Anyone but You (2023)
Directed by Will Gluck
No — Anyone but You is not woke, scoring 10 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Anyone but You arrives with a Shakespearean lineage (Much Ado About Nothing, lightly modernized), a pair of extremely photogenic leads, and a worldwide gross of $220 million, which the industry took as evidence that the romantic comedy had returned from its long convalescence.
Consciousness Markers
The supporting cast is notably diverse, including Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Michelle Hurd, and Bryan Brown, but the two romantic leads are white and the diversity is never remarked upon or thematically deployed.
Bea is a law student with some agency who ends an engagement and drops out of school, but the film is a conventional heterosexual rom-com that resolves entirely around winning the man.
No LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or themes appear anywhere in the film.
Race is never addressed, commented on, or made a theme; the diverse cast exists without any racial consciousness in the narrative.
No environmental or climate themes whatsoever; the Australian setting is pure scenic backdrop.
No economic critique; the film is aspirational escapism set among affluent professionals and a lavish destination wedding.
No body-positivity messaging; the film leans heavily on conventional swimwear-model aesthetics for its leads.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are present.
The film adapts Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing into a modern setting, but this is a contemporary update, not a revisionist reframing of historical events.
The film is a light, fizzy rom-com with no preachy or didactic messaging; it never lectures its audience.
Why it received this score
Anyone but You arrives with a Shakespearean lineage (Much Ado About Nothing, lightly modernized), a pair of extremely photogenic leads, and a worldwide gross of $220 million, which the industry took as evidence that the romantic comedy had returned from its long convalescence. What it does not arrive with is a message. This is a film content to let two attractive people bicker on a boat and then reconcile at the Sydney Opera House, and it pursues that modest goal with a singleness of purpose that borders on the admirable.
The supporting cast is diverse in the standard studio manner: Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Michelle Hurd, and Bryan Brown fill out the wedding party. The film never comments on any of it, which is either a sign of maturity or a sign that the screenplay had other priorities. The romantic leads are white, and the plot resolves around a woman winning a man, so a feminist reading is available but thin. Bea quits law school, calls the decision a mistake, then decides the man was not. No same-sex romance appears anywhere. Race is never raised as a subject. The Australian setting is scenery, not an environmental argument.
Elsewhere the ledger is blank. There is no economic critique in a film set among affluent professionals at a lavish destination wedding. There is no body-positivity messaging; the camera treats its stars as swimwear models, and the critics said as much. No neurodivergent characters, no historical reframing (a contemporary update is not the same as a revision), and no sermonizing of any kind. It is fizzy, slight, and entirely uninterested in improving anyone. We have seen worse.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
After an amazing first date, Bea and Ben’s fiery attraction turns ice cold — until they find themselves unexpectedly reunited at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple.
Questions about Anyone but You
Is Anyone but You woke?
No — Anyone but You is not woke, scoring 10 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Anyone but You have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (30). On Representation Casting: The supporting cast is notably diverse, including Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Michelle Hurd, and Bryan Brown, but the two romantic leads are white and the diversity is never remarked upon or thematically deployed.
How does Anyone but You compare to other 2023 movies?
It ranks #149 of the 200 films from 2023 we've scored; their average is 24. The wokest is Origin (84).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.