Parents' Guide to Anyone But You

Comical, modernized Shakespeare adaptations are a clever way to introduce youth to the Bard, but "sexy Shakespeare" may leave parents as cold as Powell's naked behind on a July day in Australia. Inspired by Much Ado About Nothing's B-plot, the bickering Beatrice and Benedick -- who, in the original play, are tricked into falling for each other by Elizabethan-era lovers Claudio and Hero -- here become Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell), with the tricksters reimagined as Claudia (Shipp) and Halle (Hadley Robinson).

Writer-director Gluck is no stranger to adapting classics to appeal to a youthful crowd: He first had a hit when he turned required-reading staple The Scarlet Letter into high school comedy Easy A. But bringing any levity and relatability to a puritanical Nathaniel Hawthorne novel is likely to be seen as a win by teens. Much Ado, on the other hand, is already considered a great comedy from one of history's greatest playwrights. So the bar is set high, and while Anyone But You is amusing, Gluck doesn't quite clear the hurdle. Bea and Ben are funny, but they're also self-absorbed jerks who conspire to break up one couple and embarrass Bea's good-guy ex. Who exactly are we rooting for here? But thanks to the casting of appealing actors, the presence of Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" throughout the film, and the characters' new-adult-accurate dialogue (note: add "hot girl fit" to your lingo, and remove "cringe"), Gluck's end result is diverting enough that teens and young adults are highly unlikely to notice its flaws.