Film

Set It Up

Set It Up is the platonic ideal of a workplace rom-com: two exhausted assistants (Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell) scheme to pair off their monstrous bosses so they can finally leave the office before midnight. It's breezy, whip-smart, and set in a New York where everyone somehow affords a decent apartment. Comfort food for anyone who wants charm without stakes.

TMDb rating6.9

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You've Got Mail1998

The blueprint for modern rom-com banter — enemies typing witty emails at each other while their real lives quietly fall apart. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have the chemistry Set It Up is chasing.

But The email-era plot creaks a little now, and the small-bookstore-vs-big-chain stakes feel almost quaint.

You've Got Mail poster

The Proposal2009no page yet

Sandra Bullock as a terrifying boss forced into a fake engagement with her assistant — the same power-imbalance comedy as Set It Up, but louder and more slapstick.

But The immigration-marriage premise is thinner than it thinks, and the comedy leans broad rather than sharp.

Crazy Rich Asians2018

Came out the same year and reignited the whole genre — glossy, funny, generous to its characters, with a scale Set It Up never attempts.

But It's a meet-the-family story, not an office scheme, so the engine underneath is actually quite different.

Crazy Rich Asians poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

His Girl Friday1940

Set It Up runs on the same engine: two sharp people manipulating a situation for professional survival while falling for each other. His Girl Friday invented that trick eighty years earlier.

The original rapid-fire newsroom rom-com — Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell trade dialogue so fast you'll want subtitles, and every modern will-they scheme owes it something.

But Black-and-white, 1940s slang, and a pace so relentless it can feel exhausting rather than charming on a tired night.

His Girl Friday poster
More like this (8)

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days2003no page yet

Two people running secret schemes on each other for professional reasons, falling for each other anyway — practically Set It Up's cousin, just with a bet instead of bosses.

But The central wager is meaner-spirited than Set It Up's plotting, and some of the gags haven't aged well.

Isn't It Romantic2019no page yet

Rebel Wilson gets trapped inside a rom-com and has to survive its own rules — a loving, very funny roast of exactly this genre.

But The meta joke is the whole movie, so if you don't already like rom-coms, there's less here for you.

Always Be My Maybe2019no page yet

Childhood-friends-turned-almost-lovers with the same easy, low-stakes charm and a supporting cast that keeps stealing scenes out from under the leads.

But It's slower to get going than Set It Up and leans harder on nostalgia than on scheming.

Someone Great2019no page yet

New York, striving twenty-somethings, a friend group holding everything together — the same city-as-character energy, filtered through breakup instead of matchmaking.

But It's more melancholy than Set It Up, with real heartbreak sitting under the jokes rather than pure fizz.

Anyone but You2023no page yet

Glen Powell again, this time faking a relationship instead of engineering one — the same easy screen chemistry trick, dialed up with more slapstick and Australian scenery.

But It's broader and hornier than Set It Up, closer to farce than to a slow-burn.

Long Shot2019no page yet

An unlikely-pairing rom-com with real political texture underneath — Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron have surprising chemistry and the jokes land harder than expected.

But It runs long and swings between raunchy comedy and earnest romance in a way that won't suit everyone.

Business Proposal2022no page yet

Same matchmaking-scheme-gone-sideways structure as Set It Up, just stretched into a serialized format and turned up several notches in sweetness and slapstick.

A Korean miniseries built on almost the exact premise — an assistant fake-dates her boss on her friend's behalf, chaos and real feelings follow. It's candy-colored, ridiculous, and completely charming.

But It's twelve episodes of a K-drama rather than a tidy two-hour watch, and the tone is broader and sillier than Set It Up.

The Big Sick2017

Both use comedy to earn a love story, but The Big Sick swaps Set It Up's frictionless fantasy for real stakes — same genre, far more serious register.

A rom-com with the same warmth and comic instincts as Set It Up, but grounded in something real — Kumail Nanjiani's own story of falling for someone who then falls seriously ill.

But It's a much heavier watch than Set It Up, with grief and family conflict sitting right alongside the jokes.

The Big Sick poster

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