before finding another audience again once it hit Netflix. And now Netflix viewers who skipped it back in 2023 are finally catching up with it properly, which feels good. So if you are one of those, go stream it now.