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Jennifer Lawrence Rom-Com, ‘No Hard Feelings,’ Begs the Question: Why Can’t Hollywood Get Surfing Right?


No Hard Feelings, the latest rom-com flick from Jennifer Lawrence, despite being set in Montauk (a surfy area) and having a budget of $45 million (more than John Wick: Chapter Two), somehow managed to miss the mark completely in depicting surfing anywhere close to realistically. You’d think that with $45 million to make a story with no crazy special effects or stunt doubles necessary, they’d have a couple thousand to spare for a surf consultant, or even just any random surfer wandering back from the Terrace sandbars.
Instead, the film – which depicts the story of 32-year-old Uber driver “Maddie” (Jennifer Lawrence) attempting to date 19-year-old “Percy” (Andrew Feldman) after finding a Craigslist ad his parents posted asking for help raising their son’s confidence levels by pretending to like him romantically – posits surfing as a secondary plotline.

Surfers and surfboards are placed strategically from scene to scene. Brand new, unwaxed, leashless shortboards are shown stored in the bright sunlight in a board rack on the front lawn of Maddie’s house. Does Maddie surf? She never talks about surfing, drives a sedan without board racks, and beelines it to a flat beach when she takes Percy to the ocean.
Even worse, one of the main characters, Jim, is supposed to be a surfer, played by believably surfy-looking Scott MacArthur. Points given that he drives a van, but points redacted for there being nothing in the van. No wax, no leashes, no wetsuits, no tubs to soak booties… nothing. For his big surf scene, the waves are completely flat when he walks up the boardwalk back to Maddie and his wife Sara. The three get into some kind of jokey argument, and Sara tells him to go back in the water. Jim mopily carries his shortboard back to the dead-flat ocean and paddles away.

I’m not faulting the director, Gene Stupnitsky, for including surfing in the plot. The movie is set in Montauk, after all. It adds a layer of realism. People who live near the ocean, with surf spots galore, would surf. But would it be so hard to attempt to portray it anywhere close to accurately? It is far better to leave surfing out completely than to expect the audience to believe lifelong Montak-ers are a bunch of kooks. Balaram Stack, who won the 2022 Pipe Masters, grew up in Long Island. There are good surfers in New York!
Sadly, there is a long history of mainstream cinema capitalizing off surf culture with no added realism or input from actual surfers. Besides Big Wednesday, a mainstream surf movie that largely gets surfing right, there have been many tries and fails to portray surfing. Case in point, the film Surfer, Dude released in 2008, starring Matthew McConaughey.

Despite Matthew being easy on the eyes, even boasting a surfy vibe with his long, blonde hair, from the trailer alone, one can assume this is a hard watch. Drawing from basically every stupid surfing cliché (calling everyone “dude” or “bro”) and being set in none other than Malibu, McConaughey talks in a slow, dumb drawl the entire time, all while answering the question of “what’s your occupation?” with the ridiculous answer of “surfer!” Even professional surfers would be hard pressed to say that’s their full-time job, and I can’t think of anyone, surfer or otherwise, who says “you’re harshing my mellow” to someone else, straight-faced, without some sense of irony.
The straw on the camel’s back comes from the shot of McConaughey staring out over the ocean, saying, “the report said surf, that looks like a lake,” as if A, the report said “surf,” no other information needed, and B, Malibu ever looks like more than a lake (okay, I’m kidding, but seriously man, drive somewhere else if you’re looking to get wet).

Of course, I understand these are Hollywood movies and not documentaries, and these are paid actors and not professional surfers, but I would like to know how hard it can possibly be to fact check surf lingo here and there. Heck, there’s an entire Encyclopedia of Surfing dedicated to providing enough knowledge for anyone to learn the basics of surf culture and then some after reading through a couple entries. There are also surf magazines, surf movies, and surfers everywhere: you’re basing a movie in Malibu but can’t listen to actual surfers talk for five minutes?
And if you think I’m being dramatic, think about the portrayal of other sports compared to the portrayal of surfing. No one would think of assigning a character to be a baseball player, and then sending him onto set wearing hiking boots. Or casting a character to be a professional swimmer and dressing them in a string bikini. Details matter; it’s distracting when things are so blatantly wrong. Surf nerds like me spend the entire movie focusing on the weird set details instead of the storyline.
The saving grace for Surfer, Dude is that Willie Nelson is featured in it. But as for No Hard Feelings? Without any special guests, I’m not sure it gets a pass. I can look past the weird sexual setup of a 32-year-old woman dating a 19-year-old for money. But leaving your CI Mid in the baking hot sun for a whole summer? That’s unforgivable.

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‘I am officially off the market’: When Margot Robbie revealed she made the ‘conscious’ decision of not dating actors


Margot Robbie revealed her decision to not date actors because of the media scrutiny that came with a public relationship of two high-profile actors
Back in 2015, A-lister Margot Robbie made a declaration that she would not be dating any actors. The actress may have alluded to her fiance Tom Ackerley, who she married the following year in 2016. In an exclusive interview with Marie Claire, she revealed that being in a relationship as an actor herself came with its own set of challenges. She believed that dating someone who was popular would add on to the media scrutiny.

Margot Robbie opened up on why she made a conscious decision to not date actorsTalking to Marie Claire, she claimed, “I am officially off the market.” She then shared the reasoning behind her decision and added, “I made a conscious decision not to date actors.” She continued to explain, “But not because I hate actors. That’s a nasty generalization to make, and that’s not the case. People take such an interest in your love life when you have a profile, it puts a lot of stress on a relationship.”
The Barbie actress continued, “So two people with profiles, I figure it’s just double the amount of scrutiny, and I’d like to avoid that at all costs.” This came after reports of her locking lips with Tarzan co-star Alexander Skarsgard started making rounds. It was reported that she was caught kissing the actor during the Sundance Film Festival.

Margot Robbie revealed she opted for a minimal lifestyle even after becoming an actorIn the interview, Robbie also opened up about how she was adapting to fame. She shared, “I have a normal 24-year-old life. If I were a waitress, I’d probably have the exact same lifestyle. I’d go to the same clubs I go to already, live in the same house with the same housemates, hang out with the same people.”
However, Margot Robbie tied the knot with Tom Ackerley who is an English producer and actor. The duo met on the sets of 2013 movie Suite Francaise where Tom was working as an assistant director. Post marriage, both of them launched their production company LuckyChap Entertainment.

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Monica Bellucci and Tin Burton at lunch in the restaurant in Selci Lama


For All Saints’ Day, the Hollywood star from Tiferno returned to his native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and then visit his parentsOn the occasion of the All Saints’ Day celebrations, the Hollywood star of Tiferno origin, Monica Bellucci, returned to her native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and to visit her father Pasquale and her mother Brunella.Flanked by her current partner Tim Burton, she went to lunch, together with about twenty old friends, at the Osteria del Musicista, which has always been her favorite restaurant, in Selci Lama.Menu dedicated to typical dishes of the area, which includes an appetizer with breadsticks lined with coppa, duck in porchetta and grilled pork livers, polenta with wild boar sauce accompanied by the very typical cappelletti in broth.To conclude, a dessert based on fried “ciaccia” with Nutella and roasted chestnuts.
Having paid the bill and greeted the restaurant owner and lifelong friend, Roberto Polchi, Monica brought home cappelletti and broth for a family dinner.

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‘Rocky’ Was Quite Different In His Original Screenplay, Sylvester Stallone Claims


Sylvester Stallone took his friend’s advice on a rewrite of the original screenplay to Rocky. A few tweaks later, he was on his way to major success.
In the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone discussed how he initially conceived of the project, which had a much harder edge. In the early version, Rocky was depicted as a “thuggish” character, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, Mean Streets.

But Stallone’s perspective changed when a friend read the script and thought the boxer was too cruel for audiences to actually care about him.
Stallone recalled her crying.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up.’”
Stallone took it to heart, and asked what he could do to soften the character.

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”
$117 million in box office later, a franchise was born.

Stallone also revealed that actor Dolph Lundgren sent him to the hospital during one fight scene in Rocky IV.
“Dolph Lundgren… he pulverized me,” Stallone says in the documentary. “Later that night, my heart started to swell—which happens when the heart hits the chest—and then my blood pressure went up to 260, and they thought I was going to be talking to angels. Next thing I know, I’m in intensive care, where I’m surrounded by nuns, and I thought, ‘OK, that’s curtains.’”
Stallone was in the hospital for nine days following the incident, praying for “one more round.”
“For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all,” Stallone told Lundgren. The Swedish actor joked in a separate interview that all he did was “obey orders,” explaining, “[Stallone] was the boss. I did what he told me.”
Doctors allegedly told Stallone that he received a blow to the ribs that made his heart rattle around in his ribcage, a condition typically seen in head-on collisions. “I did hit a bus, of sorts,” Stallone joked.

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