Anyone But You 2024 Movie Review
I need to warn those of you who want to spend your money on this thing: don’t do it, not worth it. I watched the movie and it was horrible. It tried to be a charming ’90s and ‘2000s rom-com, yet it failed in every department except with the male lead. Glen Powell is the only good thing about this movie.
‘Anyone but you’ is full of cliches and while you can do cliches in a good way, and make genuine, great gem of a specific genre, this is not the case here. The movie is boring, shallow, cringe comedy with typical cringe, over-the-top, not-funny jokes, maybe 1 joke lands in the entire movie, that’s how bad it is. The supposedly ‘hilarious’ nude scene on the cliff, especially the part when Powell is bending over, completely naked, holding his balls in his hands, is the next level of cringe, nothing funny, nothing charming, just cringe, awkward, awful. It’s also full of heavy, not subtle, and obvious cultural references as if the writers just wrote down popular internet memes. Man, these writers really don’t have any respect for the viewers. I basically wanted to walk out of this movie after the first 15 minutes.
The romance part is badly done as well. The chemistry is average at best, just like a normal chemistry between two beautiful people – they are easy on the eyes oh right, like most people in this industry, but nothing more. They are not Mulder and Scully or Hanks and Ryan. Another problem with the main couple is that only Powell is to some degree likable, even tho the script doesn’t make his character particularly likable, Powell’s natural charisma and charm do the trick. With Sweeney that doesn’t exist, she is utterly unlikeable, and this flaw kills the romance and fun completely. Despite what was said about this duo during the last summer and what some of their blind stans and the media still say now, they don’t fit together as a rom-com couple at all!
The screenplay itself doesn’t help the actors achieve any chemistry, as the entire story is incredibly predictable, and thus boring, with awful dialogues and wooden acting most of the time. Nothing really happens in this movie! Any romantic comedy has to have some stakes in the relationship, some solid drama, and funny, unexpected twists and turns that make sense at least in the fictional universe. In this movie, the conflict that starts Ben and Bea’s feud doesn’t even make sense! Literally, one minute of simple explanation would clear the air between them, as they are visibly attracted to each other, from the first moment they met. So the whole basis of this film, that they hate each other, doesn’t make sense. We needed some stronger reason for the hate here. And then, during the next acts of the movie, also nothing really happens. They decide to fake that they are together, and their reasons for it are also not strong and good enough for the audience to care about these characters or the story. Because throughout the film, up to the moment when they decide to pretend to be in love, and throughout the rest of the film, we don’t see at all that these two genuinely desire their ‘exes’, which was the whole reason for the masquerade.
Yet another big problem: Sydney doesn’t have a talent for comedy, sorry. Her delivery is very bland and too stiff, her character is flat, like cut out of a cardboard figure. I just don’t understand how someone like her could get the role specifically in romantic comedy if she doesn’t fit this role at all. Weren’t there some other, better, and actually comedy-talented, cute actresses available during the casting process? Or was it just an easy money grab because it is Sydney Sweeney from ‘Euphoria’?
Glen is the only one who can be genuinely hilarious and gives his all, and that is not a surprise for anyone who follows his career. Glen already showed his comedy talent in Scream Queens but also proved it as Hangman in Top Gun. He is a very funny guy in real life too, as you can see in his interviews, so it’s obvious comedy is natural for him. That’s why he absolutely is in his element in this movie, and he ‘feels it’ but the problem is no one of the rest of the cast is, including Sydney. And Glen alone is still not good enough to save this movie.
When you have such a difference in comedic chops between two leads in a romantic comedy that is a giant problem. I don’t know if you noticed, but the funny thing is, you can already see in the trailers that Sydney is no good at all in this movie. I remember that I commented her delivery is terrible the minute I watched the trailer!
After I watched this movie, I definitely think Glen is much better in romantic comedies when paired with Zoey Deutch. Glen has a way better, more organic, and natural chemistry with Zoey than with Sydney, maybe because Zoey has a comedy talent just like Glen. I saw on Glen’s IMDB that he is going to star in another comedy with Zoey, hopefully, better written than this one, so I will wait for it.
To sum up, ‘Anyone but You’ is not worth one second of your time, your money, or any buzz, just wait for the the movie to appear on the streaming platforms. It doesn’t have the great main couple, it doesn’t have good background characters, it doesn’t have the charm, wit, and natural flow that romantic comedies of the ’90s or early ‘2000 had, like She’s All That, Love Actually, Holiday, or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It simply doesn’t have good or even decent writing! And I’m not the enemy of romantic comedies, I’m a woman and aspiring filmmaker, I love great romantic comedies just like any other great movie, of any other genre. But this movie is so bad, that I genuinely felt ashamed while watching it – I felt ashamed for the filmmakers who made this, especially the writers. Don’t bother!
