Gene Stupnitsky directs Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman and Matthew Broderick in this raunchy comedy where a slacker beauty agrees to bang a nervy 19 year old before he goes to college when his parents offer her a car.

Jennifer Lawrence’s big screen comeback. Lots of goodwill going into this. And No Hard Feelings never betrays that even if it struggles to fully capitalise on it. The simple, witty script only has four strong, laugh out loud set pieces when really it should be aiming for seven or eight. That shouldn’t overly matter as Lawrence is consummately watchable throughout… even in sequences when you get the gut reaction that they don’t know what to do with the A-Lister or how to move the plot forward. A positive spin is the movie is pretty chill and has more room for character stuff. Our protagonist Maddie Barker isn’t on the most complex journey, not too dissimilar from Bill Murray’s in Stripes or Seth Rogen’s in Knocked Up. What is more fascinating is Stupnitsky takes on the American class system of wealth imbalance with quite an unforced precision. Still, I came for naked suplexes and party throat punches. There just about enough of that sweet comedy overkill to make me revisit this sometime soon.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/