{"id":1509,"date":"2025-05-28T23:29:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/28\/blake-lively-and-anna-kendrick-star-in-another-simple-favor\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T23:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:29:59","slug":"blake-lively-and-anna-kendrick-star-in-another-simple-favor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/28\/blake-lively-and-anna-kendrick-star-in-another-simple-favor\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick star in \u2018Another Simple Favor\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When the sequel to \u201cA Simple Favor\u201d was announced, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder why. Directed by Paul Feig (\u201cJackpot\u201d), the original comedy thriller is a solid standalone movie that tells the story of Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick, \u201cPitch Perfect\u201d) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively, \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d). The two unlikely friends become entangled in a mystery after the latter\u2019s disappearance. While the narrative involves larger thriller elements, it centers the relationship between Stephanie and Emily, who are both perfect and toxic for one another. With its smaller, character-centric storyline and clean-cut ending, \u201cA Simple Favor\u201d didn\u2019t seem like it needed a sequel.<\/p>\n<p>After watching \u201cAnother Simple Favor,\u201d I\u2019m still not sold. Set five years after the events of the first film, Stephanie is now an author and cold case detective in addition to running a popular mom vlog channel. Emily is fresh out of jail, after being convicted for the murder of her twin sister in the first film, and is getting married to a mafia boss in Capri. She invites Stephanie to be her maid of honor, and after some minor blackmail, Stephanie reluctantly agrees.<\/p>\n<p>From the moment Emily arrives on screen, viewers are thrust into a much larger, much stranger world than they previously knew. In Capri, we are quickly introduced to a swath of characters alongside the familiar faces of the first movie. Among the new cast are Michele Morrone (\u201cHome Sweet Home: Rebirth\u201d) as Dante Versano, mob boss and Emily\u2019s groom-to-be, and Elena Sofia Ricci (\u201cLa Farfalla Impazzita\u201d) as Portia, Dante\u2019s mother who hates Emily with a burning passion. We also have Emily\u2019s Aunt Linda (Allison Janney, \u201cLou\u201d), whose motivations are as unclear as the film\u2019s plot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With the number of character introductions muddying the plot, the movie\u2019s focus is unclear until wedding guests begin turning up dead, nearly 40 minutes in. The new cast takes the relatively contained mystery of the first film to an over-the-top whodunit, with too many characters to properly flesh out. Although the twists weren\u2019t quite impossible to track, they were so frequent and random that I was getting dizzy trying to make sense of it all. \u201cA Simple Favor\u201d shone in its intricate character work, where the relationship between Stephanie and Emily blossomed, then shattered as the story unfolded. Now, there are so many plot threads, like a brewing mob war or lurking FBI agent or whatever Linda is up to, that the film can\u2019t dedicate as much time to its characters as before. It\u2019s easy to get lost in the increasingly elaborate hijinks.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The film is at its best when continuing Stephanie and Emily\u2019s strange relationship. One example is Emily\u2019s bachelorette party, where Kendrick and Lively banter with each other while sipping martinis in a private pool. Their conversation is both complimentary and spiteful, fueled by a mixture of resentment and admiration. Stephanie and Emily are guarded with one another yet know each other\u2019s most intimate secrets. They understand each other better than anyone else, which makes it impossible for them to stay apart. These dialogue-heavy scenes recall the charm of the first film. The issue, however, is how rare these moments are. Although there are a solid number of laughs, there are just as many confusing moments, especially toward the film\u2019s conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>To Feig\u2019s credit, \u201cAnother Simple Favor\u201d is fully aware of its strangeness. Between lavish wedding decor and Emily\u2019s eclectic wardrobe, the film fully embraces its gaudiness. Watching Blake Lively waltz through the streets of Capri, practically drowning in a massive sun hat, did elicit a good laugh from me. However, the camp doesn\u2019t save the film from its own insanity. I love movies that are so bad they\u2019re good, and I can appreciate when filmmakers commit to madness. Unfortunately, \u201cAnother Simple Favor\u201d doesn\u2019t quite come full circle. Just because the film is consciously unhinged doesn\u2019t make it work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother Simple Favor\u201d doesn\u2019t quite work as a sequel yet can\u2019t stand alone either. It requires the context of the first film, but the tonal switch between the two might give you whiplash. I still don\u2019t understand why this film was necessary. In its attempts to make a campy, glamorous whodunit, \u201cAnother Simple Favor\u201d fails to recreate the charm of its predecessor, leaving a bedazzled dumpster fire instead. But if you\u2019re prepared to spend two hours in a fever dream with Blake Lively competing with herself for worst dressed, feel free to give it a shot.<\/p>\n<p><em>Summer Senior Arts Editor Morgan Sieradski can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/arts\/film\/sxsw-2025-another-simple-favor-dials-up-the-insanity\/mailto:kmsier@umich.edu\"><em>kmsier@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the sequel to \u201cA Simple Favor\u201d was announced, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder why. Directed by Paul Feig (\u201cJackpot\u201d), the original comedy thriller is a solid standalone movie that tells the story of Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick, \u201cPitch Perfect\u201d) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively, \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d). The two unlikely friends become entangled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1688,114,1689,1576,1687,834,62],"class_list":{"0":"post-1509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-anna","9":"tag-blake","10":"tag-favor","11":"tag-kendrick","12":"tag-lively","13":"tag-simple","14":"tag-star"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1511,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}