“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.” – Hero, Act 3 Scene 1, William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing
The decline of the romantic comedy in our cultural consciousness has been an incredible tragedy to witness. In my lifetime alone, I have watched the fall of the colloquial “chick flick” from the magnificent highs of When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Pretty Woman (1990) to the mediocrity of the aughts, with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) or The Holiday (2006), and further still to the depths of the modern streaming era, with unpalatable hogwash like The Kissing Booth (2018), The Kissing Booth 2 (2020) or The Kissing Booth 3 (2021).
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) it is not, but Anyone But You (2023) manages to restore a degree of dignity and competence to this long-forgotten genre. Headlined by two of our fastest-rising stars, Gen-Z icon Sydney Sweeney of Euphoria fame and the older but equally magnetic Glen Powell of Top Gun: Maverick (2021), the film takes a hackneyed conceit- the enemies-to-lovers trope- and elevates it with a bit of cleverness and tact. T
Technically, Anyone But You is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, but other than the premise itself and a handful of well-placed quotes, the movie is fully its own animal, bringing to life a destination wedding in present-day Australia.
The script is rather pedestrian, and the dialogue is delivered poorly at times, particularly by Sweeney, whose screen presence is undeniable but whose talent appears only in fits and starts as she struggles to embody the self-doubt and anxiety of her law student character, Bea. Powell is charming as always, bringing a unique energy to his finance-bro character Ben that occupies the space between smug and earnest.
The movie’s respectable but modest $25 million budget is apparent in a pair of striking but under-developed set-pieces. A hysterical sight gag about halfway through the 103 min runtime was the only point at which I truly laughed out loud, but there were chuckles throughout, most often from the superb cast of supporting characters.
Some critics judge a movie by an arbitrary and pretentious “objective” standard that is seemingly always rooted more in their personal taste than a fair artistic analysis. Not I, dear reader. Throughout my reviews, I hope you’ll find that I judge films by the following: 1) whether they were made with a plan, that is, an artistic intention and a message that was thought out beforehand and not just cobbled together on screen, and 2) whether they followed that plan and ultimately accomplished what they set out to do. I hope you’ll also find that my only major bias is towards exclusive theatrical releases- I am an ardent supporter of the cinematic experience and will often give a movie a half-star just for being on the big screen.
So, while it doesn’t quite bring us all the way back to the glory days of the classic rom-com, Anyone But You gets a lot of credit just for being a fun date night movie and bringing some style, class, and effort to a beloved genre long ago left to the Netflix gutter. Grab your significant other or best friend, some Twizzlers, and enjoy yourselves for an hour or two.