Anyone But You (Starring Glen Powell & Sydney Sweeney): The Perfect Rom Com for Shakespeare Girlies

Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney star in "Anyone But You" which is a modern literary adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" (directed and co-written by Will Gluck). The film also stars Alexandra Shipp, Michelle Hurd, Bryan Brown, Darren Barnet, and ROM COM ICON DERMOT MULRONEY.
This video essay explores the many Shakespearean Easter Eggs in the film (plus a few bonus ones from other works!)
These are my thoughts!
Credits/links/references:
→ "Anyone But You” (2023): Sony Pictures
→ variety.com/20...
→ Will Gluck interview mentioning references and The Scarlet Letter:
filmschoolreje...
→ • Much Ado about Nothing...
Fair Use Act Disclaimer:
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
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#AnyoneButYou #SydneySweeney #GlenPowell
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[@LadyJenevia]

If you’re new here, check out some of my other videos! 😍🎬✨ - Only Baz Luhrmann Could Make An ELVIS Biopic ✨CINEMA✨ (Video Essay - Starring Austin Butler) kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5DNaYBqqdSeb5o - Glen Powell + Sydney Sweeney ANYONE BUT YOU Interview on Rom Coms and Shakespeare! (+ Will Gluck!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5u7fpSqgZmAbZY - Glen Powell & Sydney Sweeney's "ANYONE BUT YOU" and the Modern Literary Adaptation (Video Essay) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gl6ceYytgbB1gdk - Rizzo and Kenickie Were ALWAYS the Superior Couple | Grease 1 Video Essay kzbin.info/www/bejne/ooXNZn2qqrWimac - Netflix Releases First Penelope/Colin Clip of Bridgerton Season 3 (AS USUAL, I HAVE THOUGHTS) 👀🤭🇮🇪 kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJjNmZmZf9WtgJo - Penelope DRAGGED Colin and that’s why she’s MOTHER (Bridgerton Season 3 Official Clip/New Images!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYakeGVvq659bNk - The Sidelining of Kate Sharma (Netflix Bridgerton Analysis) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJLWhqp_prChjq8 - Bridgerton Netflix Spin-Offs: Creative Expansion or Corporate Franchising? kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4uVpp6DetZ7hZY - Married Kanthony is PURE BLISS! More Hand Stuff!!! 💋 (Bridgerton Season 3 Clip | MY THOUGHTS) kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zn_HaJusZsqCZ6c - Lisa Frankenstein (Starring Kathryn Newton & Cole Sprouse) is a FIVE STAR (Spooky!) ROM COM (Review) kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4eWo2qkipJ2ocU

[@maddie19]

The video hasn’t even really started yet, but THANK YOU for calling out people who hate on movies (I’m also grouping in anything in general) that they have no interest in! If you generally don’t like romcoms there’s a pretty good chance you’re not gonna like this one. I hate when people can’t look at something objectively and say “it’s good, it’s just not for me”.

[@LadyJenevia]

Most of the time if I see a new movie at the cinema and it’s done at least adequately well for whatever it’s intended concept/audience is but it’s just not really the type of thing I would go out of my way to make videos about I’ll end up rating it somewhere around 3 or 3.5 stars. If I look through your channel and your favourite films are either pretentious film festival darlings or big copaganda IP blockbusters and then you want to try to preach to me why Anyone But You is “bad” I’m ignoring everything you post from now on. 😂

[@kateliness2]

Entertainment Weekly just posted an article about Shakespeare as perfect IP for rom com! But your videos on this are better and were also first.

[@LadyJenevia]

I haven’t read it but I was even more so hyping up modern literary adaptations because we used to have sooooooooo many good ones but nowadays it feels like there’s more of a fixation on optioning the rights for recent best-sellers and just… THE CLASSICS ARE CLASSICS FOR A REASON! 👀🎬📚

[@kateliness2]

@LadyJenevia SO true! Shakespeare is not alone, but one excellent example of why the classics are indeed classic! Tbe article was a fun read! Mentions Clueless, Get Over It, 10 Things, She's the Man, and potentially more I'm forgetting as successful modern literary adaptations!

[@LadyJenevia]

@@kateliness2 I already went through a lonnnnnnnnnng list when I did a video essay about modern literary adaptations many months ago. 😂🎬📚

[@kateliness2]

@LadyJenevia Yes! Your video was WAY more comprehensive. (Honestly, I do not recall why I listed the films the article discussed, lol. Maybe it was that, despite the title, it was not just Shakespeare adaptations.)

[@kelseighingram]

Much Ado is my favorite Shakespeare play, closely followed by Midsummer!

[@LadyJenevia]

So what you’re saying is that Anyone But You was made for you! 😂🥳

[@kelseighingram]

@@LadyJenevia It really was! It’s also the first Shakespeare show I performed in so it holds a really special place in my heart, both as a Shakespeare girlie and an enemies-to-lovers girlie (KANTHONY NATION RISE UP)

[@kateliness2]

Love this video! Anyone But You was so fun. Not my personal favorite Shakespeare adaptation, but an excellent time! Like you said, I really hope it inspires even more modern literary rom coms! One of my very favorite genres.

[@kateliness2]

Also, Romeo and Juliet is my favorite, too! The BEST 👌

[@LadyJenevia]

Right?? There’s an entire generation of people whose childhood/adolescence/young-adulthood was filled with modern literary romance coms and comedies in general… if nostalgia is so massive (which it definitely is!) then there’s no reason not to bring these back albeit with a 2020s revamp (such as not being afraid to make more of them R-rated since the audience with the most nostalgia for the concept is predominantly adults!)

[@kateliness2]

@@LadyJeneviaAGREED!

[@roadrollerdio565]

24:25 Yes! I knew I wasn't insane for immediately thinking of Titanic when I saw the handprint on the cabinet glass!

[@LadyJenevia]

Considering that TO THIS DAY, Titanic is still one of the highest grossing box office hits of all time, I didn’t think the handprints were an obscure reference but I did find it funny when Will Gluck looked surprised that I asked him if the handprints were also a Titanic reference. 😂🛥️🧊

[@annacalstone610]

Having seen 2 different versions of As you like it, have to say it holds a soft spot for me. Will always love romeo and juliet for being my first Shakespeare play and excited to see loves labour's lost in a few weeks, not just because of a certain actor in it, but because it's a play that you don't often get to see performed

[@LadyJenevia]

I feel like Romeo & Juliet is everyone’s first Shakespeare play and people overlook and misunderstand it as something childish but I stand firm that it’s still my favourite one! 😂

[@kimkinsella7245]

I love love love your analysis and your victory lap in having your egg sightings vindicated. (Insert bad Easter joke here, with it coming up shortly.) Bravo! "Sigh No Moor" maybe was a double egg, with both the "Sigh No More" and Moor being an Othello reference? Much Ado will always be one of my favorites, especially the Branagh version; I imprinted on that as a kid, forever leaving me with a weakness for barbed wordplay, flirty banter, and the enemies to lovers trope.

[@LadyJenevia]

When I first did a Much Ado rewatch of Branagh’s version in the lead-up to Anyone But You’s release, Kenneth’s physical comedy had me cackling! All the stuff with the chair while he’s hiding in the shrubbery AND his not-so-casual attempts to sit when he knows Beatrice is approaching?? PERFECTION! People can’t make me hate Kenneth Branagh’s artistry when all he ever seems to want to do as a storyteller/performer is be silly, do Shakespeare, and make Agatha Christie whodunits. 😂😂😂

[@peytonb2247]

Much Ado is my favorite Shakespeare play, and I am doing a research project on it right now for my major. While I think Anyone But You is a great return to form for traditional rom coms, I wish it had stuck closer to the original for one element of the romance. The best part about it is that they don’t have to fake a relationship. They are told that the other likes them, and that is enough for them to (at least in private) display emotional vulnerability. I hope someday there could be an adaptation that focuses a little more on that aspect.

[@cinemaguerrilla]

16:55 "When you do clownery, the clown comes back to bite." -Mo'nique

[@hilarymoonmurphy]

How has this not gotten more likes and views? THIS VIDEO is an exemplar of why I subscribed to your channel. I love, love, love your overanalysis with all of my Shakespeare girlie heart. ❤

[@LadyJenevia]

Thank youuuuuuuuu, I’m actually increasingly used to my passion project videos not performing as well, the same thing happened with my video essay on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and before that, a video essay I did on Some Like it Hot & White Chicks. 😆 I’ll still throw in random uploads like these that aren’t as “trendy” of a topic (according to KZbin). They just take a while to put together so there’s no specific timeline of when they’ll get finished. 😂

[@lioba628]

As it happens, Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite Shakespeare play ❤ Thanks for making these videos, just what my soul needed! Loved the references to many of my favourite movies, too! 😊🎉

[@LadyJenevia]

Thank you so much for watching, this was a video I had been wanting to make since I first saw an early press screening but I had to wait for it to be available on digital/physical so I had all the footage from the film to pull for clips! 🥳

[@lioba628]

@@LadyJenevia Definitely worth it!! 😄

[@lauradavison8068]

So, I was not at all aware of "Anyone but You", then I saw you'd made this video, saw the description and went straight to watching the movie. I LOVE Much Ado About Nothing. It's my favourite Shakespeare, so thank you for directing me to it. And then I came straight here to see if I'd gotten all the references. Now I have to find your video on literary rom coms.

[@LadyJenevia]

I’ve got an “Anyone But You” playlist displayed on my channel! ☺️🎬🍿

[@lauradavison8068]

@@LadyJenevia oh fabulous! I'll work my way through it over the next few days.

[@LadyJenevia]

@@lauradavison8068 And there’s a new video in the works that will be added to it but I have no idea how long it will take to finish since I have other time-sensitive videos I have to finish first. 🤭

[@lauradavison8068]

@@LadyJenevia well then, I shall look forward to it patiently.

[@jillianmary]

I will never ever regret subscribing to you… but watching your videos is making me want to get a monthly membership at my theater, which I can’t fully afford yet 😭

[@LadyJenevia]

If you can get a monthly membership for a cinema in your area that will give you more access to watch a higher amount of films in an affordable way, that’ll absolutely open up a big beautiful world of cinema to you! 🥰🍿🎬

[@tarawera9484]

I have become so shakespeare obsessed the past month

[@LadyJenevia]

Well there is a reason his works have stayed in such strong circulation after hundreds of years! 🤩🎭📚

[@ashleyfreeman2356]

The amount of times you reference Selfie is bittersweet. I LOVED that show and I really wish they’d put it on ANY streaming service so I can watch it again and again and again!

[@LadyJenevia]

Part of why I use it so much for cutaways is because I want to keep it alive! Yes, my channel is small but I have had people tell me they went and watched the show because of my videos so I feel good in knowing that there are a few more people in the world who know how fun that show is! 🤩🍿🙋🏻‍♀️

[@hilarymoonmurphy]

Ohh, Anyone But You is now on NETFLIX for those who have not seen it yet!

[@LadyJenevia]

It sure is! 🥰🥳

[@roadrollerdio565]

Big enjoyer of Much Ado About Nothing here but didn't know about the Innogen character before this! Love a deep cut reference, that's effort!

[@LadyJenevia]

I want to know if she was always named that in Anyone But You since the spec script or if they just threw that in as a fun little Easter egg when they did rewrites. 👀😂

[@3lcw385]

Finally got around to watching the movie, so now I could enjoy your video spoiler free. I really liked that they left out the whole "trying to break up Hero and Claudio" subplot. The drama that created wouldn't really have fit with a romcom anyway. At least not with how this story was constructed. I also liked that Will Gluck didn't go with the cliché of making either of the exes jerks. Thanks for pointing out all those Shakespeare references. I'm not a really big Shakespeare person (though I know enough to have recognised what the movie was based on without knowing having known it was Much Ado specifically beforehand), so it is great to have it all laid out in a video like this. Speaking of Much Ado, have you watched the stage version with David Tennant and Catherine Tate? It's floating around here on KZbin and I highly recommend it. It's hilarious. They do a fantastic job.

[@evildoesnotsleep-x2b]

Me, taking real, pen-to-paper notes on the shakespeare quotes

[@LadyJenevia]

I love that! 🎭🎬📚

[@afrokitty4054]

I really love feel good rom coms. My favorite Rom Coms are Legion but my top choices are The Holiday, While You Were Sleeping, Practical Magic, Must Love Dogs, Bride Wars, Maid in Manhattan and Something to Talk About ( with Julia Roberts, this movie doesn’t get enough appreciation for it snarky and dry humor)…. Who knew Kyra Sedgwick was funny. 😂😂😂

[@sariande4554]

Such a great video! Your analysis was great, and I missed a lot of those Easter eggs my first time through! My apologies for being late--I wanted to see the movie first, but I'm bad at sitting down and watching things, so it took a bit. I am fully in love with "Anyone But You" and am waiting patiently for that Unwritten video and anything else you might want to make a video on 😊 My favorite Shakespeare play...that's a hard one. When I was eight it was the Scottish play, then I had a deep "Romeo and Juliet" period. "Othello" fascinated me the most in high school, and I can infodump about "Hamlet" for over an hour. Right now though, I'm obsessed with "Twelfth Night." I am seriously considering getting a tattoo of the line, "I am not that I play" on my arm. (I likely won't, but I like to think about it). The full line (if you didn't know) is: "And yet (by the very fangs of malice, I swear) I am not that I play." (Such a good line. "I burn, I pine, I perish" to write such a line.) Thank you so much for bringing this movie to my attention. I am literally the audience for this film and I had no idea what it was until I saw your interview with Will Gluck, Glen Powell, and Sydney Sweeney. I can't wait to rewatch it a million more times (and catch more of your analyses)

[@LadyJenevia]

Yaaaaaaay, I’m so glad you watched Anyone But You (and my video as well!) 🥳 I will definitely circle back to that other thesis surrounding the Natasha Bedingfield bit. I just have some other videos I need to do first but it’s still sitting somewhere higher on my to-do list. 👀🎬❤️‍🔥

[@whimsical_bitches_club]

just started watching your newest video & heard that this didn’t get the appreciation it deserves which is quite frankly a CRIME. as a girlie who did shakespeare in school but hasn’t revisited a lot of it in years i needed this video the moment i found out anyone but you was a much ado about nothing adaptation- thank you for your service

[@LadyJenevia]

LITERALLY one of the highlights of my entire 2023 was getting on that junket, I wanted to be included THE INSTANT I found out after CinemaCon that it was a modern literary adaptation. 😍

[@joanaisbubly]

Much Ado is probably my favorite Shakespeare play, I have a little pocket book of the text and read it often tbh But I must say despite it being problematic I have a super soft spot for Taming of the Shrew, it was the first play I read in full AND it has some of my favorite adaptations in many media forms

[@LadyJenevia]

It took me yearrrrrrrrrrs to finally get around to reading Taming of the Shrew and I had steam coming out of my ears the entire time! 😆😂

[@joanaisbubly]

@@LadyJenevia Listen you are correct but I read it kinda young and it didn't completely register with me at first and I loved all the adaptations so how bad could it be? read it again: oh lords it's so bad but I do still appreciate it's existence especially since I read more shakespeare bc of it

[@LadyJenevia]

@@joanaisbubly and you know what, that is VALID. There are childhood favourites I would watch the hell out of which were formative in building my love of film as an art form that when I look back at, I just… DON’T LIKE. 👀😂

[@giselastummer3127]

Favorite Shakespeare Play? Undisputed Much Ado ... also Romeo&Juliette, MacBeth and Julius Caesar 😊

[@LadyJenevia]

All good choices! Though I think anyone picking any Shakespeare plays are good choices because it means people are keeping the classics alive. 😂

[@emilyroberts2282]

Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite. Like Beatrice, I support women's rights (and women's wrongs).

[@LadyJenevia]

Any director that cheerfully has their female leads acting up and celebrating them for it is absolutely Doing It For The Girls! 😂🙋🏻‍♀️❤️‍🔥

[@roadrollerdio565]

30:11 Fav Shakespeare plays... Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Much Ado for sure, but strangely, _Titus Andronicus_ has been very special to me after I saw a fantastic production pre pandemic. I went in knowing nothing about the play, came out a fan. Judge me all you want, I know it's deranged and convoluted and misogynistic and violent, but what can I say, I'm trash. I guess it depends on the production, but the absurdity of the violence made it one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[@LadyJenevia]

To be fair, one of the things that’s fun about Shakespeare adaptations is that the source material gets interpreted and presented in so many different ways. When I did my video essay about Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis I found out his 1996 Romeo + Juliet was poorly received (by adult viewers and pretentious film critics) when it was first released. That blew my mind because I’d only ever known it as a beloved, iconic classic. ❤️‍🔥

[@giselastummer3127]

@@LadyJenevia oh it was. I was like 12 at the time it came to cinema and we live for it 😅🤷‍♀️

[@heathercontois4501]

Can someone do Taming of The Shrew the way they did this one? I liked 10 Things but Shrew is my second favorite story of all time and I would love to see more.

[@LadyJenevia]

Considering how successful Anyone But You was I’m really hopeful for more rom coms being green lit for the cinema and if any of those can be modern literary adaptations, even better! One of the good selling points when pitching these stories is that they’re in public domain so the studio won’t have to pay for the rights. 😊🎬📚

[@katetully1858]

hands down Twelfth Night

[@LadyJenevia]

An excellent choice! 🎉

[@thereadingwriter4197]

I swear, Will Gluck is such a girls girl… also my favourite Shakespeare plays are Macbeth, Midsummer Nights Dream, and Romeo and Juliet

[@dl2725]

Twelfth Night… I know it’s absolutely bonkers, but I love a gender bender

[@LadyJenevia]

The She’s The Man team did a whole long sequence where they completely immersed themselves in reading the play, watching adaptations, etc. before they started filming. 🥰⚽️🥅

[@sherriletitia4506]

Nice accent on harbour rescue from a resident aussie

[@LadyJenevia]

I don’t reeeeeeally know the accent but I’m pretty sure learning an accent starts with just doing a couple of words at a time until your synapses start connecting the dots. 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️

[@letizia7281]

I loved this video so much!! I just have a question, what do you mean that what Margaret says in the charades game is a Shakespeare play??? I can't quite understand what she is saying

[@LadyJenevia]

Midsummer Night's Dream!

[@letizia7281]

@@LadyJenevia thank you!! I kept hearing something something extreme ahahaha

[@nerdinatub6972]

Have you seen the "Shakespeare Retold" episodes, I think BBC?

[@LadyJenevia]

I have not 🤔

[@afrokitty4054]

Dear God this movie was too meta for me. The heavy handedness was just that too heavy. I watched this on Netflix and hated it and I love Glen Powell and I love rom coms to no end…. But would rather watch Britney Spears’ Crossroads movie a thousand times before ever watching this again. 😂😂😂😂. I love Britney so it really wouldn’t be a chore. 😂 As far as Shakespeare is concerned it’s hit or miss for me . I basically only like Hamlet and Othello and mostly because of Kenneth Branagh’s movies of both. I do like a retelling of Macbeth from the point of view of Ophelia with Daisy Ridley that I saw recently. In the mid 2000’s there was a CBS Primetime show based on Romeo and Juliet and aftermath of their deaths called Star-Crossed that was very beautifully shot and entertaining. Full Shakespeare chapter and verse 😂. I found the pilot episode on Amazon Prime and bought it. There is scene of the funeral where the two families drew knives and tried to kill each other with a passion that was wild. 😂😂😂 The pilot episode was the best of the show.

[@mishynaofficial]

I think it was truly terrible. Neither romantic or funny.

[@boobookittifukk]

Can't believe how big Glen Powell is now. I first saw him in a weird movie called Red Wing that I watched just cos it had Bill Paxton in it. Red Wing is about an orphan boy who gets taken in by a family and he basically falls in love with his foster mum. Glen plays the child as an adult. Yeah. Kinda weird and eww. Love love love Much Ado About Nothing, so I might watch Anyone But You.

[@LadyJenevia]

Oh yes, you should definitely watch it, it was one of my favourite films of 2023! 🥰🙋🏻‍♀️ As for Glen Powell, I’ve admittedly only seen a couple of things he’s been in but generally speaking I really like him as a comedic actor and want him to do more rom coms! 🥳