Deeply referential (and reverential) of the first film, here whole scenes constructed around rehashing throwback jokes, visual gags, or old twists. Feig gets some of this impulse out of his system by returning Stephanie’s other school parents as a Greek chorus geeking out as audience surrogates, but that soon bleeds into the text of the film itself. A major problem of Another Simple Favor is that the sexy cat-and-mouse dance between its two leads—one more than she seems, the other coaxing out more than she bargained for from her prey—is no more. Stephanie’s prudish, charming, doting everymom is now just as hardened and snarky as Emily’s femme fatale. The film’s sapphic bent still exists in Lively’s sultry stares and impeccable ensembles, but the two characters have been flattened by their experiences in the first movie into banter-bots that mostly sound the same. Their arcs are done; they live only to quip now.
Though that relationship is far less satisfying this time around, the setting at least should offer a level of flair the first film’s suburban scandal couldn’t. And this is effectively Feig’s giallo take on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for better and worse. Syringe killers, bloody knives, campy reversals, and some idiotic “I married into the mob” plotting with turns a little too simple (and/or poorly executed) for this Favor. Of course, the whole thing looks more like an Italian vacation comedy than something from Argento or Fulci, and all without the panache of something like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery that plays in the same breezy international spaces…that is, except for the work of costume designer Renée Ehrlich Kalfus.
Like the first film, Another Simple Favor is an exceptionally well-dressed movie, and one with the good sense to make its statement outfits part of the film’s humor as well as its aesthetic. A knockout wedding dress and a Blumhousian mourning outfit are particular standouts, but the main pleasure of Lively showing up in each new scene is seeing what outrageous new duds Kalfus sticks her in. In a film running a little dry on decadence, the fashion still goes enjoyably over the top.
But the flipside of this is that the clothes of Another Simple Favor outshine the mystery, the characters, the cast, the humor—you know, the rest of the movie that goes on for two full hours. It’s a little long and dull for a runway show, even with Allison Janney showing up to gnaw on what remains of the scenery after Kendrick and Lively are finished with it. Though the simplest pleasures of Favor remain—catty chemistry between Kendrick and Lively, loopy twists, bravura statement outfits—the heat powering the concept has cooled to the extent that, despite the increased body count, the sequel feels as perfunctory as its title. It’s just Another one.
Director: Paul Feig
Writer: Jessica Sharzer, Laeta Kalogridis
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, Michele Morrone, Elena Sofia Ricci, Elizabeth Perkins, Alex Newell, Allison Janney
Release Date: March 7, 2025 (SXSW); May 1, 2025 (Amazon Prime Video)
