The movie makes much of the generational divide between Maddie and her Zoomer quarry, and its best joke happens when she crashes a teen house party and finds bedroom after bedroom full of kids staring at their phones.
In this summer’s “No Hard Feelings,” Jennifer Lawrence plays Maddie, a Montauk native on the verge of losing her childhood home, who takes the job of deflowering an introverted nineteen-year-old at the behest of his rich summer-people parents. In exchange for “dating” him, they’ll give her a used Buick. The premise sounds dicey, and could easily have turned a dozen different flavors of sour, but Lawrence, who appears in nearly every scene, reaches majestic comedic heights. She’s mean, frightening, brave, and endlessly charming, whether she’s taking a break from skinny-dipping to beat up some kids on the beach or getting punched in the throat herself. The movie makes much of the generational divide between Maddie and her Zoomer quarry, and its best joke happens when she crashes a teen house party and finds bedroom after bedroom full of kids staring at their phones. Like a time-traveller from the raunchfests of yore, she yells, “Doesn’t anyone fuck anymore?”