Anyone But You

Anyone But You Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp, Darren Barnet, Michelle Hurd, and Bryan Brown

Director: Will Gluck

What’s Good: Sydney Sweeney is gorgeous, and so is Glen Powell. They both look great!

What’s Bad: The dialogue and jokes are cringe-worthy and belong to the era of raunchy comedies like American Pie

Loo Break: There are many, especially if you are not in the mood for uncomfortable s*x scenes.

Watch or Not?: Watch only if you are a fan of raunchy humor or you really want to see a romantic comedy in theatres.

Language: English

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 103 minutes

User Rating:

There was a time when romantic comedy was king among genres, you could find countless options in cinemas, and because they were cheap to make, they became the option for studios to get a quick profit besides horror movies. However, with the arrival of streaming services, the genre became a straight-to-digital affair, and now it is a weird thing to see movies like these arrive in theaters. Anyone But You is the movie that will try to bring the genre back on the silver screen.

Anyone But You Movie Review: Script Analysis

The proliferation of streaming services such as Netflix and Prime Video has made the romantic comedy genre an easy content mill, and you can see how every single year, dozens of new rom-coms get released on these services only to disappear from people’s attention as fast as they appeared. It is truly a shame that an entire genre has been reduced to such low standards, but sadly, Anyone But You might not be the genre savior everyone was waiting for.

In order to achieve the savior title and get romcoms back in theaters, Anyone But You should be doing something new and fresh, something that will make people realize that the genre is worth more than they thought and that these types of movies are theatre-worthy experiences, as theatres have as of late become places where you watch special movies. Anyone But You doesn’t do any of that; instead, it just uses the same old tropes that have plagued the genre for decades.

It is true that the movie decides to work on the American Pie school of comedy, which means there is a lot of raunchy comedy here and there, as well as tons of hot scenes starring our beautiful protagonists, but having such a beautiful pair just isn’t enough. For a romantic comedy to really stand out, it doesn’t have to be only funny, but also emotional, and do something else with its story than the simple template that has been used for decades.

Once you start watching Anyone But You, you know exactly how it will end, and while some people find comfort in knowing exactly what is going to happen, for some audience members, not having any sense of discovery or revelation will make the movie as boring as a movie can be. The character work is not bad, but it is the bare minimum to consider these people’s characters instead of just walking ideas.

However, most of the character work when it comes to the secondary characters is severely missing. Many of the great romantic comedies have a cast of supporting characters that become fan favorites, for being cool, helpful, or just plain adorable. Anyone But You doesn’t have that kind of secondary cast, which is a shame as Alexandra Shipp, who is quite talented, deserves so much better on screen.

Anyone But You Movie Review: Star Performance

Anyone But You is the Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s show, and both actors are at the peak of their visual splendor. Anyone But You’s production team has really managed to sell the actors as a beautiful couple, and they really look great together. Sweeney knows she is gorgeous, but she is also a solid actress, as we have seen in HBO’s Euphoria and her roles in movies like Reality. In this film, she does her best, but this is not a memorable role.

Powell is in the same role; he could be the source of all charisma on this planet, and even when his character is not the best behaved, you cannot be angry at him for too long. Powell could become a huge star, but this movie might not take him there.