There is enough likeness in her recent body of work that I feel comfortable describing You Hurt My Feelings as a Julia Louis-Dreyfus kind of movie. It’s smart, adult, funny, mildly acerbic, and deeply rooted in our current problems. These are the kind of problems that people who have nothing but these kinds of problems will describe sneeringly as privileged. And we are, indeed, privileged to have to worry only about hurt feelings, pride, professional success, and our families. Yet as anyone who has ever written a book will know, hearing it criticized is brutally hard. And as anyone who has ever been married will know, overhearing it being criticized by your spouse is much, much worse. And this, of course, is what drives nearly all the plot in You Hurt My Feelings.
The movie spins out endings for each character that are a little too pat and de-fang some of the comedy. But if it’s too intent on giving its characters modestly happy endings, that’s better than giving characters you like the shaft. (Paramount+)