This is the latest from one of my favourite writer/directors, Nicole Holofcener. She does a lot of work in TV, most of which I have not seen or have little interest in, but since 1996 she has also written and directed seven feature films, and all of them are good to excellent. In fact, I cannot think of any director with such a perfect record.
This time, she has re-teamed with Julia Louis-Dreyfus from the brilliant and her most critically acclaimed film, Enough Said. Louis-Dreyfus stars as Beth, a novelist who is shocked when she finds out her husband’s honest reaction to her latest book. Despite his support and his professing to like it as he read the various drafts, she overhears him telling a friend that he thinks it is no good.
That may seem like a flimsy premise, but with Beth’s psychiatrist husband Don (Tobias Menzies) doubting his effectiveness at work, where he also finds himself often saying what his clients want to hear, her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) fed up with her job designing rich people’s homes and Sarah’s husband Mark (Arian Moayed) having a crisis of confidence in his acting career, there is a lot for Holofcener to explore. She does that, as always, with insight and a lot of humour.
All of the performances are great, down to a couple of Don’s patients, played by David Cross and Zach Cherry, who provide a lot of the comedic moments.
Perceptive and witty in the style of mid-period Woody Allen or early Edward Burns, this is a real treat.
You Hurt My Feelings is available for free to Amazon Prime members.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Ranking of Nicole Holofcener’s feature films:
7. The Land of Steady Habits (2018)
6. Please Give (2010)
5. Friends With Money (2006)
4. Lovely and Amazing (2001)
3. You Hurt My Feelings (2023)
2. Walking and Talking (1996)
1. Enough Said (2013)