Blake Lively attends the “It Ends With Us” UK Gala Screening at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on August 08, 2024 in London, England. Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony Pictures.
Preview:
Blake Lively will star in and produce ‘The Survival List’.
Tom Melia wrote the action rom-com.
Marc Platt is shepherding the movie for Lionsgate.
Blake Lively these days might be best known for her legal wrangling, but she’s making sure that her movie career doesn’t lose focus.
Described as an “action romantic comedy”, the new movie started life as a spec script by writer Tom Melia, who worked on successful British comedy drama ‘Rye Lane’.
And while Lively will be a producer on the movie, the real powerhouse shepherd behind the scenes will be Marc Platt, who helped bring ‘Wicked’ to screens last year.
Melia’s script follows a highbrow reality TV producer named Annie (Lively) who, against her wishes, is assigned to a new show hosted by a famous survival expert, Chopper Lane (shades of Bear Grylls there).
When a shipwreck strands them on a deserted island, Annie discovers Chopper is a fraud and knows nothing about survival, leaving her in charge of figuring out how to keep them alive.
Forced to work together, they begin to discover an unlikely chemistry.
Last seen in the aforementioned ‘Another Simple Favor’, Lively has a few projects in development, including an adaptation of Liane Moriarty novel ‘The Husband’s Secret’.
There’s also sci-fi thriller ‘Proxy’, about a woman miraculously reawakens after a medical trauma to discover her consciousness has been embedded into a bio-synthetic body.
Anna Kendrick stars as Stephanie Smothers in ‘Another Simple Favor’. Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
‘Another Simple Favor’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.
Arriving globally on Prime Video on May 1st, ‘Another Simple Favor’ throws us back into the knotty dynamic of mommy vlogger-turned-crime sleuth Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and mysterious, murderous fashion plate Emily Nelson (Blake Lively).
This sequel to the 2018 murder mystery brought to screens by director Paul Feig, looks to amp up the mystery even further, throwing in new family members and some luxurious Italian island locations.
On television, there’s a common trick of sitcoms and other shows usually anchored to one place to goose things up by taking the characters on holiday. ‘The Brady Bunch’ went to Hawaii. ‘Friends’ brought us “The One in Barbados” and the usually hospital-bound ‘Scrubs’ splashed out for a destination wedding in the Bahamas.
‘Another Simple Favor’ tries a similar trick, albeit in movie form (though it is premiering on Prime Video), moving its murder mystery machinations to the picturesque isle of Capri in Italy. But is it enough to elevate everything? That’s a more complicated question, one whose answer is both yes and no.
Script and Direction
Paul Feig attends the Amazon MGM Studios ‘Another Simple Favor’ New York Special Screening on Sunday, April 27, 2025 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City. Photo: Prime Video.
Together, they have concocted something that feels as though it has a similar energy to the original movie, while looking to heighten things to an even more absurd degree. Which is saying something, given that the 2018 effort had more turns than a corkscrew.
‘A Simple Favor’ effectively blended its mystery and comedy tones together, and while the follow-up attempts the same trick with some new complications, it mostly manages it, while sometimes tipping too far into ridiculousness.
Still, there are the requisite laughs to be found here, and enough twists to keep you guessing. Once the new main mystery is revealed, it does rather start to deflate, and there is some egregious sequel baiting towards the end.
Feig, returning as director, proves he can adeptly hop between genres, and being let loose in the beautiful island of Capri certainly allows him to up the visual interest of the movie. He also capably manages the new cast recruits while keeping the focus squarely where it should be: the winning, sometimes overly catty dynamic between Kendrick’s Stephanie and Lively’s Emily.
Lively might be the superstar here, but it’s Anna Kendrick who really keeps the movie grounded and funny. As Stephanie, who is awkwardly trying to enjoy her newfound fame following the events of the original film (and capitalize on them by writing a book about the case), Kendrick remains the comic powerhouse of the film, whether she’s effectively narrating the movie through her video channel or trading barbs with Lively’s Emily (or, er, Hope, as she should really be called.)
As for Lively, she’s back in full-on comic-inflected femme fatale mode, as she struts around in outrageous clothing and gets passive-aggressive with Kendrick’s character. She once more makes an impact, whether she’s plotting her next move or proving more of a friend to Stephanie than she might have suspected.
There’s also a healthy vein of vulnerability in both the leads, which makes the characters as relatable in the past, even as the screwball murder mystery is dialed up into ever more frenzied levels of complexity.
Around them, a collection of returning and new performers add extra layers to the story.
Henry Golding is able to let loose more as Sean, Emily’s ex-husband (who had a dalliance with Stephanie in the original), and here is a drunken, sarcastic mess, throwing endless shade at his ex.
Of the newcomers, the highlights are Alex Newell, who steals moments and scenes as Stephanie’s enthusiastic assistant/book tour manager Vicky and Elena Sofia Ricci as Portia Versano, the powerful, calculating mother of Emily’s new fiancé Dante (Michele Morrone), neither of whom show up on google searches, but are clearly very rich and powerful –– it won’t take you long to guess why.
Less present, but still entertaining are Detective Summervile (Bashir Salahuddin, returning from the original) and FBI agent Irene Walker (Taylor Ortega), who help drive the plot while not forgetting to bring the laughs.
The really nutritious additions to the cast are Allison Janney and Elizabeth Perkins, who consume whole sections of scenery playing Emily’s grasping aunt and drunken mother.
‘A Simple Favor’ sometimes coasted on the power of its stars and some fun plot turns, and ‘Another Simple Favor’ falls into a similar trap.
Still, the idyllic countryside helps it feel different enough, and though it can’t quite keep the momentum up towards the end, watching it is not too much of an ask.
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What’s the plot of ‘Another Simple Favor’?
Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) reunite on the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman.
Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSVP for a wedding with more twists and turns than the road from the Marina Grande to the Capri town square.
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is the biggest R-rated movie worldwide.
It has overtaken ‘Joker’ at the box office.
‘Alien: Romulus’ also had a great start globally.
Disney will keep the champagne corks popping this weekend, as a one-two punch of successful movies has given it more reason to celebrate what is turning into a very good year for the company.
To start, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ has entered the record books as the most successful R-rated movie ever, dashing past ‘Joker’ on Friday to take the crown with $1.086 billion at the worldwide box office.
And though it was finally dethroned by ‘Alien: Romulus’ from the top spot at the domestic box office this weekend, Disney will still be happy, as the latest xenomorph outing is also one of theirs since it arrives via 20th Century Studios. In some ways, it’s a victory for properties the company gained by buying Fox, since the new ‘Deadpool’ is an homage to –– and features plenty of –– characters from the Fox/Marvel years.
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What are the latest milestones that ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and Disney has passed?
Following this weekend’s earnings, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is now at $1.142 billion worldwide.
Among its achievements, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ had the highest-grossing global opening for an R-rated film ever, surpassing 2016’s ‘Deadpool’. It is the 31st film from The Walt Disney Studios (including three Fox films pre-acquisition) and the 11th title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (including two for Sony) to have surpassed $1 billion at the global box office.
With ‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ Disney has the top two movies of the year and back-to-back $1 billion earners, becoming the only studio ever to release back-to-back $1 billion films in a given year.
‘Alien: Romulus’, directed by ‘Don’t Breathe’s Fede Álvarez, scored a healthy $41.5 million at the domestic box office this weekend, which saw it nab the top spot.
Globally, the new ‘Alien’ franchise entry has scored $108.2 million and represents the second-best start for the xenomorph-centric horror stories (not accounting for inflation).
It’s all the more encouraging given that ‘Romulus’ was originally destined to go straight to Hulu, much as with ‘Predator’ prequel ‘Prey’ but was shifted to theatrical as filming began. The decision has clearly paid off.
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What about the rest of this weekend’s box office?
Blake Lively attends the “It Ends With Us” UK Gala Screening at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on August 08, 2024 in London, England. Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony Pictures.
‘It Ends With Us’ –– adapted from the Coleen Hoover novel –– continued to do well, landing third in its second weekend. It made $24 million, declining just 52% from its huge $50 million debut.
The movie, which stars Blake Lively, has overcome potentially controversial talk of behind-the-scenes drama and remains a strong performer, earning $180 million worldwide on a $25 million budget.
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‘Twisters’ dropped to fourth place, but the disaster movie is also holding well, taking $9.8 million domestically in its fifth weekend.
And even more impressive was ‘Coraline’, with the 15th-anniversary re-release of Laika’s beloved stop-motion animation fantasy film rounding out the top five with $8.9 million domestically. It has grossed roughly $11.3 million in the U.S. since returning to theaters on Thursday.
That result is impressive given that, on its original release, it took in $16.8 million for the first weekend.
(L to R) Director Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman from ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Photo: Marvel Studios.
Preview:
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ has made more than $1 billion at the box office.
It joins ‘Joker’ as an R-Rated movie to have achieved that.
And the Blake Lively-starring ‘It Ends With Us’ has also had a successful launch.
As it launched to gigantic success at the US box office and beyond, all eyes turned to whether ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ would join the select club of R-Rated releases to cross the $1 billion mark, an achievement only reached so far by ‘Joker’.
And, as the movie continues its groundbreaking run, we all begin to realize that it would indeed cross that marker, the only question remaining being when.
Now we know: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ made $1.029 billion through Sunday this weekend, factoring in an international take of $535.2 million and domestic of $494.3 million.
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What milestones has ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and Disney now passed?
Among the many milestones that the movie has passed is reaching the billion mark faster than ‘Joker’ (though it has a China release to help with its income).
It’ll likely supersede ‘Joker’s total by the end of the week, which will make it the highest-grossing R-Rated movie of all time. And it’s the most successful movie for both its stars (that would be Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman) and director Shawn Levy.
It also continues the good news for Disney as a studio, which now marks as the only film distributor to have two $1 billion releases in one year.
In total, 55 industry titles have passed the $1 billion threshold with Disney home to 31 of them (including three Fox titles).
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has 11 (including two at Sony, thanks to Spider-Man). Marvel Studios is responsible for more $1 billion+ films than any studio outside of The Walt Disney Studios itself.
Blake Lively attends the “It Ends With Us” UK Gala Screening at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on August 08, 2024 in London, England. Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony Pictures.
The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestseller, which has been embraced by the online book crowd to an enormous degree, had plenty of anticipation (and some behind-the-scenes drama), Blake Lively as star and producer and a buzzy, if somewhat controversial combo of romantic drama and domestic violence in its storyline.
‘It Ends With Us’, directed by Justin Baldoni, tells the story of Lily Bloom (Lively), a florist who gets caught in a love triangle between a charming but abusive neurosurgeon, Ryle (Baldoni), and her first boyfriend, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar).
All that has turned the movie into a hit from the start, with the movie managing to earn more than ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ on its opening day (we’re sure there was much mirth in the Reynolds-Lively household over that), and ended up with $50 million domestically, and $80 million globally, a fine start for a movie that carried a $25 million budget.
So, yes… Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have effectively had a “Barbenheimer” weekend. A “Dead Ends” weekend? Yeah, we’ll workshop that one.
(L to R) Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman attend the UK Fan Event of Marvel Studios’ ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ at Eventim Apollo, London on July 11th, 2024. Photo by StillMoving.Net for The Walt Disney Company Limited.
Other Movies and TV Shows Similar to ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’:
(L to R) Cailey Fleming and Ryan Reynolds star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
After spending most of the past decade following the end of ‘The Office’ in “tough guy” mode, playing a soldier, a spy, and an alpha male patriarch (perhaps to distance himself from his nerdy image as Jim Halpert), John Krasinski pivots into family film mode with ‘IF,’ an original live-action feature that he wrote, directed, and co-stars in. But while Krasinski showed some filmmaking flair with the intense ‘A Quiet Place’ and its sequel, his heavy-handed attempt to make a would-be family classic is overwrought and underwritten, giving the usually charismatic Ryan Reynolds and spunky young star Cailey Fleming little to do but stare at some Pixar-esque CG creations.
Story and Direction
Director John Krasinski on the set of Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
‘IF’ opens on Bea (Fleming), a young girl who loses her mother to cancer before the opening credits even finish rolling. But that’s not all: Bea’s dad (Krasinski) is suffering from a heart condition and requires surgery, forcing Bea to stay at her grandmother’s (Fiona Shaw) New York City apartment while her dad undergoes his procedure (his pre-op stay in the hospital is unbelievably long – whatever he does for a living, he must have great insurance).
Lonely but apparently not going to school, Bea spies some odd-looking characters around the apartment building that lead her to a flat upstairs. That’s where she meets Cal (Reynolds), a strangely out-of-time man who resides in the whimsical apartment with a whole horde of bizarre beings that only Bea and Cal can see. As Cal explains, these are imaginary friends, or IFs for short, who are looking for new children to bond with since their previous children grew up and forgot about them.
Cal takes Bea to Coney Island – apparently it’s perfectly okay for a 12-year-old girl to wander around the city as she sees fit – where he introduces her to a subterranean retirement home for a large contingent of IFs, such as a robot, a flaming marshmallow, a glass of water, a big purple furball that looks like it stumbled over from ‘Monsters University,’ and many more. Most of them are voiced by famous people like Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Awkwafina, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, and Blake Lively, who all don’t get much more than a line or two (even the ones married to the director and/or male lead). The founder of the place, a teddy bear named Lewis (the late Louis Gossett Jr.), recruits Bea to help Cal find new children for the wayward IFs, which Bea apparently finds more worthy of her time than, say, staying by her dad’s side.
(L to R) Ryan Reynolds (Cal), Louis Gossett Jr. (Lewis) and Cailey Fleming (Bea) star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
‘IF’ wants very badly to be a sort of live-action Pixar movie. While the idea of hanging onto one’s power of imagination even as an adult is a worthy one, and we will give Krasinski a certain amount of respect for taking a big, original swing with his own material, he’s not good enough of a writer to make it work and can’t quite get a handle on it as a director either. The movie continually tries to pull shamelessly and relentlessly at one’s heartstrings, aided so obtrusively by Michael Giacchino’s pervasively syrupy score (a rare misfire from the otherwise great composer) that one wants to tell the music to shut up.
The biggest problem with ‘IF,’ beyond its overt mawkishness, is that Krasinski’s world-building is sloppy and undercooked. Does Bea’s grandmother wonder where she’s going all the time? Does her father? Why can some people suddenly see their IFs for no apparent reason years after having forgotten them? How can IFs apparently open doors and move objects? Sure, this is a fantasy film, and real-life logic doesn’t always apply; but there has to be some sort of internal logic, a set of rules for the world, and that doesn’t seem present here.
There are some funny lines sprinkled throughout the film, and young children may delight in some of the many IFs who populate the story (even if none of them are given anything more than a cursory character sketch), but ‘IF’ meanders along with little urgency and no real sense of what we’re supposed to feel, despite its strenuous attempts to make us feel something.
John Krasinski Cast Many BFFs in ‘IF’
(L to R) George Clooney (Spaceman), Amy Schumer (Gummy Bear), Emily Blunt (Unicorn), Steve Carell (Blue), Flower, Cailey Fleming (Bea), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Blossom), Richard Jenkins (Art Teacher) and Maya Rudolph (Ally) star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
‘IF’ has a stacked voice cast, although as mentioned earlier, the IFs come flying through so frequently that few get a chance to make any kind of impression. Aside from the kindly, wise Lewis, the IFs who get the most screentime are Steve Carell’s Blue and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Blossom, a sort of 1920s dancer who turns out to be Bea’s grandmother’s one-time IF.
The main human character, Cailey Fleming’s Bea, starts off as earnest and intelligent, but begins over-emoting through the second half of the film; Fleming is still an engaging presence who can probably do better. Krasinski’s dad, a whimsical sort who implores his daughter not to grow up too fast, is too smug to earn much of our empathy, while the usually sparkling Reynolds is forced to play it somewhat morose and passive through large sections of the film. His effortless way with one-liners doesn’t get the workout that this film could use. ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ can’t come soon enough.
Final Thoughts
Cailey Fleming (Bea) and Steve Carell (Blue) star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
There’s a 10-minute tour through the IF retirement home about half an hour into the movie, in which Lewis tells Bea that she can make whatever she wants happen just by thinking about it (we guess). It’s a potentially interesting idea ruined by overly frantic, busy visuals, ending in an extraneous dance number which has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the plot. It’s also indicative of the problem with the rest of ‘IF’: this is a shapeless movie that feels more like the director playing with all the tools at his disposal yet not firming up the story he wants to tell.
After the success of the ‘A Quiet Place’ films, we suppose it was inevitable that the director would get to indulge himself with a vanity project. And as noted earlier, certain younger audience members may be enraptured by everything going on in the film. But if John Krasinski wants to try his hand at a family movie again, he should concentrate more on a good, focused story and characters, and less on self-satisfied sentimentality.
‘IF’ receives 4 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘IF’?
A young girl going through a very difficult time in her life suddenly gains the ability to see the imaginary friends (IFs) of other people who have left them behind. With the help of a neighbor, the little girl attempts to reunite all the IFs with the kids they once belonged to.
‘A Simple Favor’, adapted from Darcey Bell’s novel, told the story of widowed single mother and crafting/parenting vlogger Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick), who strikes up an unexpected friendship with glamorous fellow mother Emily Nelson (Lively). The two share drinks and swap stories, though the power dynamic in the friendship always seems weighted towards the more confident, secretive Emily.
When Stephanie agrees to look after Emily’s son, Emily then goes missing, leading Stephanie and Emily’s husband Sean Townsend (Henry Golding) to investigate what happened – and to start up a relationship of their own.
We won’t spoil what happens next in case you haven’t read the book or seen the original movie, but while ‘Favor’ does feature a relatively wrapped-up ending, it also leaves some ideas for a potential follow-up, which is where Lionsgate (which originally plucked the first movie from the depths of 20th Century Fox development and brought it to screens), and Amazon Studios are headed. Especially since that movie made $97 million worldwide from a $20 million budget.
Blake Lively in Paul Feig’s ‘A Simple Favor.’
Bell hasn’t written a sequel book, so the movie will be an original story featuring the same characters. Quite what happens in the new movie is a mystery for now.
Feig has his latest directorial outing, ‘The School for Good and Evil’ headed to Netflix. The movie, which adapts Soman Chainani’s book, follows the adventures of best friends Sophie and Agatha at the titular school, where ordinary kids are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. Sophie (Sophia Ann Caruso) has princess aspirations and expects to be picked for the School for Good and Agatha (Sofia Wylie) seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil. Yet soon the girls find their fortunes reversed, putting their friendship to a test…
Kendrick last appeared in another Netflix movie, the sci-fi thriller ‘Stowaway’ and has also been busy lending her voice to the ‘Trolls’ franchise. Her next movie to arrive is Mary Nighy’s ‘Alice, Darling’, in which Kendrick plays a woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the focus of an intervention staged by her best friends. Wunmi Mosaku and Kaniehtiio Horn are also in that one.
Anna Kendrick in Paul Feig’s ‘A Simple Favor.’
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The plot of the graphic novel focuses on a woman named Katie Clay, who is the founding owner of the popular restaurant Seconds. Katie lives above Seconds and is woken up one night by a mysterious, white-haired girl named Lis, who gives her a notepad, a single mushroom, and instructions for her to follow to cast a “do-over” spell in order to fix her past mistakes.
Katie finds more mushrooms under the floorboard in the restaurant and uses them to fix problems arising with the construction of a brand-new restaurant, her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and to prevent the injury of a waitress named Hazel.
Despite Lis’ rule of one mushroom per person, Katie ignores Lis’ concerns and seeks to use the mushrooms to make her life perfect, but unintentionally creates more problems as a result and disrupts the balance of time and space.
Published in 2014 by Ballantine Books, it was O’Malley’s much-anticipated first work following finishing up his acclaimed ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’.
Blake Lively attends a screening of ‘The BFG’ at the annual 69th Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 14, 2016 in Cannes, France. Photo by Tony Barson/FilmMagic.
And talking of ‘Pilgrim’, ‘Seconds’ the movie features another connection to O’Malley’s work – Edgar Wright, who famously adapted that graphic novel, is on board to write the script for this.
Wright will produce the movie alongside Marc Platt, who also produced ‘Scott Pilgrim’.
This isn’t Lively’s first time behind a camera: she made her directorial debut last year when she helmed the music video for Taylor Swift’s ‘I Bet You Think About Me,’ which featured singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton. The video earned her nominations for the 2022 Academy Country Music Awards for directing and producing.
Lively is known for her performances in shows such as ‘Gossip Girl’ (which was her big break out role) and for movies including ‘The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’, ‘The Town’ and, more recently, ‘The Age of Adeline’, ‘A Simple Favor’ and ‘The Rhythm Section’. She’s also been producing various projects and is attached to star in romance movie ‘The Making Of’, which is in development.
Wright, meanwhile, co-wrote and directed ‘Scott Pilgrim’ in 2010, and has also been behind the likes of ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, ‘Baby Driver’ and last year’s ‘Last Night in Soho’. He’s one of the writers of short film ‘Shadows’ and has a variety of movies in development, including a ‘Baby Driver’ sequel and an adaptation of thriller novel ‘The Chain’.
‘Seconds’ is set up at Searchlight, which means Lively will have the full force of Disney behind her for this first movie.
Blake Lively attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City. Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic.
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Sometimes overlooked in favor of other “slobs vs. snobs” comedy classics from the same era, like Animal House and Caddyshack, this was Bill Murray’s first starring role, and the feature directorial debut for Ivan Reitman. Murray stars as Tripper, head counselor at Camp North Star, a bargain-basement summer camp in Ontario. Murray takes the lonely Rudy (Chris Makepeace) under his wing while still overseeing a group of oddball counselors-in-training as they have their own romances, pull pranks on the camp’s director, and take on wealthy Camp Mohawk in a yearly tournament. It’s ultimately a sweet story, without ever getting quite as crass as some of the era’s other films starring Saturday Night Live alumni. ‘Meatballs’ would turn out to be hugely successful, spawning three mostly unrelated sequels and countless knockoffs.
Wet Hot American Summer
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If ‘Meatballs’ saw plenty of lesser imitations, ‘The State’ alumni David Wain and Michael Showalter stepped up with a satirical take on summer camp movies. Although it bombed at the box office, it’s since become a cult classic, spawning two series on Netflix (one prequel and one sequel). There’s an amazing cast here, including Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poehler, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Christopher Meloni, and David Hyde Pierce, plus other alumni from ‘The State,’ such as Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, and Joe Lo Truglio. There’s a plot here about the camp putting on a talent show, counselors in love, and a falling piece of Skylab that threatens everyone’s lives, but it’s really just an excuse to see some stars and future stars show off some great comic chops.
Dirty Dancing
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For those that haven’t gotten around to seeing this classic, it’s easy to write off ‘Dirty Dancing’ as sappy romance. But that would be wrong. It’s an emotionally satisfying coming-of-age story about Frances “Baby” Houseman (Jennifer Grey) and her steamy summer romance with dancer Johnny (Patrick Swayze). The dancing is terrific, Grey and Swayze have terrific chemistry. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and based on her own summer trips to the Catskills, Baby’s adventure starts because she and her family are taking a summer vacation at Kellerman’s a tony resort. Baby sees hints of classism between some of the staff, and she finds herself drawn more to the working class staffers instead of the Ivy League-bound waiters. The film subversively gives Baby agency, letting her pick her own friends and make her own choices in her sex life; she has a summer fling with a sexy dancer and isn’t punished by fate for it. That was fairly groundbreaking in 1987, and is (sadly) might still be considered unusual in some corners even now.
National Lampoon’s Vacation
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This is another film that started a franchise, but the original version is still the best. Based on screenwriter John Hughes’ own National Lampoon story about a disastrous road trip, the movie focuses on the Griswold’s drive from Chicago to California for a visit to a thinly-veiled version of Disneyland called “Wally World.” Chevy Chase puts in a legendary turn as Clark, the increasingly obsessive patriarch of the Griswold clan. Clark is going to have a great road trip with his family whether they like it or not, and if he becomes Ahab in a station wagon, then so be it. Beverly D’Angelo hits just the right notes as Clark’s wife Ellen, as does Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron as their children Rusty and Audrey. Chase and D’Angelo would return for sequels, and it became a running joke that Rusty and Audrey would be recast in every subsequent film. This first adventure sees car trouble in the desert, an unwanted passenger, a temptress in a Ferrari, and a visit with Cousin Eddy (a reminder of when Randy Quaid was funny). It’s filled with laughs, but it will definitely make you think twice about future family road trips.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
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Based on the best-selling YA novel by Ann Brashares, this is the story of four teen girls, best friends since childhood, who are about to spend their first summer apart. But before three of them leave town, the quartet go shopping and find a pair of jeans that magically fit each one of them. The four decide that they’ll share the pants for the summer, and while each of them have these mysterious jeans in their possession, their individual summers are upended. Blake Lively, America Ferrara, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn play Bridget, Carmen, Lena, and Tibby (respectively). The movie captures the charm of the novel, in no small part because of the charisma and chemistry of the stars, and it’s ultimately a heartwarming tale about female friendships and the bonds young women make that can last a lifetime.
Girls Trip
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The annual Essence Music Fest takes place in New Orleans every 4th of July, and that’s the backdrop for Ryan Pierce’s (Regina Hall) attempt to reunite with three of her friends from college. Pierce is a bestselling author and lifestyle guru, poised to be “the next Oprah.” She’s scheduled to speak at the festival, so she invites her college friends to join her, in the hopes of rekindling their friendships. These other three have lives of their own now; Sasha (Queen Latifah) is a celebrity gossip blogger, Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a working single mother, and Dina (Tiffany Haddish) is still party-girl Dina, all these years later. These four actors are great together, but Tiffany Haddish is a revelation here, stealing the movie and never giving it back. The film isn’t afraid to remind us that women can and do party hard, but it doesn’t lose sight of these friends repairing burned bridges and reaffirming their love for each other.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
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One of the casualties of quarantine is that this film didn’t get a proper theatrical release. That’s a shame, because as funny as this movie is, it would have been even more side-splitting with a big audience. Make no mistake, this movie is straight up bananas from beginning to end. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote the script and star as Star and Barb, two middle-aged best friends that talk a bit too much, they can be both clueless and timid, but once they hit Vista Del Mar, the movie all but explodes into mayhem. To describe too much would be to take away some of the stunningly insane jokes packed wall-to-wall across the entire film. But suffice to say you may never look at Jamie Dornan the same way again.
The Endless Summer
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This is one of the first and probably still the best surf movie ever made. Director Bruce Brown follows two surfers, Robert August and Mike Hynson, as they leave Southern California and travel to surf spots around the world, including South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Tahiti, Senegal, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Australia. Brown’s breezy narration is a far cry from the stiffer voices heard in most documentaries at the time, and it lends an inviting tone to the gorgeous cinematography of the both surf action and the local landscapes. This documentary might help non-surfers understand the appeal of surfing more than any other film ever made, and the idea of an “endless summer” means its welcome on any day of the calendar year.
Welcome to Female Filmmakers in Focus, where you will find a recommendation for films directed by women to seek out each week. This week features the horror film ‘Slaxx,’ an interview with the film’s co-writer and director Elza Kephart, and pairing with another film about magical pants: Sanaa Hamri’s ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’
‘Slaxx’ (2021) – Co-written and directed by Elza Kephart
Director/co-writer Elza Kephart on the set of ‘Slaxx’
‘Slaxx’ follows wide-eyed teenager Libby (Romane Denis) on her first shift at supposedly eco-friendly fashion boutique Canadian Cotton Clothiers or CCC. Stuck working a night shift on the eve of the launch of a new product – super shaper jeans that shift to fit anybody type, Libby learns what we all learn on her first job: work sucks. Co-workers can be jerks, managers egotistical, PR girls cold, company policy absurd. However, as the night progresses she quickly learns that the evil that lurks behind corporations may be even more sinister. With campy gore reminiscent of Italian Giallo slasher films, ‘Slaxx’ is filled with terrific horror set pieces and an ending shot you won’t long forget.
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Read on for an interview with ‘Slaxx’ director/co-writer Elza Kephart
Inspired by films like ‘Star Wars’, ‘Back To The Future’, and Italian horror films of the 60’s and 70s, Elza Kephart started writing scripts when she was a teenager. After graduating from film school at Emerson College, Kephart worked on the sets of American films shot in Montreal. She made her feature film directorial debut with 2004’s ‘Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love.’
Moviefone: Why did you decide to tell a story about the dark side of fast fashion?
Elza Kephart: I’ve always been really fascinated and repulsed at how corporations manipulate and convince us to buy things that we don’t really need. It wasn’t always about fast fashion. It’s been about body creams to dolls to Cheetos. It was a general hatred of corporate brainwashing that’s been with me for many years. My co-writer Patricia Gomez worked in retail, so when we came up with the idea for ‘Slaxx’ we decided the right setting for it was a retail store. I did research into fast fashion and when I realized how horrific it actually was, it seemed like a natural fit for a horror film.
MF: Did you always think you’d be a horror filmmaker?
EK: I’ve always loved horror. I’ve always liked darkness. I started reading Agatha Christie when I was young and my friends were reading The Babysitter’s Club. To me, if there wasn’t a death in what I was reading, I wasn’t interested. So I’ve always just really loved the genre. I loved Anne Rice and Chistopher Pike and all that stuff. Making horror films came about after college. I didn’t think I was necessarily going to make horror films, but then Patricia and I decided to make a zombie movie together as a joke, which became my first feature. I did visual research to prep myself for that film ‘Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love’, which was a 1960s-set B-movie. As I started to watch all these films again, I had been going to Fantasia (a horror film festival in Montreal) since I was young, I realized this is what I loved. I love these dark weird, disturbing tales. These were the kinds of stories I wanted to tell.
MF: What do you hope audiences take away from this film?
EK: A couple of things: First, I hope people enjoy it as a gory insane horror film. I want people to laugh and to be entertained, to watch killer pants come to life! Second, I hope people come to think about their consumption habits, that instead of buying something new, they first ask themselves if they really need it, and if they do, whether they can buy it second hand, repurpose or trade it. And if they can’t, then to try as much as possible to buy from companies that are ethical. I think we’ve been brainwashed by corporations to buy without thinking so it’s really important for people to realise that they have real power in not buying, in not giving in to the lure of buying things we don’t need. Choosing not to buy can become a political act! It’s crucial that, because of the looming climate and ecological crises fueled in part by over production and over consumption, we must rethink our relationship to consuming if we are to survive as a species.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) – directed by Sanaa Hamri and written by Elizabeth Chandler
(L to R) America Ferrara, Amber Tamblyn, Blake Lively, Sanaa Hamri, and Alexis Bledel on the set of ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’
Moroccan-American filmmaker Sanaa Hamri cut her teeth directing music videos for icons like Prince, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Lenny Kravitz, and Christina Aguilera. Her feature films include ‘Something New’ stars Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker, ‘Just Wright’ starring Queen Latifah and Common. She’s also directed countless episodes of television, including more than a dozen episodes of ‘Empire.’
If you want more pants that miraculously fit any body type try ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.’ A direct sequel to the first film directed by Ken Kwapis and written by Delia Ephron Elizabeth Chandler, both are adaptations of books by Ann Brashares. They follow four friends – Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Carmen (America Ferrera), Bridget (Blake Lively) and Lena (Alexis Bledel) as childhood friends who come of age apart from each other. The first film in the franchise follows their first summer apart ever, the second follows them the summer after college. Over the course of the films, the magical pants don’t murder anyone, but rather give these girls confidence to grow into the women they’re destined to become, while also reminded them they’ll always have each other when things get rough.
The spy thriller from director Reed Morano was initially supposed to open on February 22. Its new release date is November 22, the Friday before Thanksgiving, and will go up against Disney’s “Frozen 2.”
Now, it makes sense that a trailer for the movie had yet to be unveiled.
Paramount is likely moving the film to fall in hopes for better box office returns and awards notice. The gritty action drama is adapted from Mark Burnell’s novels and comes from James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.
The protagonist, a woman called Stephanie Patrick, takes an assassin’s identity so she can carry out revenge against the people who orchestrated a plane crash that killed her family.
The movie also stars Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, and Raza Jeffrey.
