A quiet, brilliant and often funny look at honesty in relationships, YOU HURT MY FEELINGS is another winner from Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener.
Her frequent lead Julia Louis-Dreyfus is back, bringing the same heart and laughs she did to Holofcener's "Enough Said" in 2013.
Dreyfus plays novelist Beth, whose recent memoir sold "okay" driving her to dive into fiction for her latest work, the countless latest revision of which she's delivered to her editor.
Beth's husband Don (Tobias Menzies from "Rome" and "Casino Royale") is a psychiatrist who's reaching a career impasse of his own. His patients are starting to voice complaints (hilariously) about his effectiveness. Real-life married couple David Cross (Arrested Development) and Amber Tamblyn (The Ring) are laugh-out-loud neurotic as a dueling couple whose battles only stop when they're ridiculing Don.
Zac Cherry (Succession) also tests him, delivering scathing remarks on the way out the door after appointments that impact Don long after the session is over.
Beth's sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) is an interior decorator growing impatient with her wealthy and demanding clients. Her husband Mark (Arian Moayed from "Succession") is an insecure actor who's just landed a major stage role.
With plenty to say about how couples encourage each other and the delicate equation between constant support and honesty, Holofcener delivers big laughs while opening up dramatic windows into her characters in those same moments.
When Beth and Sarah innocently sneak up on Don and Mark in a sporting goods store to surprise them, Beth overhears Don's honest opinion on her latest work.
She's crushed. But Don was just being supportive, right?
Nothing is quite that easy and that's the engaging challenge that Holofcener and her great cast deliver. Louis-Dreyfus and Menzies are fantastic and every bit of their dialogue and communication feels authentic, including some very telling body language.
Mixed into the equation are their son Eliot (Owen Teague from "It"), an emerging writer and current dispensary clerk. Teague's terrific, as is the amazing Jeannie Berlin (1972's The Heartbreak Kid, Portnoy's Complaint) as Beth's mom Georgia, who tolerates zero bullshit. Her delivery around take-out potato salad with her daughters is an acting class in itself.
Now that Woody Allen is in Paris making foreign films or no films at all, I nominate Holofcener to take his place delivering intelligent and funny looks at adult relationships. She delivers another winner with YOU HURT MY FEELINGS. It's sure to make you think just as much as you laugh. Adult, frank and funny, her latest gets an A.
