‘Hard Feelings’ (2023) Netflix Movie Review - A Fun Comedy on Teenage Urges

Hard Feelings starts with the students of the high school enjoying themselves in the indoor swimming pool. The male lead, Charly is afraid to jump in the pool as when he was small, his friends pulled his sweatpants and after seeing his penis, his mates started calling him “Charly, No Dick”. This had a significant impact on him as he didn’t get a hard-on after this incident.

Charly’s only and best friend Paula also has similar feelings. She doesn’t get sexually interested in anyone. It's like both of their genitals aren’t active and so is the status of their sex life. One day while they were sitting on the terrace, lighting struck. Things changed after this incident as both their genitals started talking to them. Hoo-ha (Paula’s vulva) and Willy (Charly’s penis) started filling their minds with sexual talks. Both of their genitals wanted them to have sex and would say things like Look at that ass or Look at those titties.

There’s an incident in which Charly was standing in the school choir and Willy started to fill his mind with how hot Francois was looking (a French exchange student). This ended up with him having a hard on and the whole incident was recorded by fellow students. Marlene and Constantine are popular kids in the school who played with Charly and Paula after their sexual awakening.

When they both listened to their respective genital voices, their lives turned upside down. Paula was labeled as a school slut. There were small posters with her number. The rumors said that she liked anal and is a sex addict, all thanks to Constantine. Well, after her good deed towards him, this is how he repaid her. While all of this was happening, Charly was stuck in his mess and Paula missed the comfort of her best friend most at this time.

Hard Feelings is an okayish teen movie that is about fucked up high school life, just like every other movie of this genre. The twist here is the genitals of the main cast talk with them. They’ve even got a name. I didn’t find the film to be very interesting, but you can watch it as it's just 103 minutes long. The unique concept is the genitals talking back and messing up with the head of these two teenagers. There are many comedy scenes in the film like the one in which Constantine ejaculates on the pillow which is licked by the dog and then the same dog licks Constantine. Hard Feelings isn’t a rom-com per se because the film just has 5% romance and 95% fuck-ups. The cast of the film has done an average job.

The friendship shared by Paula and Charly is the driving force of this film. In the end, there’s a message given about not shaming individuals based on their genitals, which also includes slut shaming. It is often seen in high school that the students comment on the genitals of their mates or the girls are tagged as sluts. This is a shameful practice about which the light has been shed in the movie.

Final Score – [6.5/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
Follow @_riyasinghhh_ on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times