The moment Blake Lively’s Savile Row-by-way-of-Forever 21-clad homicidal schemer Emily beckons Anna Kendrick’s Stephanie to a cliffside in “Another Simple Favor,” the sequel to Paul Feig’s 2018 camp caper, the movie might as well broadcast a flashing sign in the corner of the screen that says, “REMEMBER THIS.” The scene’s staging makes it so obvious that this picturesque sight will reappear later that it’s almost comical. Successful foreshadowing should be subtle; viewers shouldn’t know where the story will go, but be able to appreciate how the tool was used when considering the film as a whole. But hoping for nuance in this franchise is a fool’s errand. Nothing about “Another Simple Favor” or its equally cuckoo bananas predecessor, “A Simple Favor,” is subtle. These are movies designed to be a good time at the expense of the audience’s sanity. The more outrageous and soapy they are, the better.
It’s just ironic that, by the time that blustery seaside bluff comes back into play later in the film, "Another Simple Favor” has already hurled itself off a cliff. As if the movie weren’t strange enough as it is, Feig takes a sharp left turn in the final act that’s both jaw-dropping and head-scratching. The writer-director yanks a new tone out of oblivion to join the other 26 he’s already established throughout the first 90 minutes of this two-hour adventure, one so truly shocking that I was surprised no one at my screening leapt to their feet. In retrospect, I would’ve cheered, but I feel that might’ve interrupted the uncomfortable silence that fell upon the auditorium, maybe even sparked a citizen’s arrest, considering the scene's subject matter. The headline writes itself: “Critic detained by influencers at screening of perverse Prime Video film.”
