No Hard Feelings review: Clichéd, dreary and often just plain pitiful attempt at a comedy about women

SINCE comedy gem Bridesmaids came out in 2011, there has been an avalanche of female-led farces that try to emulate the hot-mess women script that was pure perfection.

With films like Trainwreck, Young Adult and How To Be Single crashing into the women-who-have-one-night-stands-and-don’t-  care market, they never matched the charming chaos of Kristen Wiig and co.

But if anyone was going to give it a good punt, it could be the so-far-faultless Jennifer Lawrence, right? Alas, no.

This is a clichéd, dreary and often just plain pitiful attempt at a comedy about women, directed by Gene Stupnitsky, which doesn’t use the wonderful skills of the actress.

It’s the story of Maddie, a chaotic 30-something who works several jobs she hates, is in piles of debt and is a commitment-phobe.

We first meet Maddie as her car is being towed away by a heartbroken ex she hasn’t called for months.

While she tries to persuade him that he was the love of her life — in a bid to save her unpaid car — a caricature of an “Italian lover” steps out of her house in his Y-fronts, does some squats and then grabs her boobs. It’s all very Friends, season one.

In an attempt to get a new car, Maddie finds an advert from the wealthy parents of 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman).

They want to find their introverted son a date — and a woman to take his virginity — before he heads off to college.

She decides to takes the deal, after discussing with her best friend Sara (Natalie Morales) how she’s done sex for a lot less: “I had sex with a guy just to get a commute.”

While there’s no judgment attached to women who talk openly about their sex life from me, discussing doing it to get a free car or commute is just, well, not funny. It’s too sad to be cute. This sets the tone for the film.

While Percy remains a geeky man-child who naturally falls for his hired date, Maddie is all over the place, flitting from a violent, beer swinging thug to a hippy surfer girl who cries at sunsets on the beach.

There’s a surprising full frontal nudity scene which creates more gasps than laughter and a desire for this film to end long before it does.

★★☆☆☆

ASTEROID CITY, (12A), 105mins

UNWRAPPING a piece of bubble gum is an exciting moment. It gets your taste buds buzzing and you get the added joy of being able to blow a bubble.

But after a few chews, something changes. The flavour has gone and there’s just a tasteless lump rolling around your mouth.

This is exactly how I felt watching Wes Anderson’s pretty-yet-puzzling film.

Set in 1955, it has all the classic signs of Anderson – a palette of kooky colours, scenes of pure symmetry, frantic dialogue and an enormous cast of cameos.

This meta-movie, with a play about a TV show, has multiple framing devices, from a black and white TV screen, to looking like it’s filmed through an Instagram filter.

With a cast that includes Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton and even a few seconds of Jeff Goldblum, it should be a real acting powerhouse.

But with most delivering their lines to camera in a monotone and barely any interacting with each other, this half-hearted film feels like a series of monologues that is so confused and convoluted, it should come with its own map.

★★☆☆☆

The Wicker Man (15), 83mins

THE British folk horror continues to cast a spell as it returns to cinemas 50 years after its 1973 release.

Directed by Robin Hardy, the movie was inspired by David Pinner’s novel Ritual.

And it is as delightfully wicked a tale as ever, as it follows a devoutly Christian police officer’s probe into a missing child on a whimsical yet sinister Scottish island.

Edward Woodward’s uptight Sergeant Neil Howie is the perfect outsider to descend on spooky Summerisle.

The locals practise Celtic paganism and at every turn he faces highly-sexualised antics, rituals and musical escapades that threaten his beliefs.

Brightly coloured houses, maypoles and costumes contrast with Howie’s black and white attitude and heighten the tension thickened by bawdy islanders, who taunt the cop with half-truths and deceit.

Dracula icon Christopher Lee is in his element as Lord Summerisle, while Howie’s frustration and psychological turmoil is well-paced.

Never more so than in a final act, where one of the greatest endings in cinema history unfolds.

• HANNA FLINT