A Simple Favor
This article was published on 5/23 and republished on 5/25.
Well, it took quite a while for Madame Web to be unseated on Netflix’s top 10 movie list, as something I highly recommended as a must-see given the “it’s so bad it’s good” nature of it. But now the new #1 movie is…good. Just very good.
That would be A Simple Favor, a 2018 film starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, both of whom haven’t been acting in quite as high profile projects lately, but it’s been announced they will return for a sequel set in Capri, Italy. The boost the movie will get from Netflix will certainly help generate some interest in that, I imagine.
The genre here is...interesting. It’s said to be a “black comedy crime thriller” and I’d certainly add “mystery” in there as well. It’s just a very enjoyable film, and follows Kendrick’s character trying to solve the disappearance of her “elegant and mysterious” friend played by Lively. The fact that there’s a sequel indicates that yeah, she found her, but it’s a great film.
A Simple Favor
The movie has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, pretty high for the genre, though if most people have not seen it, I would not be shocked. It opened with just $16 million at the domestic box office, but did go on to make $97 million over time. With an estimated $20 million budget, that’s a decently big success, and I’m a little surprised it took them this long to make a sequel. Still, I know that not as many people have watched this movie as should, so now you can for free ( free”)on Netflix.
Netflix tends to do this often, grabbing up 5-6 year old movies people missed and elevating them to probably be the most-watched movies in the country due to the enormous reach of the service. Sometimes those movies are bad (hi Madame Web) or sometimes they’re quite good, like A Simple Favor.
It’s R-rated so it’s not exactly a family flick to watch on a weekend evening, depending on the ages of your kids, but it’s hardly graphic and I think most will end up enjoying it quite a bit. Both Kendrick and especially Lively here are amazing, and after rewatching this, I cannot wait to see them return for a sequel. I am sort of getting White Lotus vibes here, though obviously this existed before White Lotus was even a thing. Enjoy!
Update (5/25): Well, things have shifted a little bit in the last 48 hours. With a lot of home page promotion, the Jennifer Lopez action film Atlas has taken the #1 spot away from A Simple Favor, but it is reviewing absolutely terribly, one of the worst Netflix original bigger-budget action films ever with just a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. A Simple Favor’s reign might be over, but I don’t see Atlas staying on top for too long.
In the wake of the success of A Simple Favor on Netflix, we have some new info about the sequel that Paul Feig is making with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. Feig revealed that he threw out a draft of the sequel script because “we don’t think this is what the people who really loved the first movie are going to 100 per cent want.” They’ve been working on the new movie for two and a half years now, and have been bolstered by the success of the movie on Netflix:
“I sent it to all my main cast saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing the right thing here,'” Feig shared. “I’m thrilled. It makes me so happy because this really is one of my favorite movies.”
Feig has never done a sequel before, but seems really determined to get this one right. I’ve already recommended it to a number of friends who agreed it was great. Looking forward to the next one.
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