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Her car’s been just repossessed, towed by her ex Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and with unpaid property tax bills looming, she needs wheels.Įnter the weirdest Craigslist ad of all time: A pair of wealthy helicopter parents ( Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) would like to “arrange” for a young woman to date their sheltered, nerdy son, Percy ( Andrew Barth Feldman) in exchange for a Buick. There simply aren’t enough female dirtbags in cinema, so Lawrence’s Maddie Barker - Uber driver, surly bartender and pissed-off Montauk townie - is a refreshing character. It’s a “Superbad”-style story with the sensitivity and class consciousness of John Hughes, a delightfully raunchy streak, and Lawrence going for broke in a bold and bawdy performance as a rowdy Long Island surfer girl doing her best Mae West. Her follow-up swings in the opposite direction, kicking up her heels in a good old-fashioned sex comedy, “No Hard Feelings,” which she also produced.ĭirected by Gene Stupnitsky ( “Good Boys”), “No Hard Feelings” is a direct descendant of ‘80s teen coming-of-age comedies but evolved for a new generation. Last year, Lawrence produced and starred in the gritty indie film “Causeway,” as a veteran recovering from a traumatic brain injury, for a first-time female director, Lila Neugebauer.
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It was a smart move, because Lawrence is back now, and it’s a whole new ball game. So she fired her agents and took a break to get married and have a baby. But not all of those films were good, and Lawrence didn’t seem to be having all that much fun. In 2018, Jennifer Lawrence was 28 and one of the biggest movie stars in the world: an Academy Award-winning actor, a veteran of the “Hunger Games” franchise, alternating between prestige projects and giant action movies.
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