On the surface, Jennifer Lawrence’s R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings sounds like a throwback movie that should have been released two decades ago. However, the sex comedy that sees Lawrence playing a woman who takes a deal to date the awkward son of a married couple in exchange for a second-hand car is one that has attracted a lot of attention. In fact, the movie had gained enough cinematic footfall to make it domestically the highest grossing R-rated comedy of the decade so far.
Over the last couple of days, No Hard Feelings has managed to surpass $50 million worldwide, not a huge amount to compete with the likes of Marvel movies or even the lower than expected turnout for The Flash. For a movie of its genre though, its $31 million and counting domestic box office has put it on course to be the highest R-rated comedy since director Gene Stupnitsky’s Good Boys in 2019, proving that perhaps the raunchy adult comedy genre still has blood pumping through its veins.
Of course, when it comes to this kind of movie, the big name pull of Jennifer Lawrence has certainly helped, and even though the film has just scraped a fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics, audiences have given it a solid 87% rating, with just a footnote that perhaps the movie plays it a little safe for its own good. However, with a decent box office, and a reasonable budget thanks to the lack of flashy special effects, it seems that No Hard Feelings has been another surprising success in theaters where some guaranteed blockbusters have been failing.
Related: No Hard Feelings Review: Jennifer Lawrence Gets Big Laughs in Raunchy Rom-Com
Jennifer Lawrence Shines with Comedy Talent
Sony Pictures
The premise of No Hard Feelings could easily be written on the back of a stamp that has been accidently sliced into two, but no one really goes into this kind of movie expecting a deep plot. In that, No Hard Feelings certainly plays as a by numbers return of the kind of film that saw movies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and American Pie take the world by storm decades ago. One of the biggest things going for the movie seems to be the Oscar-winning casting of Jennifer Lawrence, who has been praised for her comic timing, which she can now add to her more common dramatic roles.
The best thing that No Hard Feelings could have done was play into the fact that it is a movie from another time, with the kind of sensibilities that were popular in the aforementioned movies from the 2000s before the sub-genre was killed off by an endless stream of ever-worsening sequels, spin-offs and knock-offs. The film clearly knows what it is and what it wants to be, and the results at the box office have proven that perhaps it is something that audiences want right now.
With discussions over a possible American Pie revival ongoing, and other similar movies such as new release Joy Ride gaining high praise, perhaps the R-rated comedy is ready to make a splash with a big comeback.
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