ANYONE BUT YOU

Name: ANYONE BUT YOU
Item: ANYONE BUT YOU
Author: Lillie Jaenchen

"Crudely Disappointing"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

ANYONE BUT YOU is a romantic comedy. It centers on Bea, in her twenties, and Ban, in his 30s, who “meet cute.” When Bea is desperate to use a coffee shop’s bathroom, Ben pretends to be her husband so she can get a bathroom key since he’s ordering and she’s not. The two run into each other again at a bar. Ben invites Bea to his apartment for just food and chatting, but she sleeps over innocently and sneaks out the door just as he wakes up. Hurt, Ben talks rudely about her, and Bea figures Ben’s just a dolt. Unexpectedly, they find themselves together again when Bea’s lesbian sister has an exotic Australian wedding with the sister of Ben’s best friend.

ANYONE BUT YOU wastes its talented lead actress Sydney Sweeney in movie mediocrity. It serves up a clichéd, often-boring story with mostly bad acting and a lot of skimpy outfits and raunchy content. ANYONE BUT YOU is also packed with scantily clad bodies, an abundance of foul language and sexual jokes, and portrays a homosexual marriage as an ideal.

Content:

(RoRoRo, HoHoHo, LLL, SS, NNN, A, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Romantic worldview with casual sexual relationships discussed and briefly depicted, and the movie centers around a lesbian wedding portrayed as completely positive;

Foul Language:

At least 53 obscenities (including at least 37 “f” words) with other crude language;

Violence:

No violence;

Sex:

Casual sexual relationships discussed and briefly depicted, a couple is seen passionately kissing and removing each other’s clothes in a shower before rolling around in bed with no nudity and dark shadow, numerous sexual references throughout the movie, movie positively portrays sexual affairs and a lesbian couple who are getting married, a man and woman stick their hands down each other’s pants and feel around for intended comic effect that falls flat, a fully clothed couple dance very sensually together on a dance floor, in a funny scene of a woman accidentally falls on top of a sleeping man on a plane and gets her jacket stuck before having to appear to be writhing with pleasure when she’s actually just trying to get her arm loose without waking him up;

Nudity:

Topless female nudity with side shot of breasts as woman is undressed by her lover in a shower, a shirtless man throws his shorts off when he finds a spider in them, and his full body is shown except for his hands covering his genitals in two different scenes, the same man is seen nude except for genitals in a shower and lined up waiting for another man who covers his genitals with hands, but his pubic hairs are visible, and many women in skimpy bikinis or outfits; Alcohol: Casual alcohol drinking in a bar and at a wedding reception, nothing excessive;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

There are numerous attempts by side characters to bring the lead couple together through manipulation and lying, and the main couple lie throughout to pretend that they are a couple when they really hate each other for most of the movie.

More Detail:

ANYONE BUT YOU is an all-too-rare romantic comedy about a man and woman who met in a coffee shop. ANYONE BUT YOU unfortunately is just as mediocre as most of the romcoms that flood Netflix and other streaming services. Serving up a clichéd, often-boring story with mostly bad acting and a lot of skimpy outfits and raunch, it’s purporting to be a modern romance for adults but is often too stupid for anyone with adult intelligence to enjoy.

The movie centers on a woman in her twenties named Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and a man in his 30s named Ben (Glen Powell), who “meet cute.” When Bea is desperate to use a coffee shop’s bathroom in the opening scene, Ben pretends to be her husband so she can get a bathroom key since he’s ordering, and she’s not.

That opening exchange is hardly impressive, but the movie briefly looks to deliver on the screwball side of comedy as Bea accidentally sprays water on the front area of her jeans in the bathroom and engages in very funny physical maneuvers to make the dryer save her clothes and her dignity. Sweeney shows a terrific knack for physical comedy here and a couple other scenes in the movie that rise far above the movie’s mostly lame, heavy-handed dialogue.

The two run into each other again at a bar gathering and initially have an instant attraction when Ben invites Bea to his apartment for food and chatting. The montage that follows is sweet and shows them genuinely getting to know each other without sex, but she sleeps over innocently and sneaks out the door just as he wakes up.

Hurt, Ben talks rudely about Bea to a friend on the phone just as she comes back into his apartment to apologize for leaving. Thinking he’s a crude and hateful dolt, she leaves again without making her presence known and thinks she’ll never see him again.

However, when Bea’s lesbian sister gets set for an exotic Australian wedding with the sister of Ben’s best friend, she and Ben find themselves stuck together in the wedding party on the other side of the planet. Their friends and families conspire to bring them together as a couple to save the wedding week from lots of bickering. However, Bea and Ben figure out they’re being manipulated. So, they decide to turn the tables by pretending that they’re an instant couple even though they still hate each other.

Ben’s former flame and Bea’s recently-dumped fiancé, Jonathan, unexpectedly show up at the compound where everyone’s staying. Complications ensue. Will Ben and Bea get back together with their former lovers, or will they decide they’re truly in love with each other?

ANYONE BUT YOU offers a fun and fine lead performance as Bea by Sydney Sweeney, a rising star who got on Hollywood’s radar as part of the controversial HBO high school series EUPHORIA. She’s always cute and charming, but as mentioned, her prowess with physical comedy makes her a comedy star to watch.

Sadly, as Ben, Glen Powell (who became a star in the making as Hangman in TOP GUN: MAVERICK) is handsome but personality free. The movie doesn’t even bother to tell viewers anything about Ben’s background, not even his career, and Powell’s acting consists of furrowing his brow, talking low and usually showing off his body. His totally underwritten character brings down the central relationship with Bea. The bad writing is made worse with some utterly stupid and completely unfunny fake conversations by other characters trying to make Ben and Bea hear things about how much each one likes the other. Grown adults overacting with material that’s too dumb for a 5-year-old is incredibly grating. The budding romance between them is also ludicrous. Ben and Bea go from hating each other to pledging how perfect they are for each other, with almost no dramatic impetus to feel that way.

ANYONE BUT YOU is also packed with scantily clad bodies, an abundance of foul language and sexual jokes, plus portraying a homosexual marriage as an ideal relationship, ANYONE BUT YOU wastes its talented lead actress Sydney Sweeney in a sea of mediocrity. The movie is unacceptable and unappealing.

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Quality:

- Content: -3