When watching Jonathan Schey’s Everybody Wants to F*ck Me, I couldn’t help but think of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (2020). Both movies are directorial debuts produced by LuckyChap Entertainment that take a pessimistically satirical look at the dating pool and the predatory men who fill it. While Promising Young Woman evaluates so-called nice guys from a woman’s perspective, Everybody Wants to F*ck Me turns the camera to the man’s point of view and gets to the bottom of whether a certain kind of man can change.

By all accounts, Adam (Taron Egerton) is the perfect guy. In the film’s opening scene, he charmingly rescues a woman being harassed at a bar by a wannabe suitor. Pretending to be the boyfriend who just stepped away to use the loo, he scares the other man off, only to replace him in the pursuit of this woman’s affection. Coming across as a prince from a woman’s childhood fantasy, he knows exactly what to do and say to woo her. Except the following morning, it turns out he’s anything but that. As soon as she wakes up, he tells her he’s not in the right headspace for a relationship and politely nudges her out of his apartment, decorated with framed posters and shelved books designed specifically to put any woman who enters it at ease.

Adam is a womanizer of the worst kind. He’s a “nice guy” who acts like he has a soft side, saying and doing all the right things to lure in his prey, to cast them into the cold after he gets what he wants. He uses the idea that he’s looking for the perfect woman for a long-term relationship as an excuse to have hundreds of women sitting in his DMs across several dating apps, as he has the same conversation with every single one of them. 

Adam desperately needs a wake-up call, and he gets it after he hits on Sofia (Jessica Henwick). Sofia knows exactly what type of guy Adam is from the moment he locks eyes with her. As she strings him along for the night, joyfully making him uncomfortable as she psychoanalyzes him, they make it back to her apartment, only for the night to end suddenly when Adam faints after Sofia shakes him to his core.

The next morning, he wakes up with Sofia nowhere to be seen. As he goes about his day, strange phenomena begin happening to him. Women become much more forward with him, attracted to him like a magnet. As time goes on, Adam has the realization that for some reason, every woman in the world suddenly wants to fuck him.

The wild premise lives up to the title as Everybody Wants to F*ck Me excellently explores the inherent deception within modern dating. As on-the-nose as the themes get with Adam becoming the prey as he’s relentlessly and unconsensually pursued by every woman he crosses paths with, Egerton’s performance never ceases to amuse. He’s as likable as ever, delivering a performance that reminds the audience why he deserves to be a much more major star. He charismatically commits to Adam’s seductive tendencies, forcing viewers to be charmed by him even if they disapprove of his actions. Through his committed performance, you root for Adam, hoping he changes his philandering ways. Egerton makes Adam sympathetic while another actor could have portrayed him as irredeemable and utterly reprehensible.

As a sex comedy, Everybody Wants to F*ck Me is one of the best in years. Unlike the disappointing One Night Only, a comedy all about sex that features none of it, there is plenty of sex and raunchiness on display here. Schey finds the perfect balance in both his screenplay and direction, ensuring nothing in the feature feels gratuitous but exists to drive home a point or simply produce a laugh. Much of the humor comes from the sharp social commentary Schey weaves into every aspect of his screenplay. The irony is ever-present as it becomes clear that Schey draws from his own experiences interacting with women, and he’s allowing the audience in on the joke as they absorb what he’s learned about why Adam’s behavior is harmful.

As Adam’s situation evolves from him getting everything he wants to something more precarious, the tone adjusts accordingly. What was once a light-hearted wish-fulfilling comedy becomes a horror movie akin to It Follows (2014). The interactions he has with women become more violent by the day as they go from simply being attracted to him to having a primal urge to have sex with him and kill him. Later sequences are as tense as they are uncomfortable to watch. However unbearable the situation gets, the viewer takes delight in seeing Adam get what’s coming to him. 

Anna Meredith’s exceptional score, primarily performed by a male choir, enhances the mood. At times it’s light and joyful; at others, intense and suspenseful. The mischievous operatic score feels like its own character and fits perfectly with the film’s main metaphor revolving around the mythical satyr.

As Adam begins searching for answers and a way to reverse what’s happened to him, the plot becomes more heavy-handed. Schey provides all the answers viewers could want, but in doing so, he leans into a science-fiction twist which compromises the fantastical aspects. These reveals certainly enhance the stranger parts of what’s been happening to Adam. At the same time, the point could’ve come across just as well, if not better, without any sort of concrete explanation.

By the time the film reaches its conclusion, Schey leans even more heavily into satire with a realistic ending that won’t leave everyone satisfied. It’s a thought-provoking final statement that should leave every man in the audience with something to think about.

Everybody Wants to F*ck Me is a madcap ride that never lets up. It kills with an audience, featuring enough thrills and valuable messages to ensure its place within the public conversation once the credits roll. To some extent, it’s another pessimistic look at the type of man many men aspire to be, but through that pessimism, it makes them realize that perhaps instead of being a “nice guy,” they should try to be a good guy.

Review Courtesy of Evan Miller

Feature Image Credit to STUDIOCANAL SAS