A simple favor gay
Another Simple Favor exists to quadruple both of those plot twists and ramp up the shock value exponentially. But in doing so, the movie reveals its weaknesses, leaving us wanting the darker, trashier movie it could contain been.
The Setup
Another Simple Favor finds Stephanie reunited with Emily when, at the urging of her representative (Alex Newell), she goes to Capri to rejoice her old friend’s wedding. Emily plans to wed Dante Versano (Michele Morrone), a mafioso who has proposed peace with the rival Bartolo family as a wedding present. Also present is Emily’s first husband (and Stephanie’s one-time lover) Sean (Henry Goulding), who has brought their son Nicky (Ian Ho) to witness.
Despite the beautiful setting, trouble rocks the lead up to Emily and Dante’s nuptials. Now a bitter drunk, Sean misses no opportunity to insult Emily and Stephanie. Dante’s mother Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci) refuses to hide her disdain for Emily, even inviting her drunken mother Margaret McLinden (Elizabeth Perkins, replacing Jean Smart from the first film) and Aunt Linda (Allison Janney). Then there’s Matteo Bartolo (Lorenzo de Moor), who seems deeply distrustfu
It’s 2025—Let ‘Another Simple Favor’ Be Gay
[There are spoilers for Another Simple Favor below.]
If there was one thing I knew for certain I would get when I sat down for Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick’s Another Simple Favor, it was ridiculousness. As a rapid refresher, the first production in this franchise has both patricide, sororicide, and an infidelity plotline in which a character sleeps with her half-brother. It’s batshit crazy. But after watching the sequel, the most egregious thing about Another Simple Favor isn’t what happens in the plot (although there’s a lot of that) but what doesn’t. Because for some unfathomable reason, this franchise will still not let its two steer characters, Stephanie and Emily, just be gay already.
In the sequel to A Simple Favor (which is now streaming on Amazon Prime), we’re dropped back into this society about five years after the first movie ends. Emily (serving time for two separate murders) has somehow managed to receive out of jail promptly. She’s getting married, and she wants Stephanie to be her maid of honor. For some reason, Stephanie agrees, jetting off to Capri with a woman who killed two people and even tried to ki
Warning: Spoilers ahead for A Simple Favor. Stop reading this and go view it!!!!
Picture this: Your morning is almost over. It has been an usual day. You did all your usual things — say, for example, you recorded a new episode of your mommy vlog (stay with me here). And you did the simple things you relish doing — say, for example, you signed up to volunteer at your kid’s preschool (please wait with me). Your afternoon is almost over. You’ll go home, go through your usual nighttime routine, and go to bed, only to do it all again tomorrow.
But. Something interrupts the rhythm. Someone, rather. You’re just standing there, and she steps out of a automobile slowly — in delayed motion, to be strict. It’s raining, but the raindrops can’t touch her. Sure, she’s got an umbrella, but there’s more than just that shielding her from the wetness — an invisible vortex that envelopes her, makes her untouchable, unknowable. She walks toward you, her hair bouncing so emphatically you can almost overhear it throb. You trap a glimpse of her face, and your breath catches. You notice the beauty mark to the right (your left) of her nose. Stunned into silence, you notice that this is perhaps the most beautiful pers
‘A Simple Favor’ and That Whole Lesbian Psycho Thing
Ah, the psychological thriller. The genre of brain-bending, double-crossing, paranoia, plot twists, and a whole lot of secret identical twins. With A Simple Favor, director Paul Feig attempts to hold on the genre with an extra helping of humor the way his 2015 Spydid for spy films. A Simple Favor makes for a sufficiently stylish and entertaining two hours, but it is, unfortunately, the weaker of the two efforts, partly thanks to one key difference: while Spy pays homage and makes pleasurable of tropes associated with its parent genre in equal measure, A Simple Favor appears to lack the same self-awareness. It plays through some of the most hackneyed psychological thriller narrative beats and plot devices earnestly and then proceeds to identify humor in largely unrelated places, like Anna Kendrick being awkward.
As is to be expected of a pastiche nearing the border of satire, the plot of A Simple Favor is familiar in several regards. Overall, it falls into the general category of the dual protagonist/antagonist cat-and-mouse type thriller, where two people—usually of the same sex—are caught in a web of
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