“Anyone But You” is a 2023 American romantic comedy film. Directed by Will Gluck, “Anyone But You” stars Sydney Sweeney as Bea and Glen Powell as Ben. The main characters, Bea and Ben, have a great first date. Their attraction quickly turns sour when they suddenly find themselves at a destination wedding in Australia. The wedding is for Bea’s sister, Halle, and Ben’s roommate’s sister, Claudia. Bea and Ben keep up appearances by pretending to be the perfect couple. This entertains the family because their goal is to get Bea and Ben together again.
William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” inspired the film. While Shakespeare’s play focuses on the story of Hero and Claudio, “Anyone But You” models the secondary plot about Beatrice and Benedick. The movie received 56% on rotten tomatoes, indicating that 56% of the reviews were positive and 44% were negative. According to IMDb, the film received a rating of 6.2 out of 10 stars. Metacritic concluded that 38% of viewers had a positive review, 38% had a mixed review, and 23% had a negative review.
Jackson Benckert shared his review of the movie. He said, “I would have to rate this movie as a three-star movie just because it isn’t my cup of tea. It had many aspects that I enjoyed, but I genuinely don’t like this genre.” When asked what he didn’t like about “Anyone But You,” he mentioned the coffee shop scene when Ben helps Bea secure a bathroom key by pretending to be her husband. Benckert commented, “The whole beginning of the movie was too long, and the coffee shop scene took too long, in my opinion.” He later goes on to describe his feelings about the movie’s ending. Ben realizes that he has real feelings for Bea, and the wedding guests convince him to go after her. He jumps off a cliff and convinces a rescue helicopter to fly him to the Sydney Opera House. Ben and Bea exchange their true feelings for one another, ending with a kiss. Benckert explained, “I felt like they could have done something else. The ending of the movie left me underwhelmed and with a lack of enthusiasm.” Benckert didn’t find as much enjoyment in the film as others did. This movie wasn’t for him.
Others found “Anyone But You” enjoyable. Jo Obrien gave their rating out of five stars. “I would rate it five stars. I love this movie. It was a perfect date night movie,” Obrien explained. They went in with low expectations but found that the film was underestimated. When asked about the overall quality of the cinematography, Obrien responded, “The cinematography was actually amazing. Going into this movie, I was just expecting a corny love movie. After watching, I realized I highly underestimated it.” Obrien liked that the movie was inclusive and representative of the LGBTQ+ community with the marriage between Halle and Claudia. They later were asked about their feelings towards the end of the film. “The end of this movie was so beautiful! I obviously cried because the wedding of two women was such a beautiful thing to see in a popular movie.” Obrien liked the film more than they expected.
Sydney Sweeney received one of her first two producing credits on “Anyone But You,” making this film a defining moment in her career. The movie’s settings were created in locations throughout Sydney, Australia, and Palm Beach, Florida. If you want to watch “Anyone But You,” it is available for $5.99 on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video. It is coming soon to Netflix, on April 23, 2024.
Sources:
https://www.timeout.com/sydney/news/sydney-on-screen-filming-anyone-but-you-in-the-harbour-city-121923
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/anyone-but-you/user-reviews/
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https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/sydney-sweeney-explains-why-anyone-153801119.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAF3piaH_UegUwz7tKGFgwjT-XN6_nXhI-JB7vY9l5Q6iK1IMtyEnFtnSnIoN6vK63qv07k_-unLSWZ0m0uVklxDW_TeQ9FXQvxzzmvV-bxXG5vujsXkMNDdo27YBkzC_VzyXzKvphLGtQfaIUjXPMIjWy9StJoP4rStl-9-MtoCx#:~:text=Sweeney%20received%20her%20first%20two,at%20an%20Australian%2Dset%20wedding.
