Anyone But You

No, you’re not wrong if you’ve been wondering where all of the Romantic Comedies have gone. While the once very popular and financially lucrative genre hasn’t completely died out, they have been largely relegated to streaming services, seemingly cast off as convenient entertainment rather than films that’d draw an audience to the big screen willing to pay actual money. And the offerings on those services haven’t exactly been big number draws either. But thanks to director Will Gluck, the genre came howling back at the box office with Anyone But You. 

After having the perfect meet-cute moment at a coffee shop, Law Student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Daytrader Ben (Glen Powell) have the perfect first date night. No smooching. No hookups. Just grilled cheese and honest human conversations. But it was just one night. Months later the pair of should-have-been perfects reunite for a wedding in Australia. The barbs come out fast and furious. As the respective wedding parties try to bring the two together, B&B do what they can to prove their hatred by pretending to fall for each other. The only problem with pretending to fall in love is that sometimes it actually happens. 

I don’t hate Romantic Comedies, there I many I enjoy beyond the 80s and 90s classics that defined the genre for decades. But the problem I’ve seen with a number of more recent attempts is that the genre just feels stagnant. A film doesn’t always need to reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t hurt to try and do something a little new. Anyone But You definitely doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it manages to play to some strengths before it tries way too hard to be funny. Since it’s the kind of film I don’t seek out for entertainment, I expected the worst from a film loosely cribbing Much Ado About Nothing but was somewhat surprised that I didn’t hate it. 

I don’t think it’s a great film by any measure, but I laughed more than I expected. The film and by extension our two young attractive leads Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are at their best when they’re not trying to be funny. Their whipsmart insult banter gave me the biggest laughs. Some of the situations they find themselves were already awkwardly funny. Glenn Powell losing his clothes trying to find giant spiders was funny. It stopped being funny when they tried to keep the gag going with Sweeney trying to find more giant spiders in Powell's bare ass. Unfortunately, that’s how the movie rolls: set up what could be a funny situation only to kill the bit with bad physical comedy and if that fails, weirdly placed nudity and bawdy humor and let the scene play way too long. 

But when you have a movie that costs roughly $ 25 million and grosses north of $200 million globally, my opinion of what is or is not funny doesn’t matter. The film found its fanbase and apparently, there’s a big push to get Sweeney and Powell back into another movie together toot sweet. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. Probably won't ever watch it again. It’s pleasant enough with our leads showing they can manage to get some laughs. The supporting cast including Dermot Mulroney, Bryan Brown, Michelle Hurd, and Gata among others were a nice bunch to have some laughs with as the movie slides into one predictable cliche after the next. Given its massive success, how much do you want to bet Anyone But You Two is in active development right now? Then if that's a success and the characters have kids, they can call it Anyone But You Three... 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Anyone But You slips onto Blu-ray in a single-disc + digital set from Sony. Housed in a standard case, the film is pressed on a BD-50 disc. The disc loads to Sony’s standard static image main menu with the bonus features listed along the right side of the screen.  

Anyone But You scores an impressive 1.85:1 1080p transfer. Like the story and plot, the film doesn’t visually reinvent the wheel for a Romantic Comedy, but it does know how to make use of its Australian locations. Details of our attractive cast, the costumes (and lack of), and the film’s production design work are captured well for this disc. Fine lines have great clarity and the digital photography is nicely rendered without any compression issues or problems of that sort. Colors are bright and beautiful with lovely primaries. Skin tones as you’ll see a lot of all look healthy and natural. Black levels are strong, nicely inky, and whites crips and clean without blooming.

On the audio side, the film comes in with a solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Not an overly aggressive one that’d redefine your surround experience, but it handles the job well. Surround channels pick up a lot of great ambient effects to stay engaged to give a feeling of immersion. Overall this is a more front/center loaded experience. The busier scenes like the fireworks or when the wedding party goes on a late-night cruise in Sydney Harbor are nice sequences in that regard. Not the most complicated or amazing track but one that serves the film. And with that, if I go the rest of my life without hearing Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten I’ll be okay.

On the bonus features front the disc comes with few extras. Nothing Earth-shatteringly amazing, a lot of the typical talking heads and gag tracks, but there are some decent nuggets worth looking at even if it barely totals 20-minutes of content. 

• He Said She Said (HD 4:01)
• Everyone Down Under (HD 3:54)
• Outtakes & Bloopers (HD 3:10)
• Deleted Scenes (HD 1:37)
• Marketing Materials (HD 3:23 total)
• ASMR Pickup Lines
• Aussie Snacks

I’ll freely say it, Anyone But You turned out not to be my kind of movie. But that’s okay, I gave it a shot and I didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it. Thought it was better than the Rotten Tomatoes score would say, but then not as good as some friends sold it for me. Very likely I'll never see it again. I laughed a bit and somewhere in it there is a good serviceable Romantic Comedy, but it falls when it tries too hard to be funny. Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney are no Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, but they can sling some funny mean-spirited banter. On Blu-ray, the film looks and sounds great. The bonus features aren’t much to discuss beyond the typical stuff you see assembled for comedies these days. Given the massive box office take of the film, Anyone Buy You has fans out there who will want to grab this for the collection so to that end it is at least Worth A Look