Saturday, September 29, 2018

A Simple Favor (2018)

I loved this stylish thriller/comedy about a nerdy obsessive single mom who meets a mysterious woman when their sons become friends. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are terrific as Stephanie and Emily and were last blogged for The Accountant and CafĂ© Society, respectively. Henry Golding (in his second movie role after Crazy Rich Asians) is good as Emily's smitten husband Sean.

The comedy makes this extra good, not least from the Greek chorus of judgy kindergarten parents, led by Andrew Rannells (he was the first Elder Price in The Book of Mormon on Broadway and also played Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys, both on Broadway and touring; I also watched all 22 episodes of The New Normal and his 35 of Girls, where he played Elijah), with Aparna Nancheria (familiar because of various episodes of Inside Amy Schumer, Crashing, Master of None, and High Maintenance) and Kelly McCormack (new to me).

Comedy is what we expect from director Paul Feig (most recently in these pages for helming Ghostbusters). The trailer says "from the darker side of Paul Feig." From the script by Jessica Sharzer (her feature without a co-writer), adapted from the 2017 novel by Darcey Bell, he brings laughs and suspense in equal parts.

The wardrobe by Renee Ehrlich Kalfus (profiled for her work in Hidden Figures, for which she won the Costume Designers Guild award for Excellence in Period Film) is both laughable--for some of Stephanie's fashion crimes--and spectacular--Emily looks smashing in everything.

Stephanie is a video blogger AKA vlogger. Whenever we see her video page of mommy vlogs, there's a list on the right of all her previous videos. I'd like to know how to do that--I manage a youtube page for a nonprofit and it never shows a list of only the videos we've uploaded, instead suggesting viewers look at others' work. If anyone can tell me how to fix that please write me at babetteflix at gmail.

Theodore Shapiro's (last blogged for The Polka King) sultry and exciting score, which can be streamed on spotify, is supplemented by a list of songs, many of which are French.

Jack couldn't go with me this week, which is why his opinion isn't recorded. But Rotten Tomatoes' critics are solid at 84 and its audiences 80%.

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