• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell star in a scene from the movie “Anyone But You.” The OSV News classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. (OSV News photo/Brook Rushton, Sony)

Movie Review: ‘Anyone But You’

December 22, 2023
By John Mulderig
OSV News
Filed Under: Movie & Television Reviews

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

NEW YORK (OSV News) – The old saw that the line between love and hate is a thin one provides the premise for the fitfully funny but morally wayward romantic comedy “Anyone But You” (Sony). Although the script, penned by director Will Gluck and Ilana Wolpert, draws on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” the mores on display are all-too-modern.

After a chance meeting, aspiring lawyer Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and financial analyst Ben (Glen Powell) share what initially seems like a promising first date, eventually falling asleep in an embrace on his couch. But when she flees in the morning, then has second thoughts and returns to his doorstep, it’s only to overhear Ben badmouthing her to his buddy Pete (GaTa).

Six months later, the two are forced back into each other’s company when they travel from their hometown of Boston to Australia to attend a same-sex wedding. Both, however, have reasons for disguising their mutual antipathy and for pretending that they are once again romantically linked. Will pretense blossom into reality amid all the bickering?

Some of the slapstick and human foibles-based humor that accompanies the friction between the central duo works. But the screenplay’s hard sell on gay unions as well as its glamorization of heading to bed before making it to the altar set Gluck’s movie at odds with Christian values.

The film contains a benign view of homosexual acts, a semi-graphic premarital sexual encounter, upper female, rear and partial genital nudity, same-sex kissing, drug use, a few profanities, about a half-dozen milder oaths and pervasive rough as well as much crude language. The OSV News classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Read More Movie & TV Reviews

Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon

Movie Review: ‘Another Simple Favor’

Movie Review: The Legend of Ochi

Conclaves on screen

Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon

Pope Francis on Film

Copyright © 2023 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

John Mulderig

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Chicago native Cardinal Prevost elected pope, takes name Leo XIV

  • Who was Pope Leo XIII, the father of social doctrine?

  • Full text of first public homily of Pope Leo XIV

  • Advocates of abuse victims are rooting for a Filipino pope — and it’s not Cardinal Tagle

  • Archbishop Lori surprised, heartened by selection of American pope

| CURRENT EDITION |

| Remembering Pope Francis |

Radio Interview: Meet the Mount St. Mary’s graduate who served as a lector at papal funeral

Georgetown’s final ‘Francis Factor’ panel remembers late pope’s legacy

Francis’ final gift to Gaza: Popemobile will be transformed into mobile clinic for children

Final preparations, discussions underway before conclave begins

Over 12 years, Pope Francis made a significant impact on the church’s liturgical life

| Vatican News |

New pope, a tennis fan, meets world’s No. 1 player

Meeting Eastern Catholics, pope pledges to be peacemaker

Jerusalem patriarch, back in Holy Land, reflects on conclave, ‘inconceivable’ Gaza situation

With jobs disappearing, cardinal says he ‘rejoiced’ at pope’s name choice

New pope’s Black, Creole roots illuminate rich multiracial history of U.S.

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

| Movie & Television Reviews |

Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon

Movie Review: ‘Another Simple Favor’

Movie Review: The Legend of Ochi

Conclaves on screen

Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon

| En español |

El deseo del obispo Bruce Lewandowski, “Cuiden bien a los jóvenes.”

El cardenal Prevost, misionero de EEUU, es elegido Papa y toma el nombre de León XIV

Invocando al Espíritu Santo y la intercesión de todos los santos, los cardenales inician el cónclave

Rev. Cristóbal Fones, SJ: “Los jóvenes tienen un mensaje y un bien que dar a la sociedad”

Los pobres y los poderosos rezan por el eterno descanso de un Papa ‘con un corazón abierto’

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • New pope, a tennis fan, meets world’s No. 1 player
  • Meeting Eastern Catholics, pope pledges to be peacemaker
  • Jerusalem patriarch, back in Holy Land, reflects on conclave, ‘inconceivable’ Gaza situation
  • House GOP budget proposal includes cuts to Medicaid, groups that perform abortions
  • With jobs disappearing, cardinal says he ‘rejoiced’ at pope’s name choice
  • New pope’s Black, Creole roots illuminate rich multiracial history of U.S.
  • Forcing clergy to break the seal of confession harms victims
  • Chicago-style hotdogs, pizza, the White Sox just a few of new pope’s Windy City faves
  • My church, myself: Motherhood, mystery and mercy

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED