If you missed out newest blog post series, it made a debut earlier this week. I talked about Little Fires Everywhere and gave it an endorse to watch during the quarantine. I will try to do the same with movies that either got lost in the shuffle or are relatively new. This movie is the latter. A Simple Favor came out in 2018 starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, and Henry Golding (Rich good looking dude from Crazy Rich Asians). This can be streamed on Amazon Prime.

What’s this movie about? – Well, Kendrick plays a mommy vlogger who is the do-it-all mom. She is a single mom after the death of her husband. She strikes up a friendship with another mom, played by Lively. They become fast friends even though there are differences. Kendrick is the volunteer for everything mom. While Lively is the badass working mom who does not take shit from anyone. Lively asks Kendrick to do ‘a simple favor’ and pick her kid up from school and that’s when things get weird. I will not say anything more but it becomes an unpeeling of the onion until the very end.

One thing I liked about this movie: It kept me guessing – Even though this is a movie where you do not need to be super dialed in early on, you definitely need to be off your phone in the second half. There were twists and turns all over the place. It kept you on your toes. The twists weren’t exactly predictable either. Some things might take a bit of suspending reality, but sometimes, we have to do that with entertainment.

One thing I didn’t like: The obvious ‘Aviation’ product placement – One thing about Lively’s character is she loves gin martinis. Well, Lively’s actual husband, Ryan Reynolds, just so happens to have a gin company, Aviation. It is the only gin they use in the entire movie. The movie serves as one big ad for the brand that it feels intrusive instead of subtle.

Should I watch it? – Yeah, it’s a good watch. It is not a must-see, but it’s an enjoyable movie. It has funny moments, suspenseful moments and meshes being funny with also being a thriller. Kendrick and Lively both do great in their roles even if Lively’s outfits are wild, to say the least.

Charlie.