Anyone But You (2023) We couldn't help our amusement at everybody's surprise at the success of this movie.
A paint-by-numbers, connect-the-dots romcom? How did this become such a hit?
Critics didn't much care for it. Film bloggers and pundits mocked it.
Only ticket buyers liked it. The studio smiled. And Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell became official movie stars.
So how come? Why did a star-powered romcom like the George Clooney-Julia Roberts "Ticket To Paradise" roll over and die but "Anyone But You' flourished and thrived?
Easy peasy. All that director and co-writer Will Gluck had to do was follow the playbook.
And we mean carefully follow that frickin' playbook.
First box checked - romcoms require pretty people whom you can actually imagine having sex.....( or imagine yourself having sex with one of them....or maybe both). Sydney Sweeney, with a perfectly sculpted bod and a voice sounding like a 12 year old who just woke up in the morning....check. Glen Powell, with a perfectly sculpted bod and a semi-comic swagger.....check.
Next box checked - one of the romcom couple, or both need to show what good sports they are when they're shoved into embarrassing, humiliating situations.....almost always in public
Therefore.....Sweeney performs acrobatics with a restroom hand dryer when she tries heating up her accidentally water-soaked crotch. Check. Powell strips naked when a spider's found on him.....since this happens in front of the rest of the cast, double check.
A meet cute? Check.
The couple then turned into hated enemies of each other? Oh yes.
The enemy couple forced together at an Australian destination wedding? You bet.
A full combination wedding guests-greek chorus to influence and/or comment on every awkward moment the romcom couple find themselves in. Check. (And extra bonus for throwing in well worn familiar faces in that bunch like Dermot Mulroey and Aussie star Bryan Brown.)
A warming up of the romcom couple, followed by another falling out, followed by the boy racing against time to make things kissy-kissy right with the girl? Do you even have to ask?
And finally, a beloved pop song used as the movie's signature song and group-sung by the entire cast during the closing credits? That's a virtually unwritten rule.....or in this case, literally "Unwritten"......
Thus endeth the lesson.....
If romcoms always remain in a special place within your heart (either out in the open or secretly).....then you dare not resist this one. And no amount of criticism by BQ or anyone else should deter you. For you, it's a warm 'n fuzzy 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)
For everyone else.....oh what the hell. Give it a try. You might even laugh once or twice.
We did.
But don't tell anyone. Thanks.
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