Sydney Sweeney may have earned the ire of one critic for her “unwatchable” portrayal in Anyone But You, but the new rom-com queen’s romantic flick with Glen Powell overperformed at the box office and has earned some lauds from fans as one of the best rom-coms to release recently, thanks to some sweet chemistry from the two leads. It’s also very cleverly filmed, and one fan just pointed out a very cool thing the movie did to keep the real romance and the fake romance separate in the movie.
What's The Deal With The Fake And Real Romance Anyway?
In order to explain the cool switch the camera takes between Bea and Ben's fake romance and real romance scenes, I have to get into some general spoilers. I'm assuming if you care about camera shots you've seen the movie, but heads up!
Anyone But You reviews spent a lot of time discussing the chemistry between Sweeney’s Bea and Powell’s Ben, who hookup near the start of the movie in what should be a delightful meet-cute. Instead, due to some misread intentions on both of their parts, Bea and Ben hate each other from afar from that day forward, which is fine until they both end up invited to the same intimate wedding of their mutual friends.
There's enough with just that plot to make for a fun rom-com, but things get even crazier when the two decide to embark on a fake romance during the wedding week in order to keep Bea’s parents off her back and make Ben’s ex a little crazy. This is where the movie employs a camera trick to keep the real sparks and the fake sparks separate for the audience.
I honestly wish I’d noticed this during my first watch through on the big screen or even when I streamed it in April 2024, but now that I've seen the tweets, I know it's really cleverly done. On X (Twitter) an industry professional and fan of the rom-com spent a considerable amount of time cropping screenshots to show other fans the cool way the movie separates the fake romance from the real one. Let's take a look.
How Anyone But You Separates Out Ben And Bea's Real And Platonic Scenes
When Bea and Ben are acting platonic, there’s a clear separation between the two of them and the camera, as plays out in the kitchen scene where Ben makes Bea a grilled cheese for the second time. As TV director Zack Morrison notes:
Are we ready for a film school lesson? A ‘Directing 101’ that’s on full display in #AnyoneButYou in the best way possible? First, a visual filmic callback to the opening. ????????????????very gabagool. Second: when they’re being playful/platonic, we’re across the table from them… pic.twitter.com/3EsrwQrfalApril 1, 2024
A few seconds later, the moment grows more intimate and the Will Gluck-directed film then pans much closer to the couple in order to show off the "real" sparks that are flying between the two. The camera gets so close Morrison notes it breaks “the 180 line” to mark the emotion changing between the two.
WE BREAK THE 180 LINE! The camera crosses the axis. It’s a quintessential directing choice because the emotional beat changes. Therefore, the filmic language needs to change. pic.twitter.com/wKjtTZXevIApril 1, 2024
I didn’t notice this while watching Anyone But You either the first or second time, but Morrison pointed it out precisely because it’s a “little choice” that can “articulate a change in narrative and emotional beats.” During my early watches, I may not have noticed exactly what the camera was doing, but what it did certainly emotionally impacted my understanding of what was happening between the two characters in the movie and helped propel the narrative forward.
Anyone But You recently headed to streaming, so if you want to look for more creative choices made in the direction of the film you can catch it with a Netflix subscription.
