The danger of little white lies is on full display in the final trailer for A24's upcoming dramedy You Hurt My Feelings. Julia Louis-Dreyfus leads the film as Beth, a successful novelist fearful that her next book won't live up to the expectations of her previous work. Her peaceful marriage then takes a nosedive when she overhears what her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) really thinks about her book. The trailer shows the everyday occurrences in the lives of Beth, Don, their friends, their clients, and their son while measuring how such small, seemingly insignificant actions like a white lie can send someone into a spiral.
The first half of the footage shows Beth's insecurities and how encouraging her husband can be to her. In between working on her new book, she lives a seemingly perfect life with Don who is eager to pump her up and celebrate their anniversary. She still battles insecurity as she wonders what could be done to make her next book sell better after her last one tanked. Although others tell her the previous book deserved better and only flagged in sales due to the oversaturated book market, it's only Don that's able to calm her and tell her that she's not some old, tired voice and that her new book is phenomenal. Cue the rug pull at about halfway where Don confesses to his friend that the book isn't the fabulous piece of work he said and Beth loses all trust in him, putting all of his previous encouragement into doubt. Her frantic spiral into sickness, sadness, and anger, is both poignant and comedic as Louis-Dreyfus evokes some of her best roles in her performance.
Beth isn't the only one weighing struggling with such a problem though. Don deals with clients that are finally being open about how little he's actually doing to help them and Beth's sister (Michaela Watkins) admits to lying to her struggling actor husband Mark (Arian Moayed) when his performances aren't up to snuff. Beth and Don's son (Owen Teague) is struggling too as his parents' marriage falls into turmoil. It all points to another comedy with very real, human struggles from writer/director Nicole Holofcener who reunites with Louis-Dreyfus after the 2013 middle-age comedy Enough Said.
You Hurt My Feelings Will Lead Off a Strong Summer for A24
You Hurt My Feelings is one of three highly-anticipated projects from A24 coming out of Sundance that are set to release later this year. Among that group is also the buzzy Past Lives, which is noted as an early film of the year favorite, and Talk to Me, the hit horror feature debut of YouTube stars Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou with major sequel potential.
Like those two titles, You Hurt My Feelings endeared itself to festival attendees back in January, earning a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score along with a B+ from Collider's own Ross Bonaime. He specifically praised Holofcenter's writing for creating real, human explorations out of the mundane, everyday occurrences, calling it "the type of film that reminds us why Holofcener is one of the best writers of comedies today, and that her ability to write films with such small consequences can often feel like a massive achievement, as these are situations that feel honest and human and wholly earnest."
You Hurt My Feelings is set to release in theaters on May 26. Check out the trailer below: