In many ways, Glen Powell is an old-school movie star trapped in the body of a millennial heartthrob. His symmetrical jaw, his megawatt smile, and his personable charm feel like defining features of a bygone time. In short, he has the face of a man who shouldn’t know how to use an air fryer and yet, he’s currently popping up on our screens, in action-packed blockbusters and pulpy horror comedies, proving that Old Hollywood glamour might still have some juice. His upcoming project, Anyone But You, hopes to remind us why we used to love ’90s-era rom-coms but until then, here’s a round-up of some Powell performances worth watching to understand just why he’s so hot right now.
Top Gun: Maverick
This Powell-starring Top Gun sequel brought movie theaters back from the brink of death last year. Sure, Tom Cruise did most of the heavy lifting, returning as the daredevil fighter pilot grizzled with age and still riding that G-force high. But Powell, with his slick charm, handsome-yet-punchable face, and oiled-up torso managed to steal some of the actor’s spotlight. Billed as the “Navy Draco Malfoy,” Powell’s Hangman is initially set up as the foil to Miles Teller’s Rooster. One is clean-cut, proficient, and happy to peacock his accomplishments over a game of pool. The other is an orphan with daddy issues and raw talent who can’t catch a break. It’d be easy to cast Hangman as the villain of the film — well him and the unidentified foreign security threat creating nuclear missiles — but Powell’s endearing charism turns his worst qualities into minor annoyances at best.
Top Gun: Maverick streams on Paramount+.
Anyone But You
Slated for a December release, this Down Under rom-com might just mark the return of the spicy feel-good comedy. Equipped with fake dating tropes, enemies-to-lovers storylines, and two magnetic leads, the film follows Powell and Euphoria breakout Sydney Sweeney as two former college frenemies who reunite for a mutual friend’s wedding in Australia and pretend to be romantically involved. Powell and Sweeney look to have plenty of chemistry, even if the erotic-thriller vibes of the movie’s trailer feel more than a bit confusing.
Anyone But You arrives in theaters on December 22nd.
Set It Up
For proof that Powell can serve as the swoon-worthy lead in a straight-shooting rom-com with a millennial bent, there’s this underrated Netflix gem starring his frequent collaborator Zoey Deutch. The two have incredible chemistry as overworked assistants Harper Moore and Charlie Young who hope to reduce their overtime hours by setting up their very single, very neurotic bosses. Their scheming only pushes them closer together as they work to fix problems in the couple’s relationship and the sexual tension that simmers as they plot stalled elevator meet-cutes and kiss-cam confessions makes it pretty clear which pair actually belongs together.
Set It Up streams on Netflix.
Scream Queens
As Chad Radwell, a fraternity president himbo whose wardrobe was limited to polo shirts, LL Cool J caps, and the occasional silk kimono, Powell proved he could play a dumb douchebag with the best of them. The Ryan Murphy horror comedy about a sorority of rich white girls named Chanel plagued by the sins of their sisters and a serial killer known as the Red Devil was a melodramatic rollercoaster filled with twists, turns, and Queer-coded satirical takedowns of toxic masculinity. Maybe Powell was aware of all that, or maybe he just enjoyed playing a privileged simpleton struggling with lactose intolerance and the burden of being desired by men, women, most zoo animals and probably plants too.
Scream Queens streams on Hulu.
Hidden Figures
This feel-good Disney hit starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, and Kevin Costner focused more on the underappreciated mathematic geniuses who made space travel possible and less on the men like Powell’s John Glenn, who suited up to take those giant leaps for mankind. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth and Powell plays him here as a progressive ally whose easy-going nature and refreshing belief that a person’s race or gender shouldn’t bar them from helping to make history helped empower Henson’s Katherine Johnson to reach her full potential.
Hidden Figures streams on Disney+.
Everybody Wants Some!
Powell’s breakout role in this Richard Linklater coming-of-age comedy made use of his everyman appeal (and his ability to make a lampshade mustache look good). As Finnegan, an elder statesman college baseball player, Powell initiates his freshman teammates into the ways of men — the drinking, the partying, and the hookup culture they take even more seriously than they do their performance on the field.
Everybody Wants Some streams on Pluto TV.
Devotion
Powell jumped in the cockpit again in 2022, this time for a passion project based on the true story of Jesse Brown, the first African-American Naval officer killed in the Korean War. Powell plays Lieutenant Tom Hudner in the film, a by-the-book fighter pilot who transfers to Brown’s squadron and forms a tight bond with his new wingman. Jonathan Majors plays Brown, a man ostracized and underestimated because of the color of his skin, and while he gets the majority of the screentime here, Powell’s chiseled jaw and wholesome likability lightens the heavy material just enough for it to be enjoyable to watch.
Devotion streams on Paramount+.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
The most absurd thing about this historical adaptation — besides its abnormally long title — is Powell’s casting as an American heartthrob rejected by Lily James’ struggling heroine for a well-read farmer on a small island just off the coast of France. Okay, maybe it’s not that mind-boggling, but as Mark Reynolds, a wealthy tycoon with practically no flaws, an abundance of patience, and a skilled tailor, Powell makes the argument that James’ Juliet chose wrong when she abandoned her life in London to solve a small-town mystery at the beginning of the film.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society streams on Netflix.
