EVERYBODY WANTS TO F*CK ME wins the award for best title at TIFF this year. A dark comedy-thriller, with bits of horror sprinkled throughout, I can already tell this one is going to be compared to OBSESSION based on a similar theme. However, writer-director Jonathan Schey’s intelligent and imaginative script brings the task of spotlighting the “nice guy” wolf in sheep’s clothing to a much larger scale.
Adam (Taron Egerton) prides himself on being the “nice guy” with his female romantic interests. He saves women from creepy approaching men, makes them coffee after they sleep over, and reads feminist literature in coffee shops for attention. But we quickly come to find out that this is all performative. Adam isn’t really anything different from the other guys, he’s just better at hiding who he really is—or at least that’s what he thinks—until he meets a mysterious woman (Jessica Henwick) who gives him a run for his money. She is onto his antics and can see through the facade he shows the world. And little does Adam know, she may be a secret wolf, too.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO F*CK ME works best when you know as little as possible about the plot. It is going to especially work for female audiences, who will get a kick out of some of the “nice guy” tropes scattered throughout the script and set design. My favorites were Adam carrying a MUBI tote bag and reading feminist books in a cafe for attention, along with the dating profile highlights and language about Old Fashioned cocktails in his profile. It’s almost like if you walk around in a busy downtown for a few hours or start swiping on Hinge, the movie can write itself.
Egerton was the perfect man for the role because pretty much everyone does want to f*ck him. The movie doesn’t work if you can’t see why women would fall for his manipulative schtick, and he can totally pull off the “everyman” nice-guy charm. There’s a slim margin between douchey and charming; Egerton is the perfect person to walk that line. Even when I didn’t like his character (which was 99% of the time), I was still interested to see what he was doing next. And this is a great showcase for Egerton’s comedic chops, as he is unafraid to fully commit to the role and play “the (not-so) nice guy.”
I love that Schey’s script kept escalating, getting more and more outrageous as the movie goes on. By the third act, I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. In some ways, the script is really interesting, flipping the male/female dynamic on its head with the women becoming the predators and Adam the prey. But as time passes, the action starts to become repetitive and the film begins to lag, neither of which is a good sign for a movie that is only 90 minutes. So much so, it felt like this concept originated as a short film and had to be expanded into a feature. There also wasn’t much in the way of character development to build out the lives of any of the main characters and I fear some of Schey’s big, risky swings are going to make for a divisive film.
Still, EVERYBODY WANTS TO F*CK ME is an entertaining watch that will make you laugh and think twice about the nightmares of modern-day dating culture (whether you are in the trenches or not). It’s also a biting (quite literally) dismantling of the “nice guy” archetype that will challenge you to find the “nice guys” operating in the shadows around you.
My Review: B
