By John Corrado
Adam Samuels (Taron Egerton), the protagonist in writer-director Jonathan Schey’s dark, high concept sex comedy Everybody Wants to F*ck Me, is one of the “nice guys.” We know because this he tells every woman he picks up that he is one.
Adam is the lone male working at an art gallery in London, surrounded by female colleagues who flatter him. He’s a straight man who carries a MUBI tote bag and openly reads feminist literature out in public. The first thing his one night stands, like Mia McKenna-Bruce’s young woman in the opening scenes, see when they wake up in his bed is the Cléo from 5 to 7 poster on his wall.
But this is all just performative feminism, with Egerton’s Adam gaming the system to get women. He unceremoniously dumps them all shortly after hooking up. Rinse and repeat. In other words, he is your classic “f*ck boy” masquerading as a “soft boy” to get girls. Then, literally, in an Obsession-worthy “be careful what you wish for” twist, Adam starts to notice that every woman he meets wants to, well, you know. It’s in the movie’s fittingly crass title.
From here, Everybody Wants to F*ck Me slyly morphs into an absurd thriller about the pitfalls of modern dating. Schey’s film is an anti-rom-com, and one that basically requires you to lock in for every gonzo twist and turn that it takes. The film is consistently very funny, while also being surprisingly dark and scathingly topical, with its commentary on douchebag men pretending to be sensitive to hook up with women either hitting a nerve or scratching an itch.
The film works because of how Egerton fully commits to the role of “nice guy” Adam. He’s both conventionally attractive enough for the title to be believable, while also able to sell the hints of darkness and manipulation behind the character. The cast also includes Charly Clive as his lesbian best friend, and Jessica Henwick as one of his hookups who matches him wit-for-wit.
This one’s a blast to watch with an audience, all along for the ride. Let’s just hope they don’t change that title for release; the attention-grabbing (and admittedly fun to say) Everybody Wants to F*ck Me is simply too fitting for this movie.
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