NO HARD FEELINGS : Tuesday 27th June 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'NO HARD FEELINGS' earlier this week, and this American coming of age sex comedy film is Co-Written and Directed by Gene Stupnitsky in only his second feature film Directorial offering following 2019's 'Good Boys'. This film was released here in Australia and in the US last week, has generated mixed or average reviews and has so far grossed US$30M off the back of a US$45M production budget.

The film is set in Montauk on the eastern end of the South Shore, Long Island, New York, where Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence, who also Co-Produces here), is a 32 year old woman working as an Uber driver and bartender. She is facing bankruptcy after her car is repossessed and towed away by a former boyfriend Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), for not paying her taxes to the IRS on the home she has lived in all her life, and which she inherited from her recently deceased mother. Standing out on the street in her dressing gown with her Italian lover stood by, she watches helpless as her car is towed away.

Without a car with which to work her job as an Uber driver she is left stranded and having to rollerblade everywhere during the usual very busy summer holiday season in Montauk. One day her friend Sarah (Natalie Morales) comes across a somewhat unusual posting on a classified advertising website. The ad calls for a mid-20 year old woman to date the son of a wealthy couple in exchange for which the payment in kind comes in the form of a Buick Regal car which is sat in the driveway of their lavish home as clean and tidy as the day it rolled off the production line. And so Maddie responds to the ad and rollerblades over to the home of wealthy couple Laird Becker (Matthew Broderick) and his wife Allison (Laura Bananti) and the brief is for Maddie to become their introverted 19-year-old son's 'girlfriend'. 

Even though they are seeking a woman in her mid-20's Maddie explains that she has the maturity and experience that younger 'girls' just can't offer, which seems to satisfy Laird and Allison. Their son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) has had no experiences with girls, drinking, parties or sex, and he can't drive either, and his parents hope to boost his confidence before he attends Princeton University in the autumn. Maddie agrees to become their son's 'girlfriend', to 'date his brains out', and help him to join adult life, on the condition that this remains a firm secret between the three of them and under no circumstances must Percy become aware of their ruse. 

The next day Maddie makes her move on Percy by attempting to seduce him at the animal shelter he volunteers at. She offers him a ride home, but upon arriving at her house he mistakenly thinks that she is attempting to kidnap him and sprays a can of mace in her face. Despite this, they agree to go on a date the following day. 

Maddie and Percy meet at a bar the next night and then Maddie suggests they go skinny dipping at the beach. While they are in the water, their clothes, keys and phones are stolen by a group of two young men and a young woman. Maddie fights them in the nude retrieving their possessions, but a frightened Percy demands to be taken home. Maddie tries to leave without him and he jumps on her car bonnet, naked, as they are chased by a Police patrol car which they outrun at a train crossing. Back at Maddie's house the pair attempt to have sex, but Percy develops a rash all over his back and shoulders from his anxiety, so Maddie gently nurses him with an easing ointment.

Over the following days Maddie and Percy continue to date, learning more about each other and forging a friendship. Both reveal that they never went to prom, so they imitate a prom night and go to a fancy restaurant for dinner, driven there in a stretched limo. There, Percy meets an old school acquaintance who invites him to a party later that night, while Maddie gives the girl very much the cold shoulder. After Percy and Maddie have a disagreement about their long-term plans, he goes to the party and winds up in bed with that acquaintance, while Maddie frantically searches for him. She eventually finds him after he took an ibuprofen washed down with alcohol, and so Maddie drags him out of bed and shoves his head down the toilet and her fingers down his throat inducing him to vomit. In the car back to her house Percy confesses his love for Maddie.

Percy stumbles across the truth about Maddie's deal with his parents when he intercepts a phone conversation between her and them. After inviting her to dinner with his parents, he crashes her Buick into a tree trashing it royally, they attempt to have sex but this fails miserably, and then he ends their relationship. Maddie takes the damaged car, has it repaired to its former almost as new condition and uses it to pay off her debts, and then decides to sell the house to her friends, Jim (Scott MacArthur) and the heavily pregnant Sarah, because they were going to relocate themselves to Florida where house prices are markedly cheaper than in Montauk. And so selling the house to her friends for a bargain price that they can afford, Maddie decides to relocate herself to California. She reunites with Percy at a Princeton mixer where she gets more than an unwelcome reception from him. He attempts to exit the scene and so Maddie climbs on the bonnet of his car and drives at speed culminating in him driving onto a beach, through a barbecue at which Maddie's clothes catch fire, and into the ocean. Percy pulls Maddie out of the water, and afterwards they promise to remain friends.

Later, Percy is at home packing up his belongings into suitcases to go to Princeton. Bidding his farewells to his parents, Maddie is parked outside who drives Percy to Princeton, while she herself is on the way to California. She reveals that she has a new boyfriend, the rescue dog named Milo, a former Police dog addicted to cocaine who lived at the shelter Percy volunteered at, and whom Maddie met the first time she and Percy met. 

Jennifer Lawrence plays it fearless as Maddie in 'No Hard Feelings' even going the full frontal nudity for her art, and she also proves her comedic acting talents here in this for adults only coming of age romp for a seemingly mismatched couple at opposite ends of the spectrum. Andrew Barth Feldman as the all too innocent, sweet as cherry pie late teenage dweeb Percy is also on point, but Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti both have the kind of expression on their faces that make you think they signed up for something more challenging and interesting than their one dimensional characters portray here. As for the laughs, they are thin on the ground and certainly won't have you rolling around the aisles, but that said this film does have an emotional undercurrent at its core. 

'No Hard Feelings' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 22nd June 2023.

The 40th edition of the Munich Film Festival kicks off on Friday 23rd June and runs through until Saturday 1st July. It is the largest summer film festival in Germany and second only in size and importance to the Berlinale. It has been held annually since 1983 and presents feature films and feature-length documentaries. The festival is also proud of the role it plays in discovering talented and innovative young filmmakers. With the exception of retrospectives, tributes and homages, all of the films screened are German Premieres and many are European and World Premieres.

With around two hundred feature films and feature-length documentaries on more than eighteen screens, the Munich Film Festival attracts approximately 80,000 movie lovers each year. It accredits more than six hundred members of the international press and media as well as over 2,500 film industry professionals. It has always been a popular meeting place for industry insiders throughout Germany and Europe.

There are a number of competitive sections at the Munich Film Festival, which consist of the Cinemasters Competition highlighting the new works of master Directors from all over the world; the Cinevision Competition focusing on international Directorial talents who break new ground with their film language; and the Cinerebels Competition featuring ten productions which can be described as radical or experimental, surprising and against the grain. 

Competing for the ARRI Award in the Cinemasters Competition which carries a prize of €50K, are the following titles :-

* 'Brother' - from Canada and Written and Directed by Clement Virgo. A story of the bond between siblings, the resilience of a community, and the indomitable power of music.

* 'Club Zero' - from Denmark, Germany, France, Qatar, Austria and the UK and Co-Written and Directed by Jessica Hausner and starring Mia Wasikowska and Sidse Babett Knudsen in this satire which uses formal austerity and subtle humour to tell of the seductive power of ideology.

* 'Eureka' - from Argentina, Germany, France, Mexico, Portugal and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Lisandro Alonso with this fantastical and meditative odyssey that's part western, part postcolonialist fable.

* 'Fallen Leaves' - from Finland and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Aki Kaurismaki, in which a brief note, a fondness for movies, and a whole lot of bottles form the backdrop to a romantic encounter in a Helsinki lost in time.

* 'God's Creatures' - from Ireland and the UK and Directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer and starring Emily Watson, Paul Mescal and Aisling Franciosi. The rugged Irish coastline forms the backdrop to a complex drama about guilt, repressed conflicts, and family ties.

* 'Kidnapped' - from Italy and Co-Written and Directed by Marco Bellocchio. Religion and power is once again revealed in the unsettling historical practices of the Catholic Church in this true story.

* 'Four Daughters' - from Germany, France and Tunisia and Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Kaouther Ben Hania. This mix of documentary and fiction sees Olfa who has four daughters. Two of them, Rahma and Ghofrane, have become radicalised and one day, they abruptly leave Tunisia to join the Islamic State in Libya. 

* 'The Kings of the World' - from France, Colombia, Luxembourg, Mexico and Norway, and Co-Written and Directed by Laura Mora. This coming-of-age drama featuring real street kids from the city of Medellin, Colombia is part reality and part delirium.

* 'Love Life' - from France and Japan and Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Koji Fukada. This haunting family drama is about the abrupt and tragic turns that life can take.

* 'Monster' - from Japan and is Directed and Edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda. A story about a search for the truth on several levels, in which many things are not what they appear to be.

* 'Lost in the Night' - from Mexico and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Amat Escalante. A thriller that exposes the dark side of Mexican society.

* 'A Respectable Woman' - from Canada and Written and Directed by Bernard Emond. A woman who had been separated from her husband for eleven years takes him back after his mistress dies, bringing with him three daughters from that relationship expecting his ex-wife to take care of them.

For the other films in competition plus the full line up of the various film sections being showcased at this years Munich Film Festival, you can visit the official website at : https://www.filmfest-muenchen.de/en/

Turning the attention then back to this weeks five new movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you this week, we launch with the seventh outing of a hugely popular Sci-Fi action franchise that this time sees the globetrotting adventure as the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons join the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth. This is followed by a far more sedate French offering that sees a seemingly simple taxi ride across Paris evolve into a profound meditation on the realities of the driver, whose personal life is in shambles, and his fare, an elderly woman whose warmth belies her shocking past. Then we turn to an American comedy that has a desperate woman, on the brink of losing her childhood home, agreeing to date a wealthy couple's introverted and awkward 19-year-old son before he leaves for college. Next up is a New Zealand comedy based on a true story in which to score free tickets to watch Tonga play France in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, a group of Tongans form a brass marching band. And closing out the week we have a Russian animated feature about the famous four-legged inhabitants of the St. Petersburg Winter Palace - museum cats that protect the territory of the State Hermitage Museum from rats and mice . . . and potentially other miscreants. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'TRANSFORMERS : RISE OF THE BEASTS' (Rated M) - this American Sci-Fi actioner is Directed by Steven Caple Jnr. whose two previous feature film credits are his 2016 debut with 'The Land' and then 'Creed II' in 2018. This film is based on the popular Hasbro 'Transformers' toy line and is the seventh instalment in the 'Transformers' live-action film series. It serves as both a standalone sequel to 2018's 'Bumblebee' and a prequel to 2007's 'Transformers'. Those first six films in the franchise grossed worldwide a combined Box Office haul of US$4.85B against a total budget outlay of US$1.2B, making this next offering inevitable plus the announcement that 'Rise of the Beasts' will be the first of a new trilogy of films. Michael Bay who Directed the first five films in the series returns here as Co-Producer, with the film costing US$200M to produce. It has so far grossed US$279M at the Box Office. 

Here, set in the early 1990's, Optimus Prime (voiced once again by Peter Cullen) and the Autobots, including Mirage (Pete Davidson) and Stratosphere (John DiMaggio) take on their biggest challenge yet. When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges in the form of Unicron (Colman Domingo), and Terrorcon Scourge (Peter Dinklage), they must team up with a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals including Maximus Primal (Ron Perlman) and Airazor (Michelle Yeoh) to save Earth. The film saw its World Premier in Singapore on 27th May, was released in the US on the 9th June and is released here in Australia this week.

'DRIVING MADELEINE' (Rated MA15+) - is a French Belgian drama film Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Christian Carion whose prior feature film making credits include his debut in 2001 with 'The Girl from Paris', then 'Joyeux Noel' in 2005, 'Come What May' in 2015 and 'My Son' in 2017 and its English language remake in 2021 also titled 'My Son' with James McAvoy and Claire Foy. Here then, Madeleine, a 92 year old woman (Line Renaud, with Alice Isaaz playing a young Madeleine), in Paris is moving into a nursing home. She calls a taxi and en route, she asks the disillusioned taxi driver with a warm and tender heart, Charles (Dany Boon) to detour to various locations around the city that have meant something to her in her life. They don't know it yet, but they will forge a friendship during this drive that will change their lives forever. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Angouleme Francophone Film Festival in late August last year, was also showcased at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, went on release in its native France from late September and only now is it released in Australia. The film has garnered critical acclaim.

'NO HARD FEELINGS' (Rated MA15+) - this American coming of age sex comedy film is Co-Written and Directed by Gene Stupnitsky in only his second feature film Directorial offering following 2019's 'Good Boys'. The film is set in Montauk on the eastern end of the South Shore, Long Island, New York, where Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence, who also Co-Produces here), a young woman working as an Uber driver who is facing bankruptcy after her car is repossessed, accepts an unusual posting on a classified advertising website. Her new employers are parents who have noticed that their introverted 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) shows no interest in dating or having sex. In exchange for a Buick Regal, she agrees to become their son's 'girlfriend', to 'date his brains out', and help him to join adult life. Also starring Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti as Percy's father and mother respectively. The film is released Stateside this week too.

'RED, WHITE & BRASS' (Rated PG) - is a New Zealand comedy film Co-Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Damon Fepulea'i in his feature film making debut. When Maka (John-Paul Foliaki) and Veni (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) fail to score tickets for the most important game of their lives, namely the 2011 Rugby World Cup's Tonga versus France game in Wellington, New Zealand on 1st October 2011, they decide to form a traditional Tongan marching brass band to perform during the pre-match entertainment, just so they can go to the game. No one in their band of misfits knows anything about marching and they practice using plastic bottles and tin cans for instruments. It is a complete shambles and if they can't get their act together, they will embarrass their entire Tongan community in front of the world. However, what starts out as just a cynical scam to see a rugby game becomes a journey of self-discovery in which Maka and Veni will learn the importance of their Tongan culture. The film saw its World Premiere in Wellington towards the end of March this year, was shown at the Hawaii International Film Festival on 1st April, and at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this month. It has generated mostly positive reviews. 

'CATS IN THE MUSEUM' (Rated G) - this Russian animated adventure comedy offering is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Vasiliy Rovenskiy whose previous feature film making credits take in 'The Big Trip' in 2019, 'Pinocchio : A True Story' in 2021 and 'Big Trip 2 : Special Delivery' in 2022. This story centres around a young cat called Vincent (voiced by Roman Kurtsyn), who teams up with Maurice the Mouse (Diomid Vinogradov), in an attempt to try and escape a flood in an old harpsichord piano. A group of sailors pick up the instrument and send it to the St. Petersburg Winter Palace. Here, Vincent meets an elite squad of cats, that has been guarding masterpieces from rodents and other vermin for centuries. Vincent dreams of finding a true cat family and yearns for a sense of belonging, but he doesn't want to lose his friend Maurice who saved his life, so he is forced to hide him. But his friend has a weakness - to chew down on the most famous masterpieces. It all gets complicated when one of the greatest paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa is brought to the museum - it's every rat's and mouse' dream to chew on it. However, neither Vincent, Maurice, nor the Hermitage Museum cats are aware of the fact that someone means to steal it, and now Vincent has to pluck up his courage and wits to save Da Vinci's masterpiece, protect the museum's reputation, and win over the heart of Cleopatra, a beautiful cat from the Egyptian chamber. 

With five new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-