[There are spoilers for Another Simple Favor below.]
If there was one thing I knew for certain I would get when I sat down for Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick’s Another Simple Favor, it was ridiculousness. As a quick refresher, the first movie in this franchise has both patricide, sororicide, and an infidelity plotline in which a character sleeps with her half-brother. It’s batshit crazy. But after watching the sequel, the most egregious thing about Another Simple Favor isn’t what happens in the plot (although there’s a lot of that) but what doesn’t. Because for some unfathomable reason, this franchise will still not let its two lead characters, Stephanie and Emily, just be gay already.
In the sequel to A Simple Favor (which is now streaming on Amazon Prime), we’re dropped back into this world about five years after the first movie ends. Emily (serving time for two separate murders) has somehow managed to get out of jail early. She’s getting married, and she wants Stephanie to be her maid of honor. For some reason, Stephanie agrees, jetting off to Capri with a woman who killed two people and even tried to kill her. You might be asking, “Why anyone would do such a thing?” The movie explains that Stephanie’s true-crime blog would go even more viral if she went to the wedding, therefore benefiting her career as an author. But I know the real reason: She and Emily are obviously, majorly in love with each other.
But even though the movie teases the audience throughout, it doesn’t actually allow itself to go there. At one point, Emily arranges for the pool at their hotel to be closed down for the night so they can be there alone. There are hundreds of candles lit around the pool. They are drinking martinis and talking about their feelings. They are flirting with each other. It is damn near the most romantic scene I have seen in a movie all year, and yet!!! No kiss. I was ready to yell, “JUST BONE ALREADY” at the screen.
In the movie’s final act, Emily and Stephanie hatch a plan that—without going too far into the absolutely bonkers plot details—means Emily can’t ever return to the U.S. And so Stephanie will have to raise Emily’s son on her behalf. I’m sorry, but that is not something you do for a friend. That is something you do for a life partner or someone you are deeply in love with (I'm assuming...I’ve never been put in this exact situation unless you count my fiancé’s dog). Meanwhile, Emily remains in Italy and, every once in a while, FaceTimes her should-be lover and her son. You’re telling me Stephanie is doing all this...for the occasional FaceTime call? Girl! Get a grip!
Why is it that a movie series can have two separate incest plots (yes, seriously) and not let the lead characters within it just be gay? Especially after doing so much work to establish their “can’t seem to quit each other” dynamic. The best part of these movies is the chemistry between Blake and Anna. Their characters flirt so effortlessly. They rib each other in that very specific way people do when they want to take each other’s clothes off. So why does the movie maintain that these two women are straight? It is 2025. Chappell Roan’s sapphic country song “The Giver” has 75 million streams on Spotify. Come on, people. This was the moment!
In a perfect world, Emily and Stephanie would end the film living together in some far-flung locale, raising their boys without the help of any other adult man. (Because, coincidentally, all the men around them have been killed or have died, which—I will remind you—is the premise of many onscreen lesbian love stories.) A Simple Favor 3 would have Stephanie in her own suit era. Emily would use her previous career as a PR guru to help other women who find themselves suddenly accused of murder by their now-dead husband’s mob family. The martinis would still be flowing, but the new version of the pool scene would actually end with them hooking up, like it should have the first time.
Another Simple Favor does end on a clear setup for a third installment. But I need to put forth a very serious question: If we don’t finally get the lesbian love story we deserve, what was all this even for? Please—for the love of god. We’ve earned it.
