Everyone but You’s real appeal is the supporting cast

After hitting theaters just before Christmas 2023, the romantic comedy was released Everyone but you became a sleeper hit, sticking around in theaters and grossing hundreds of millions at the box officethanks to the sexy stars and flirty banter. Now that it’s on Netflix, it will likely find a whole new audience and start a whole new round of conversation about what makes rom-coms exciting these days. But the steamy scenes and the stars’ off-screen chemistry isn’t what really makes the movie fun; the real draw is the great supporting cast.

Directed by Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with benefits), Everyone but you is a (very) loose adaptation of Shakespeare Much ado about nothing. The film revolves around law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and financial brother Ben (Glen Powell), two stubborn people who had a very good date, but which fell apart due to miscommunication. Now they hate each other! But they are drawn into the same web again when Bea’s sister, Halle (Hadley Robinson), begins a relationship with Ben’s childhood friend Claudia (Alexandra Shipp).

When Halle and Claudia get engaged and decide to have a wedding in Australia, Ben and Bea almost ruin the opening wedding festivities with their bad attitudes. But when both of their exes show up, they decide to pretend they’re in a relationship so Ben can make his sexy Australian ex Margaret (Charlee Fraser) jealous, and Bea can show her parents that she’s doing just fine without her high school sweetheart. Jonathan (Darren Barnet). True to the rom-com formula, that fake relationship ultimately yields real feelings.

But even though Ben and Bea are super hot and their whole fake relationship situation is convincing, the best jokes come from the supporting cast.

Claudia, Halle, and Claudia’s brother, Pete (GaTa), actually plan to trick Ben and Bea into liking each other – which is about as far as it goes. A lot of hassle adjustment takes place. Claudia and Pete’s stepfather, Roger (Bryan Brown), is also absolutely thrilled about the idea. Just watch some fabulously hilarious fake interactions where Pete and Roger pompously discuss how bad Bea feels for Ben, all the while pretending not to have noticed Ben clearly lurking in the corner. Pete and Roger generally have a hilarious dynamic, bouncing off each other with their over-the-top personalities.

Pete is particularly hilarious on his own, to the point where he sometimes overshadows Ben and Bea’s antics. In one of the film’s first gags, the entire wedding party is on a hike, where, thanks to a complicated situation involving a spider, Ben and Bea end up stripping. While that setting feels strangely forced and contrived, Pete, meanwhile, sees a koala and shares a spiritual bond with it, captivating the rest of the wedding party. The combination of Ben and Bea freaking out about a large spider and the rest of the party having a trance-like encounter with a cute creature is funny, but the latter is just funnier because it’s more unexpected.

Image: Sony Pictures/Everett Collection

One of the other highlights is Beau, an Australian surfer brother who speaks thickly Crocodile Dundee-ish accent, played by Joe Davidson. He’s supposed to be Ben’s romantic rival when it comes to winning Margaret back, but he’s such a ray of sunshine that I choose him over everyone else in this movie. You can hardly understand what he is saying, but he is here to look beautiful, provide positive feelings and enjoy the sun. He brightens up every scene he is in.

The entirety of the supporting cast has interesting relationships with each other, and seeing them interact is one of the best parts of the film. These are people who know each other, like each other, and have spent a lot of time together, and you can definitely tell by their easy banter and interactions. They are hilarious and dynamic and always draw attention away from Bea and Ben’s sharp snarls. So come to Everyone but you for a sexy rom-com and to see what the hype is about, but stay in the background for the excellent ensemble.

Everyone but you now streaming on Netflix.