Jennifer Lawrence's Movie Star Playbook and 'No Hard Feelings'

'No Hard Feelings'the studio sex comedy

No Hard Feelings 2023

Gene Stupnitsky's Montauk comedy: a 32-year-old Uber driver (Lawrence) is hired by wealthy parents, in exchange for a car, to draw out their sheltered 19-year-old (Andrew Barth Feldman) before college. Both hosts had fun without calling it great: a throwback studio comedy that plays broad in the first third and turns feelings-forward, with a rickety third act. They flag it as the first correct use of Lawrence's comic talents and single out Feldman, whose presence keeps the premise from curdling.

The Jennifer Lawrence Playbookthe career, and what she should do next

Winter's Bone 2010

The debut that got her a first Oscar nomination; Sean pegs the 2010-11 stretch of grounded, stripped-down work as her strongest dramatic run.

Like Crazy 2011

Named alongside Winter's Bone and The Beaver as the grounded early run Sean rates highest.

The Beaver 2011

The third title in that early grounded stretch.

The Hunger Games 2012

The franchise that actually made her a star. Sean never bought Katniss (he thought she was a decade too young) but concedes it made sense as a YA adaptation not aimed at him.

Silver Linings Playbook 2012

The Oscar win and the movie that signaled the rising star. Sean's dissent: he finds her woefully miscast, ten years too young for the trauma the part needed opposite Bradley Cooper.

American Hustle 2013

The 'acting Olympics' David O. Russell movie both admit they don't get; Amanda thinks she's so much younger than Adams, Bale, Cooper and Renner that the miscasting shows.

Joy 2015

The QVC-mop-inventor drama, playing a Peconic housewife older than Lawrence (then about 24 or 25) actually was. Stiff and retread, per Sean, though Amanda owns some genuine Joy Mangano hangers.

Passengers 2016

Called her biggest fiasco, opposite Chris Pratt, though on paper it made sense as Morten Tyldum's follow-up to The Imitation Game.

mother! 2017

The Aronofsky provocation. Sean loves it as a filmmaker jabbing the audience with a stick and reads it as knowing meta-commentary on Lawrence's younger-wife-of-an-older-man casting; he argues Natalie Portman could have played it just as well.

Red Sparrow 2018

Her bid for a Bourne-style franchise, from a reportedly filthy spy novel. Doesn't quite work, but Jeremy Irons and a Charlotte Rampling turn keep Sean from getting mad at it.

Dark Phoenix 2019

Called one of the century's fiascos; Sean reads her as fully checked out, her character killed off early as if she asked to leave set.

Don't Look Up 2021

The successful Adam McKay satire they opted out of the discourse on. Both agree the Lawrence piece doesn't land, but Sean likes the sincere ending and thinks she and McKay were a good idea: they'd once eyed an Elizabeth Holmes film together before The Dropout beat them to it.

Causeway 2022

The Lila Neugebauer drama with Brian Tyree Henry; her most recent pre-comedy role and an Oscar-nominated one. Small, quiet and, per Sean, genuinely good: proof the experiments are worth keeping in the mix.

The Academy's new theatrical ruleexpanded release requirements for eligibility

To Leslie 2022

Sean's test case: a Best Actress nominee that played almost nowhere, then climbed the Netflix charts on award-season publicity, the kind of tiny film the new rule could squeeze.

Air 2023

Cited as the counterexample: it played roughly 3,500 screens, so the streamers with money to spend can clear the bar easily.

Napoleon 2023

Named with Killers of the Flower Moon as an Apple title already headed for thousands of fall screens; the rule barely inconveniences the deep-pocketed.

Killers of the Flower Moon 2023

The other Apple fall release cited as proof the well-funded streamers can meet the requirement without strain.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Comedy touchstones Easy ASuperbadPretty WomanWedding CrashersHappy GilmoreKingpinGood BoysBrosGirls TripInfinity Pool

At the box office and on the horizon Indiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part OneOppenheimerThe FlashThe Super Mario Bros. MovieSpider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseAsteroid CityPast LivesBarbieChallengersTop Gun: Maverick

Career comps and casting pitches Erin BrockovichA Star Is BornLittle WomenLady BirdMr. & Mrs. SmithWhiplashThe Sugarland ExpressShampooPrivate BenjaminThe Imitation GameJurassic WorldDr. StrangeloveGone GirlAverage Height, Average Build

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Jury DutyAbbott ElementaryThe DropoutThe Bill Engvall ShowThe Crown

Ads Whole FoodsNOS EnergyFanDuelBoar's HeadAmazon PrimeTalkAboutPD (Peyronie's disease)

Podcasts The Press BoxThe RewatchablesBlank Check