Tag: Laura Benanti

Oscar Predictions: No Hard Feelings

There are times when these Oscar Predictions posts quickly morph into Golden Globe Predictions entries. Such is the case for No Hard Feelings. The raunchy comedy hits theaters this Friday with Jennifer Lawrence starring. Good Boys director Gene Stupnitsky is behind the camera and the supporting cast includes Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti, Natalie Morales, and Matthew Broderick.

The hard R-rated flick is generating mixed notices with a 61% Rotten Tomatoes score. The Sony Release isn’t meant to be an awards player. However, even the bulk of negative reviews have kind words for Lawrence. In her first theatrical headlining role since 2018’s Red Sparrow, J-Law has been with a fixture at the Globes. She’s a five-time nominee and three of them were for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy. Two were victories for 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook and 2015’s Joy. She also made the cut for 2021’s Don’t Look Up.

A sixth GG nod is not out of the question, but it will depend on how stacked the race is. That remains to be seen. My Oscar (Globe) Prediction posts will continue…

No Hard Feelings Box Office Prediction

Jennifer Lawrence enters new genre territory with No Hard Feelings on June 23rd. The raunchy comedy casts the Oscar winner as a down on her luck Uber driver hired to teach a 19-year-old (Andrew Barth Feldman) the birds and bees. Gene Stupnitsky, who made the 2019 sleeper hit Good Boys, directs. Costars include Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti, Natalie Morales, Scott MacArthur, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

It’s been a minute since Lawrence has graced the big screen. She was in the supporting cast as Mystique for Dark Phoenix four years ago, but you have to go back five years to Red Sparrow since her last headlining multiplex appearance. Her last two features (Don’t Look Up, Causeway) went the streaming route. Audiences are accustomed to seeing her in action flicks and dramas so this is certainly a test.

As I’ve mentioned a lot over the past few years, it’s a challenge for original comedies to break out. Plenty of viewers may simply wait until it’s ready for home consumption. If this had come out at the height of Lawrence’s bankability, I might be offering a different outlook.

Sony Pictures won’t like this comp, but Rough Night with Scarlett Johansson was another example of a popular actress branching out to this type of movie. Debuting in June six years ago, the result was a soft $8 million start. I’ll say this gets over that figure, but not by too much.

No Hard Feelings opening weekend prediction: $11.7 million

For my Asteroid City prediction, click here:

Asteroid City Box Office Prediction

Worth Review

Sara Colangelo’s Worth tells the true story of a man tasked with the impossible – assigning a price tag to the thousands of individuals who perished on 09/11. That’s Ken Feinberg (Michael Keaton), an expert numbers cruncher. He’s a former Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy, but his own political skills are lacking. Feinberg approaches the assignment of creating the Victims Compensation Fund with a lawyerly precision that doesn’t match the emotional toll and anger of its survivors. That’s until he begins to listen.

In the wake of that horrific Tuesday, the Congress passed the measure which allows Feinberg to get to work. The kicker is that 80% of respondents must agree to sign up and therefore waive the ability to sue the airlines and they must do so within two years. That’s a tall order as Feinberg and his team, including Amy Ryan’s second in command, pore through each case. How much should the family of the cleaning crew at the World Trade Center be paid as compared to the CEO’s widow in the corner office? Can there ever be a satisfactory formula for an unprecedented situation?

The screenplay from Max Borenstein gives us specific case files to ponder. There’s the wife (Laura Benanti) of a firefighter who had a secret family. The long-time partner of a man whose parents won’t acknowledge their relationship (therefore cutting him out as a beneficiary). And there’s the widowed Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci) and the blog he starts that points out the unfairness and inequities of the Fund. Wolf’s civil interactions with Feinberg (and the fine performances of Keaton and Tucci) provide the film’s most involving dramatic moments. They occasionally punctuate a somewhat repetitive watch.

I got the feeling that a documentary where the actual survivors talked about their own decision making process with the Fund would have been far more worthy of attention. This dramatized version does a commendable job setting up the premise and is so-so at the execution. President Bush phones Feinberg to josh him that no one would want this job. The lawyer must navigate opaque meetings with Attorney General John Ashcroft (Victor Slezak) and airline lobbyists whose bottom line is not to go bankrupt. Yet most of the running time centers on Feinberg’s growing sympathy for those left behind. Each case is important, but the script does little to elevate any of them beyond a different kind of formulaic treatment.

**1/2 (out of four)

Here Today Box Office Prediction

It’s been quite some time since Billy Crystal starred in a major theatrical release and that changes on May 7th with Here Today. The comedy finds him as a veteran writer who forms a friendship with a singer played by Tiffany Haddish. Costars include Penn Badgley, Laura Benanti, and Anna Deavere Smith. Crystal also serves as cowriter and director (this is his first big screen effort behind the camera duty since 1995’s Forget Paris). And it has been nearly a decade since he headlined a multiplex offering (2012’s Parental Guidance).

Stage 6 Films decided to go against a streaming premiere and Here Today will roll out on a rather small screen count of approximately 1000. That certainly limits its box office potential, but that’s not all. Older audiences who are fond of Crystal’s work will need to turn out with the hope that some of Haddish’s fanbase will as well.

The marketing campaign has been rather low-key and even moviegoers with an interest may simply wait until it is available for home viewing. With the minor number of screens, I’ll say this struggles to reach out $2 million.

Here Today opening weekend prediction: $1.5 million

For my Wrath of Man prediction, click here:

Wrath of Man Box Office Prediction