TIFF Review: Everybody Wants to F*ck Me Climaxes Too Early

There is no question that Everybody Wants to F*ck Me is an utterly phenomenal title for a film — brazen, winking, deliciously naughty. That is also an apt description for Jonathan Schey’s film, which for at least 30 minutes or so is a remarkably adroit takedown of the performative male. Unfortunately, Everybody is ultimately heading in a different direction. After its blazing opening, it slowly turns from an acidic modern rom-com into unhinged horror. And while there are stellar moments and steady laughs throughout, the end result is a film that suffers for not sticking with the tone of its early section.

That aforementioned performative male is Adam, and he checks nearly every box in that category. Adam, delightfully embodied by Taron Egerton, works at a nearly all-female art gallery. He carries a MUBI tote. He reads Ottessa Moshfegh and posts photos of himself with a Maya Angelou paperback resting on his stomach. (He read some of it, he assures us.) His yappy dog is named after Alana Haim, a poster for Cleo From 5 to 7 adorns his bedroom, and he is more than willing to act as a fake boyfriend to save a woman from dealing with an off-putting suitor. He is the intimate nice guy, albeit one with more than 70 active chats with past dates on his phone.

Schey’s writing in this first stretch is nearly note-perfect—admirable cutting, sometimes uproarious, rooted in truths that nearly every audience member will recognize (in others and perhaps even themselves). And in Egerton, Everybody has an ideal foil. The actor has always brought comic charm to his work, most notably as Elton John in Rocketman and in the tiresome Kingsman films. Even his voiceover work in Sing is a sign of his inherent charisma and likability; we never forget that Johnny is Taron, and that’s a good thing. It is wise to cast an actor who has the ability to make us swoon even while uttering complete BS. 

It is quite clear that Adam will meet his match—and it is equally clear that his comeuppance will arrive thanks to Sofia (Jessica Henwick), a young woman who astutely analyzes and brands Adam as the nice guy whose self-delusions know no bounds. Henwick truly deserves more screen time than she receives in Everybody; she damn near stole Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and that was no easy feat considering his cast mates.

Adam sidles up to Sofia at a theater after-party, and it is a treat to watch her startle him with a string of disarming comebacks. Of course, as usual, she succumbs to his charm… well, seemingly. From this encounter, Adam’s life undergoes an abrupt change. Suddenly, he is not just “the nice guy,” but rather the guy who is desired by nearly every woman he encounters. And while Everybody at first leans into the comic absurdity of the situation, the film eventually goes all in on low-stakes horror. 

Everybody Wants to F*ck Me never makes us believe that any true harm will come to a flat-white drinking chap as likable as Adam. It’s going to get dark, and writer-director Schey is unafraid to let things become uncomfortable. But there is a (simultaneously smart and horribly convoluted) explanation for what’s happening to him, and a more ambitious film would have refrained from bothering with one at all. Why not just have Adam face the music, Ebenezer Scrooge-style? Everybody paints itself into a corner in which there is only one way out, and quite frankly, that way is thoroughly exhausting and certainly not satisfying. 

Still, Schey deserves kudos for taking big swings here, and for exploring the types of predatory men who are often hiding in plain sight. This is his first feature following a short film and the series Ladhood, and real talent and chutzpah is evident. It must be said that even in its most obvious, eye-rolling moments, Everybody Wants to F*ck Me is compulsively watchable and tremendously well-acted. It is not quite an example of a killer premise wasted, but, like nice guy Adam, it reveals itself (to paraphrase the Manic Street Preachers) to be all surface, no feeling. The real-life Adam would break into a cold sweat watching the film, but he would also breathe a sigh of relief as the end credits rolled. 

Everybody Wants to F*ck Me premiered at TIFF 2026.