Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman who ‘dates’ a shy 19-year-old in a raunchy new comedy film. The only problem? ‘No Hard Feelings’ has nothing of value to say about s*x, argues Louis Chilton

look at the premise of No Hard Feelings and you would rightly expect to be scandalised. The film is a broad, affable comedy starring Jennifer Lawrence as a cash-strapped thirtysomething who is hired to “date” a 19-year-old introvert (Andrew Barth Feldman) at the behest of his wealthy helicopter parents. It’s a movie that sells itself on raunch: the button-pushing age-gap romance at its heart leads to plenty of s*xually-tinged misadventure, including a much-discussed full-frontal fight scene involving Lawrence. But, as The Independent’s critic noted in our review, No Hard Feelings is ultimately a character piece dressed in s*x-farce clothing. Its attitude towards s*x all too often resembles that of a sniggering teenager. And it speaks to a problem that is rampant in Hollywood cinema today.

Where once the US film industry was confined by the puritanical restrictions of the Hays Code (the guidelines prohibiting swearing, s*x and violence on screen, which lasted from 1934 to 1968), we are now in the thickets of a new censorious era. s*xless action films dominate the box office; long gone are the days when a work of unabashed erotica such as Basic Instinct could take the box office by storm. The bar for s*x on screen has been lowered so far that films like No Hard Feelings can win plaudits simply by stumbling over it. The scope for properly explicit adult depictions of s*x on screen has narrowed to a sliver.

Of course, mainstream cinema shying away from s*xuality is nothing new. But whereas in the past, this has been something imposed on the industry by prudish regulators and studio executives, audiences themselves are now increasingly averse to carnal matters. Social media abounds with snarky complaints about “gratuitous” s*x scenes. “If it doesn’t serve the plot, then s*x scenes are little more than pornography,” goes the argument, which often seems particularly prevalent among younger (Gen Z) cinephiles. Whether or not titillation is in itself reason enough to show two characters going at it merits its own debate – the semiconscious allure of watching attractive people behave s*xily has, after all, been one of the driving forces behind cinema’s popularity for more than a century. But titillation is only ever one part of it. It is important for films to depict s*x because s*x is a part of life. To pretend otherwise, to dance around the issue, is artistically dishonest.

It’s not just a question of abundance, or quote-unquote “explicitness”, that is the problem. It’s also a question of realism. No Hard Feelings contains a modest amount of s*x and nudity, but none of it really rings true to life. I mean, how many naked beach brawls have you been in lately? The one out-and-out “s*x scene” sees Feldman’s character ejaculate prematurely between Lawrence’s thighs (off-screen, of course). s*x on screen is nearly always sanitised, romanticised, fetishised, or – as in this instance – heightened for laughs; seldom does it ever ring true. Experts have long warned of the damage that internet pornography is wreaking on the s*xual mores of adolescents. Surely a move towards truthful, unembellished s*x could only be a good thing?

Often, the argument against s*x scenes is framed as a moral issue. It is claimed, or simply implied, that needless s*x scenes are exploitative, or otherwise nefarious. Historically, there have been all too many instances of performers getting exploited, mistreated or worse, in the process of filming s*x scenes. (Particularly heinous examples, such as Last Tango in Paris, live on in infamy.) But with intimacy coordinators now commonplace in any film or TV set involving s*x scenes, the likelihood of these incidents happening has been vastly reduced.

No Hard Feelings wasn’t the only film released this week. Stars at Noon, the latest (primarily) English-language project from revered French filmmaker Claire Denis, slunk quietly onto digital services. Margaret Qualley (Maid) plays a journalist and s*x worker stuck in Nicaragua; Joe Alwyn plays an intelligence agent with whom she falls in love. It would be wrong to suggest that the film’s several indulgent s*x scenes are the only reason the release has been all but buried in the UK: Stars at Noon is languidly paced and thematically meaty. But it’s also a film by a major European filmmaker that won the Grand Prix at Cannes, and which stars two buzzy young English-language actors. The lack of a theatrical release here is galling – and you have to wonder if the woozy s*xual explicitness had something to do with it.

While multiplexes are now often as chaste as chapels, some sultry respite can be found on the smaller screen. Where mainstream cinema has shunned s*xuality, television has proved more willing to embrace it. Think of the horny excess of Euphoria, or the dark, sometimes violent s*xuality of Game of Thrones. (Though the less said about The Idol, the better.) Perhaps this has something to do with the way the two mediums are consumed: because age ratings are harder to enforce in a home setting, explicit s*x does not carry the same financial disincentive it does for a cinema release. Or maybe people are just more comfortable watching a scene of simulated coitus within the privacy of their own front room, as opposed to a dark cinema auditorium, where you could be sat amongst God knows who – vicars, perverts or cackling teens.

To see No Hard Feelings become a hit would be heartening: the film industry needs more comedies like it. But let’s not pretend it tries to say anything real about s*x. The problem is – in Hollywood at least – neither does anyone else.