Our long national nightmare is coming to an end. Well, not that one. Or another one you might be thinking of. Actually, on the list of long national nightmares, waiting for another Simple Favor movie was ranking fairly low, but it was certainly there. And, finally, we have proof of life for the long-gestating sequel to the 2018 movie that everyone you know described as “actually way better than I thought it would be.”
Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are returning in the perfectly titled Another Simple Favor, which is going straight to Amazon Prime in May. In case you’ve forgotten, the last movie ended with Lively’s character, Emily, being arrested for the murders of her secret twin sister and her father. Kendrick’s Stephanie had become a successful true-crime mommy vlogger and also had new friends. How is Emily out of prison? Literally, who cares? The trailer suggests that we’re getting another wackadoo comedy-thriller that doesn’t care too much about being “grounded in reality.” Also, this time, it’s taking place in Italy. In the biz, we call this the Ocean’s Twelve model.
There’s a lot to be excited about here. The tagline “Revenge is a dish best served chilled” is clever; the return of Andrew Rannells’s character means that at least one line reading will make you laugh out loud; and perhaps most important: Lively’s character is still having a moment with menswear-inspired outfits. Take, for example, this Guys and Dolls–inspired moment:
Perfection. They should make at least five more of these movies and put Lively in a different ridiculous suit each time.