“Anyone but You” this, “Twisters” that — it seems that the collective public has just, in the last few months, realized the magnetism that is Glen Powell. And I cannot stand for it.
Not to be that annoying person who claims they knew about a cool singer/band/movie/actor before anyone else, but I need to stand up for Powell’s greatest work to date, which just happens to have hit screens a full six years ago.
“Set It Up” premiered on Netflix in 2018 before Netflix was ~known~ for rom-com success. It dropped just months before the first installments of the Christmas film trifecta — that is, the franchises of “The Princess Switch,” “The Christmas Chronicles” and “A Christmas Prince” — and way before films like Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron’s “A Family Affair” became expected of the streamer. I’ll admit, “Set It Up” was sandwiched between, and perhaps overshadowed by, “The Kissing Booth” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” of the same year, but IMHO, it takes the top of the leaderboard of Netflix’s best rom-coms to this day. And I’ve seen most of them…many times over.
The leading roles find Powell alongside the ever-lovely Zoey Deutch playing executive assistants to two powerhouse CEO types (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) who desperately need to get a life — a love life, to be exact – so that their lowly millennial employees can have a damn break. So, Deutch and Powell’s characters team up to make their bosses fall in love, and obviously fall in love themselves in the process.
“Set It Up” is trope heaven with the delicious additions of actually witty banter and a chemistry between its leads that makes you believe them. It’s hard to make an actress like Sydney Sweeney’s performance pale in comparison, but the romance in “Anyone but You” simply does not compare.
When “Anyone but You” came out this year, the internet acted like it was the first time they’d seen Glen Powell. To which I say: Huh?! This man has been a treasure since Ryan Murphy’s “Scream Queens,” for crying out loud.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad that Powell has America in a chokehold. Everything new I learn about this man (did you know he rescued a dog named Brisket?) makes me more obsessed with him, and more people falling at his feet means more roles coming his way — which is good for everybody.
I’m just saying, before you watch “Hit Man,” watch “Set It Up.”