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‘Another Simple Favor’ Review: At SXSW, Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively Return for a Sequel That Has More Twists and Less Fun
It's like "Knives Out" crossed with a cartoon gloss on "White Lotus." But unlike the first film, this bad-moms noir both diverts and drags on.
It started out as a bad-moms soap opera, with Anna Kendrick ’s polite, perky, less-innocent-than-she-seemed Stephanie, a widowed mother who ran her own homemaking vlog, getting drawn into the web of Emily, a fellow grade-school parent who was about as maternal as Cruella de Vil, and who was played by Blake Lively in a performance of supremely entertaining nastiness. As these two bonded over martinis and shared secrets (including the revelation that one of them was a “brother fucker” — an example of how blithe the film was about its own perversity), “A Simple Favor” morphed into a murderous mock noir. It begins with the appearance of Emily’s ex, Sean (Henry Golding), who has become a miserable drunk, even as he’s taking sole care of the couple’s son, Nicky (Ian Ho), who is now a sullen tween with crimson highlights.
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