You Hurt My Feelings

You Hurt My Feelings

A novelist's longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.

  • Released: 2023-05-26
  • Runtime: 93 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy, Drama
  • Stars: Arian Moayed, Jeannie Berlin, Michaela Watkins, Owen Teague, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Amber Tamblyn, David Cross, Zach Cherry, Sarah Steele, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Rebecca Henderson, Deniz Akdeniz, Sunita Mani, Julian Leong, Sue Jean Kim, Clara Wong
  • Director: Nicole Holofcener
 Comments
  • Desrio - 2 April 2024
    Where Love And Dishonesty Overlap
    Gently paced, wonderfully acted by a great cast, this movie explores some of the contradictions of modern life.

    At what point does encouragement tip over into dishonesty? At what point does encouragement become inappropriate, and does that encouragement set the recipient up for failure?

    These sound like the subjects of weighty discussions, but in You Hurt My Feelings, these issues are explored with tenderness and at times laugh out loud humour.

    Where the film perhaps falls a little flat is that while we go through the experiences that force the characters to ask questions of themselves and others, it doesn't do much to create emotional investment on their behalf from the audience.

    It would be tempting to see the main protagonists as self-indulgent 'snowflakes' experiencing first world problems, but I believe that thought-provoking questions are posed about that area in the Venn diagram that love and support share with dishonesty, however well meant.

    That said, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Beth carries the film with ease, and a special mention goes to Jeannie Berlin as Beth's irascible mother.

    I wanted to give this film 7.5 but can't. I've decided that a mere 7 was too low so, despite my reservations, I have been generous and given it and 8.
  • bk753 - 7 February 2024
    Wanders aimlessly and ends up nowhere...
    This is a bland movie about uninteresting characters that really goes nowhere. Five entitled NYC adults, all with existential crises, muddle their way through a year and emerge on the other side marginally changed... it's a "slice of life" film about people who are hard to care about, that meanders to no real resolutions, while on the way giving us little to smile about... how is this a "comedy?"

    A woman writer who might not good is married to a therapist who might not be good. Her sister is a disillusioned interior designer married to a disillusioned actor, and her son is a "searching for meaning" whiner who works in a pot dispensary. They all interact while questioning their life choices and not a bit of it is intriguing or interesting. An overheard conversation sparks a dilemma that gets sorted through and a year later we revisit them briefly to see them somewhat better with no idea how they got there. Seriously, this is the plot. Along the way we meet stereotypical patients in therapy, bored wannabe writers in a workshop, and an annoying mother, but just "why?" Take any four people you know, and their story would probably be just as compelling, likely funnier, and less angst-ridden. There seriously is no real story here. But ugh, the critics loved it. What a surprise.

    Don't bother with this. I don't need explosions and dazzling film graphics, but I need SOMETHING. This movie offers little in the way of entertainment.
  • svrowell - 8 December 2023
    Absolutely brilliant
    I think this might be my favourite of Nicole Holofcener's films so far, along with Enough Said. First off, You Hurt My Feelings is really, really funny. To name only two examples from a movie that is a pleasure to watch from beginning to end, the scenes between the sublime Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jeannie Berlin are hilarious, as are those with David Cross and Amber Tamblyn playing nightmare couples-therapy patients. And, as is usual with Holofcener's films, it is also touching in a totally non-schmaltzy way. It's a classic example of a film that doesn't get the credit it's due because it's about something 'small', when, in fact, this small issue actually relates to matters that loom very large for everyone, whomever they are, wherever they live and whatever they do for a living.