On December 22, SONY Pictures released the romantic comedy Anyone But You directed by Will Gluck, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ilana Wolpert. The movie features Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney and Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell, as the main characters and love interests. Many viral tiktoks containing viewers of the film described it as the best romantic comedy since How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days which was released in 2003.
The movie starts off with a classic meet-cute in a coffee shop with Ben (played by Glen Powell) coming to Bea’s (played by Sydney Sweeney ) rescue who is desperately in need of using the coffee shop’s bathroom. As the barista makes VERY clear it is reserved only for customers, Ben pretends that Bea is his wife and buys her coffee therefore giving her the disguise of a customer. Bea finds this act of chivalry charming and before finally going to the bathroom, Ben asks her to go on a date with him which she gladly accepts.
After spending a perfect day together a miscommunication occurs between the two, leading them to forget about one another, until about a year later when they meet again unexpectedly at Bea’s sister’s engagement party. Bea and Ben instantly show their disdain for one another, but in movies like these it is always best to remember: there is a very thin line between love and hate.
As they travel to Australia for the wedding, Ben and Bea realize that for their own personal reasons, it would benefit them both to pretend to be in a relationship even though they despise each other. This twist had viewers grabbing onto their seats waiting for these lovebirds to put their differences aside and realize that they are meant for each other.
A very popular book trope right now amongst teens is enemies to lovers. A lot of those readers might enjoy this movie as they share similar traits. Ben and Bea’s hatred towards each other eventually turns into love. Not only does this movie include passion and love but its light comedy reels the audience in.
In the film a reference to the infamous movie Titanic was made, which I appreciated since I absolutely love Titanic. I feel like it added to the mood of the story and made the viewers fall even more in love with this “fake” couple.
The song Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield was featured in this movie and had it trending on social media around the release of the movie. As soon as teens had watched Anyone But You, they immediately posted a tiktok featuring the song Unwritten. The song is played multiple times throughout the movie and was portrayed as Bens’ emotional support song. During the 2024 People’s Choice Awards Natasha Bedingfield got on stage with Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney and sang her song with them.
The lack of romcoms in theaters these past few years is one of the reasons why this movie was so popular. Who knows? Maybe this can be the start of bringing back old fashioned rom coms and the magic that comes with it.
