Movie Review: Another Simple Favor (2025)

Genre: Crime Comedy  

Director: Paul Feig  

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Perkins, Henry Goulding  

Running Time: 120 minutes  

Synopsis: Mommy vlogger and amateur sleuth Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is struggling with diminishing popularity when she is approached by her conniving nemesis Emily (Blake Lively). Having maneuvered herself out of prison, Emily is gettering married to the wealthy Dante on the Italian island of Capri, and asks Stephanie to be her bridesmaid. With their disgruntled joint ex Sean (Henry Golding) also attending, it is soon apparent Emily is marrying into the mob, and worse is to come when her aunt Linda (Allison Janney) appears and dead bodies start showing up.

What Works Well: On a few occasions, Anna Kendrick threatens to rescue a scene or two with her persona's innate likeability. When they are not garish, some of Blake Lively's outfits are astonishing.

What Does Not Work As Well: A mechanical mess of a sequel with a plastic soul, this is a glossy conviction-free advertorial lacking heart and wit. The profanity-loaded script sinks under overwhelming dismissiveness, including a collective shrug-and-carry-on after every silly death and no one caring to check on a child after his father's bloody demise. The plot is impossible to follow, the intended twists lost within a morass of repugnant characters seeking cheap shock value through ever-more-bizarre sexual adventurism.

Key Quote:

Sean: I would rather shave my balls with a rusty knife than be at this wedding.

Emily: Oh, let me do that for you.

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Movie Review: Woman Of The Hour (2023)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Anna Kendrick  

Starring: Anna Kendrick  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: The story unfolds across several timelines. In 1977, serial killer Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) pretends to be a photographer and murders a woman on the isolated plains of Wyoming. In 1971 he targets a flight attendant in New York City, and in 1979 he picks up a runaway teenager (Autumn Best) in California. In 1978, Sheryl Bradshaw  (Anna Kendrick) is a struggling actress in Los Angeles. She lands a role on the television gameshow The Dating Game as the eligible woman choosing one of three batchelor contestants, one of whom is Rodney. 

What Works Well: Anna Kendrick's directorial debut is a robustly assembled crime and suspense drama based on actual events. The chilling scenes of Rodney preying on vulnerable, isolated women are balanced by Sheryl's experience on the tawdry The Dating Game, where desperation is dressed up under bright lights and beamed into living rooms. The common theme is a society more than willing to exploit susceptible women but otherwise quick to delegitimize their concerns, enabling monsters to hide in plain sight. The 1970s are recreated in all the garish brown-orange wide-collars-and-broad-sideburns beauty of the decade.

What Does Not Work As Well: The focus on Sheryl is misguided, as she is at best a side presence in the bigger story, with another woman grabbing the initiative late in the third act. Unfortunately Alcala emerges as the most intriguing study, but his background and deeply damaged psychology remain unprobed. The frequent jumps in time demand some-assembly-required levels of attention.

Key Quote:

Rodney: Did you feel seen?

Sheryl: I felt looked at.



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Movie Review: Stowaway (2021)

Genre: Science Fiction Survival Drama  

Director: Joe Penna  

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: A three-person crew consisting of Commander Marina Bennett (Toni Collette), doctor Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick), and researcher David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) lifts off on a mission to Mars. Once they settle in for the long journey, Marina stumbles upon launch support engineer Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), who accidentally stayed on-board, wounded and unconscious. He is nursed back to health and establishes a connection with Zoe, but the spaceship is now critically damaged and does not have enough oxygen for the unexpected traveler.

What Works Well: The spaceship environment conveys the appropriate sense of messy technology, and the four-person cast is adequate. The limited special effects are functional.

What Does Not Work As Well: Director and co-writer Joe Penna aims for a profound moral dilemma but misses badly. The plot logic gaps are yawning, from the initial never-explained chain of incompetence leading to the stowaway situation, through to the lack of redundancy planning, and culminating in a bizarre and internally inconsistent ending that never comes close to the desired impact. Along the journey, the attempts to humanize some but not all the crew members ring hollow.

Conclusion: Despite an ambitious destination, the drama sputters on the launch pad.



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Movie Review: Alice, Darling (2022)

Genre: Drama

Director: Mary Nighy

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Wunmi Mosaku, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick

Running Time: 89 minutes

Synopsis: Alice (Anna Kendrick) is trapped in a relationship with artist Simon (Charlie Carrick), who psychologically controls her life. She agrees to join her friends Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) for a weeklong lakeside cottage getaway, but lies to Simon that she's on a business trip. With the community around the cottage desperately searching for a disappeared young teen, Alice finds it difficult to unwind and clashes repeatedly with Tess. Her emotions are further stressed when Simon starts pressuring her to return to him.

What Works Well: Anna Kendrick's anguished hair-pulling, disordered eating nervousness conveys a life disintegrating under the weight of psychological abuse and domination. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Once at the cottage, the drama drifts sideways, the disharmony between Alice and Tess hinting at another unspoken conflict and distracting from the central theme. The pacing is laborious, director Mary Nighy unable to evolve the characters and delivering a movie that feels painfully longer than 89 minutes. Both the disappeared teenager sub-plot and the bursts of sexual frustration are of questionable relevance, and the final transformation is contextually sudden and less than convincing.

Conclusion: A dark emotional mood is immobilized by opaque expression.



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Movie Review: The Hollars (2016)

A comedy-drama about a family brought together by a serious illness, The Hollars offers an agreeable mix of laughs and tears.

New York-based graphic novelist John Hollar (John Krasinski) is suffering from writer's block, and his moodiness is straining his relationship with pregnant girlfriend Rebecca (Anna Kendrick). Upon learning his mother Sally (Margo Martindale) has a brain tumour and needs surgery, John travels to his home town to support his father Don (Richard Jenkins) and brother Ron (Sharlto Copley). 

Sally's illness has turned Don into an emotional wreck, while his plumbing business is near bankruptcy. Ron is jobless and stalking his ex-wife Stacey (Ashley Dyke). Sally's flippant nurse Jason (Charlie Day) is married to John's high school sweetheart Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Despite being in bed at the hospital, Sally is doing her best to hold the family together. As the surgery date approaches, John is drawn back into his family's affairs, and Rebecca shows up to provide support.

An amiable romp through typical family dysfunctions, The Hollars benefits from a mean streak of humour, colourful characters, and a willing cast. While originality and sterling moments may be in short supply, Krasinksi directs Jim Strouse's script with an eye to small-town charm and cinematic efficiency, packaging up the film in 89 minutes.

Many laughs come from Ron's jumbled life, now reduced to living in his parents' basement after suffering the ignominy of being fired by his dad. Ron is also nowhere near over the break-up of his marriage and is desperate - too desperate - to participate in the lives of his young daughters. Comedy nuggets are found within Ron's tangles with his ex-wife's new boyfriend Reverend Dan (Josh Groban).

Meanwhile, at the hospital nurse Jason is on a singular mission to redefine health care standards with his own brand of judgemental cynicism. His insecurities are also justifiably close to the surface but he anyway invites John to dinner and a reunion with Gwen. Strouse and Krasinksi display a deft touch by unleashing an undercurrent of lust and animal attraction, then cleverly redirecting it.

As for the tears, Sally's tumour and Don's emotional brittleness provide opportunities for sombre moments and reflections about loss, hardship and kindness. John adds his insecurities to the mix, working through the highs and lows while learning plenty about Rebecca's mettle. In this comfortingly familiar family, everything is far from perfect, and that's just fine.



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Movie Review: Pitch Perfect (2012)

A bright comedy and musical, Pitch Perfect wades into the offbeat world of acapella college group rivalries.

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is a freshman at Barden University, where the all-boys Treblemakers compete with the all-girls Barden Bellas for acapella group supremacy. Beca is an aspiring DJ and only attending college to please her father, but joins the Bellas after meeting the group's leaders Aubrey (Anna Camp) and Chloe (Brittany Snow). Another freshman, an Australian who calls herself Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), is also among the group's newcomers.

As the academic year progresses the Bellas strive to improve and qualify for the regional and national championships. But the champion Treblemakers, led by the brash Bumper (Adam DeVine), provide tough competition. Beca clashes with Aubrey over the Bellas' choice of music, and starts to catch the attention of Jesse (Skylar Astin), a Treblemaker, although the Bellas have a rule against hookups with the competition.

Shining a spotlight on a corner of campus weirdness, Pitch Perfect adapts the non-fiction book by Mickey Rapkin as an unironic celebration of quirkiness. The characters inhabiting the acapella world all know they are somewhat nerdy, but stop short of frivolous self-awareness. The collegiates take the singing and competitions seriously, and their ecosystem, like any other campus niche, is a microcosm of the growing into adulthood experience.

The smart screenplay by Kay Cannon deserves much of the credit for sufficiently rounding several of the Bellas within their acapella world while maintaining a caustic edge. Beca is a change agent, Aubrey the defender of the status-quo, while Amy is uninhibited and unfiltered. Chloe is perhaps the most complex, a peacemaker with an open mind caught between loyalty and advancement. They are all starting to accumulate life's emotional baggage, and growing into people worth knowing.

The romance elements between Beca and Jesse are more standard and relatively underdeveloped, and the film's other loose strands include Beca's relationship with her father. The darkest humour comes from the competition commentators played by Elizabeth Banks (who co-produced the film) and John Michael Higgins. They infuse their booth duties with all the overinflated seriousness of major sports coverage, laced with a large dose of politically incorrect banter.

Director Jason Moore populates the film with plenty of peripheral fun in the form of typical college residents and tensions, from the student-run radio station to dorm roommates knocking on the edges of eccentricity. Even some of the rank-and-file acapella group members pop with personality.

The music is a mix of familiar and restless, Beca's penchant for innovative mixes just waiting for an impeccable moment to burst forth. Imminently likable, Pitch Perfect hits most of the right notes.

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Movie Review: Table 19 (2017)

A floundering comedy, Table 19 suffers from idea deficiencies and too quickly resorts to well-worn plot devices.

Eloise (Anna Kendrick) reluctantly accepts a wedding invitation from her best friend Francie, despite having recently suffered a bad break-up with Francie's brother Teddy (Wyatt Russell). At the reception Eloise finds herself on table 19 with other "randoms" placed in the room's furthest corner. Her tablemates are squabbling couple Jerry and Bina Kepp (Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow), creepy guy Walter (Stephen Merchant), awkward high schooler Renzo (Tony Revolori) and the elderly Jo (June Squibb), Francie's nanny from childhood.

Eloise remains obsessed with Teddy, who is having a good time with girlfriend Nikki (Amanda Crew). But she is finally distracted by the attentions of the hunky Huck (Thomas Cocquerel), who never reveals his role at the reception. Bina is mistaken for a member of the serving staff, while her tensions with Jerry ramp up. Renzo makes no headway in attracting the attentions of any girl. Walter's odd behaviour intensifies, while Jo's wisdom helps her untangle the secrets at the table.

The premise of exploring the humorous stories of people who accept wedding invitations but should know better carries potential. But Table 19 maintains only brief momentum, and starts to fizzle early. The characters are uninteresting, their stories only good for a few laughs, and before long the film gets bogged down in predictable antics and stale arguments.

The screenplay by Jeffrey Blitz (with a story co-conceived by Mark and Jay Duplass) is devoid of edge, and Blitz's direction cannot add any punch. A cake is destroyed, pot is smoked, bad karaoke is performed, and Eloise finds every opportunity to embarrass herself.

Meanwhile Jerry and Bina carry on an exceptionally tired and circular argument. Renzo wanders in from a bad high school sex comedy, and Walter's weird antics are quickly explained away. Of course, everyone proves to be nice and warm-hearted and the group pulls together towards the requisite contrived happy ending.

Just like the guests, Table 19 should have just stayed away.

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Movie Review: 50/50 (2011)

A dramedy about friendship, 50/50 deploys a deft touch to explore the disruptive impacts of a cancer diagnosis.

In Seattle, Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a laid-back twentysomething working for public radio. He is in a tepid relationship with Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), and best friends with the jovial Kyle (Seth Rogen). Seeking relief from unexplained back pain, Adam is diagnosed with a massive cancerous tumour, and given a 50/50 chance of surviving. His mother Diane (Anjelica Huston) is naturally frazzled.

Adam starts chemotherapy and befriends fellow cancer patients Mitch (Matt Frewer) and Alan (Philip Baker Hall), as well as young and inexperienced therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick). Rachael tries to be supportive but struggles to cope, while Kyle does his best to keep his best friend's spirits up. Adam maintains his steady emotional state, but his life nevertheless fundamentally changes.

Finding flashes of genuine humour in a film about the devastating effects of cancer is never easy, but 50/50 pulls off the neat trick almost effortlessly. Thanks to pitch perfect performances from Gordon-Levitt and Rogen, the film seeks the warm foundations of friendship, and as Adam's condition worsens, Kyle's presence and determination to be there for his friend emerges as a smiling rock on which an admirable film is built. The Vancouver and Seattle locations add a fresh, rain-cleansed aesthetic.

Director Jonathan Levine, working from Will Reiser's sparkling script, goes looking for the playfulness that helps maintain sanity on the margins of the disease. Adam shaves his hair using Kyle's never-washed body trimmer. Kyle never misses an opportunity to chase women, and encourages Adam to play his ailment as a pick up line when the relationship with Rachael flounders. Katherine knows all the therapy lingo but has no experience in how to use it, and the charming Anna Kendrick perfectly tries too hard and says the wrong thing at almost every opportunity.

And even the secondary characters in Adam's orbit contribute to both the drama and the humour. Mom Diane is already dealing with a husband in docile dementia, and now has to gather up the courage to confront her son's sickness. The effort from both mother and son to meaningfully connect resonates as a worthy sub-plot. Similarly, Adam's unexpected friendship with the elderly Mitch and Alan exposes him to father figures confronting cancer with dignity and no shortage of impishness.

Despite the wit and talent on display some scenes do land in mundane network television hospital drama land, and 50/50 works its way to a too-tidy ending. But this is a laudable and mostly grounded look at coping with a sudden crisis where there are no certain outcomes nor right or wrong answers, just imperfect people doing their best.

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Movie Review: A Simple Favor (2018)

A neo-noir comedy mystery, A Simple Favor establishes a promising premise but then immediately spirals out of control.

Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is a suburban single mom, a mommy-site vlogger, and the perfect well-organized volunteer at the school attended by her young son Miles. She meets her polar opposite in Emily (Blake Lively), the mom of Miles' friend and classmate Nicky. Emily is sophisticated, hard-drinking, lives in a modern dream house, works in public relations for a downtown fashion firm, and is seemingly happily married to once-famous writer Sean (Henry Golding).

Despite their differences Stephanie and Emily quickly become friends, and share some deep dark secrets, including Stephanie revealing how her husband died and her unusual relationship with her brother, who is also deceased. Emily starts depending on Stephanie to pick up Nicky after school, and Stephanie is happy to oblige. After fulfilling one such simple favour, Stephanie is puzzled when Emily disappears. She reaches out to Sean, triggering a wild investigation into Emily's whereabouts.

Directed by Paul Feig and written by Jessica Sharzer, A Simple Favor offers a bright and breezy opening 30 minutes. The contrast between Stephanie and Emily is deliciously attractive, and the two women see in each other endless possibilities to dream about and maybe partially fulfil another life. With both Kendrick and Lively in sparkling form, the film crackles with potential.

Then Emily disappears, and suddenly A Simple Favor takes a sharp turn into ludicrous Nancy Drew territory with needlessly salacious undertones. Stephanie goes into full amateur detective territory, poking into Stephanie's life for clues while not restraining herself in any way from worming her way in Emily's house and Sean's heart. 

Before long Sharzer has bombarded the plot with parental abuse, evil twins, a murderous house fire, incest, lesbian lust, a lake drowning, nude paintings, and return-from-the-dead spooky cliches. The idea fragments, all borrowed from the classic noir repertoire, arrive at a dizzying pace, none are given room to breathe and develop, and the film dissolves into a mess.

When the convoluted secret at the heart of Emily's disappearance finally reveals itself all logic is left behind, a case of a supposedly wickedly smart villain behaving as stupidly as possible to totally undermine a devious plot. A Simple Favor wants to have fun with an updated noir, but fails to assemble the pieces into a coherent whole.

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Movie Review: Cake (2014)

A psychological drama, Cake features a strong Jennifer Aniston performance but is too slow to shift gears away from the doldrums of grief.

Claire (Aniston) is suffering from enormous physical pain and scars as well as emotional stress further to a devastating car accident. She is also dealing with the suicide of Nina (Anna Kendrick), a member of her support group, with Nina's ghost making frequent appearances to communicate.

Claire has kicked her husband Jason (Chris Messina) out of the house, and because she refuses to sit upright in any car, she leans heavily on housekeeper Silvana (Adriana Barraza) for transportation. Claire manages the chronic pain through large amounts of painkillers provided by her doctor Annette (Felicity Huffman). Through the haze of depression and discomfort she connects with Nina's angry husband Roy (Sam Worthington), and they start an awkward relationship.

Directed by Daniel Barnz, Cake zooms in on one individual character in a state of crisis. The film offers an intriguing enough premise, exploring in depth the iron grip brought forth by excruciating pain, discomfort, physical scarring, and calamitous emotional loss. The film deserves credit for portraying Claire as more than a victim deserving of sympathy. She is also now enraged, frustrated, insensitive and resorting to pressure and lies to get what she wants.

But beyond the prevalent motif, Cake stalls. Barnz and writer Patrick Tobin appear content to allow Claire to spin endlessly within the locked box she finds herself in, and for too long the film revisits the same misery-propelled themes, from the macabre appeal of Nina's exit to Claire's self-justified attitude of insolence and the ease with which she uses others to try and fill the vacuum inside.

By the time the film finally creaks forward and attempts to evolve the narrative past the thick dollops of grief, it's too late, and the metaphors related to baking cakes for others and the last minute introduction of a brief houseguest are clumsy and underdeveloped ideas.

Jennifer Aniston again proves that she can excel in drama, and offers a deglamorized role filled with a curtain of darkness behind her eyes, as Claire silently rages against a life-altering catastrophe. Adriana Barraza emerges as the most interesting secondary character, the housekeeper taking the brunt of Claire's interrupted life and search for others to lean on.

Cake is not without merits, but is no better than half-baked.

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Movie Review: The Accountant (2016)

An action thriller with a rich story and plenty of style, The Accountant is an intelligent and inventive addition to the genre.

Department of Treasury Agent Ray King (J.K. Simmons) recruits analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to dig into a mysterious accountant who appears to have ties with some of the world's worst criminals. Now going under the name Chris Wolff (Ben Affleck), the accountant is a mathematical savant with a high functioning form of autism. He leads a double life as a nondescript local store-front accountant while surreptitiously traveling the world and working for shady clients with major financial secrets to hide.

As Medina digs into the accountant's mysterious identity and background, Wolff's next assignment is a legitimate forensic audit of a large Chicago-based robotics company headed by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow), where junior accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) has accidentally stumbled upon financial irregularities. Wolff uncovers a dangerous and well-hidden secret that triggers a round of brutal violence leaving him and Dana in mortal danger from a well-armed hit squad, while Medina unearths more twists in Wolff's past.

Directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Bill Dubuque, The Accountant surprises with a crisp introduction of a new screen action hero. With tired sequels, reboots and comic book adaptations flailing and failing to gain traction, credit to the The Accountant for venturing into original territory. The concept of an autistic mathematical genius as a conflicted protagonist, capable of untangling dense annual financial statements and disposing of ruthless killers with equal effectiveness, is a breath of fresh air. Far from a clean-cut hero, the accountant holds morally ambiguous ground, helping dubious clients while toiling towards difficult to discern ulterior motives.

The film's pacing and construction is also commendable. O'Connor displays remarkable patience, allowing the rich story to unfurl its various sails in an intriguing first hour. There are several flashbacks, some to Wolff's childhood, others to a bloody massacre at a mafia hideout, and still others to a prison stint. The exploits of Agent King and analyst Medina run in parallel with Wolff's latest investigation into the robotics company, and only deep into the film do all the pieces start to fit together, and even then there are more clever surprises to come. When the puzzle picture starts to take shape, it's a satisfyingly elegant mosaic, and a sturdy foundation on which to build a franchise.

The Accountant is weakest when it mimics routine action flicks, and does suffer from one over-the-top combat scene, a prolonged one-against-many home invasion that could have been extracted from any Jason Bourne movie. But most of the 128 minutes of running time are preoccupied with more intelligent fare, and the accountant's uncovering of financial deviousness is more thrilling than any conventional gun play. Even more captivating is his agony when his forensic work is interrupted: this is man who absolutely needs to see every task through to full completion, and can mentally fall off a dark edge in the pragmatic world of enough is enough.

Chris Wolff is an almost perfect role for Ben Affleck. Inexpressive, introspective, alone and with a lumbering gait, the actor does not need to stretch much. The supporting cast is good but predictable, Kendrick at 31 years old still able to pull off the ingenue trick, J.K. Simmons extracting maximum gruffness out of Agent King while Addai-Robinson gets a role with depth and potential as the analyst with a dark past of her own. Jon Bernthal makes for a handsome but lethal leader of an intimidation and murder squad.

Both smart and stirring, The Accountant's pen and sword are equally mighty.

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Movie Review: What To Expect When You're Expecting (2012)

A multi-story ensemble cast romantic comedy, What To Expect When You're Expecting is as bad as can be expected. The concept of adapting a pregnancy guidebook into a movie was only ever going to result in a trivial experience, and the outcome is the blandest from of purée.

Five stories unfold in parallel. Jules (Cameron Diaz) is a celebrity television fitness instructor who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after sleeping with her dance partner Evan on a reality television show. Both are type-A personalities and clash over every detail. Freelance photographer Holly (Jennifer Lopez) is desperate to adopt a child and makes plans for an overseas adoption from Ethiopia. Her husband Alex is less ready to start a family.

Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) runs a maternity shop and becomes pregnant after years of trying with her husband Gary, who is locked in a lifelong competitiveness contest with his ex-racing car champion dad Ramsey (Dennis Quaid). Sure enough, Ramsey's much younger trophy wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker) is also pregnant, and with twins. And food truck operator Rosie (Anna Kendrick) finds herself pregnant after hooking up for one night of sex with former high school flame Marco, who runs a competing truck.

Directed by Kirk Jones, What To Expect When You're Expecting borrows the title from Heidi Murkoff's go-to pregnancy guide but is otherwise a banal exercise in stars cashing cheques for doing little. The film predictably follows the five mini-stories from conception to delivery, with plenty of bare but fake baby bumps, barely any laughs, no depth of character and nothing new to offer.

The best that Jones can come up with in terms of surprises is one pregnancy that terminates early, one inconvenient loss of employment causing financial stress, and routine plot devices involving dads feeling not ready for the major upcoming change in lifestyle. It's all dealt with in the most superficial, obvious manner with no style to cover up the lack of substance.

The performances are uniformly overexcited, with Dennis Quaid suffering the most embarrassment as the insufferable dad engaged in a perpetual hobby of humiliating his son. In relative terms, Anna Kendrick emerges with some credit, and it's no surprise that her role aims for more drama and less fluff. Chris Rock makes an appearance as part of a group of dads who meet in the park with their kids to try and provide comic relief, and Rebel Wilson plays store owner Wendy's sidekick.

What To Expect When You're Expecting is as tedious as that eighth diaper change at the end of an exhausting day filled with baby poop and burps.

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Movie Review: Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

A raunchy comedy, Mike And Dave Needs Wedding Dates celebrates girls and boys gone wild by offering a few laughs and plenty of improvisation. However, the overall quality is marginal.

Brothers Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave (Zac Efron) run a liquor distribution business but are better known for regularly wrecking family events with their wild partying antics. With the destination wedding of their sister Jeanie (Stephanie Beard) to Eric (Sam Richardson) coming up in Hawaii, the brothers are warned by their parents that they each need to bring a nice girl as a date to keep their behaviour in check. They advertise on social media and soon their quest for two nice girls goes viral.

Best friends and roommates Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) are party animals and the furthest thing from nice girls, with Alice also an emotional wreck after being abandoned at the altar. But spotting an opportunity for a free vacation they scrub themselves down, adopt wholesome personas, plot a seemingly accidental meeting with Mike and Dave, and are soon picked to be the wedding dates. The foursome arrive in Hawaii, and predicably they are unable to control their natural tendencies to cause havoc at every turn.

Directed by Jake Szymanski and very loosely based on real events, Mike And Dave Needs Wedding Dates is a foul-mouthed anything-goes comedy for adults, celebrating grown-ups who prefer to avoid grown-up responsibilities. The good news is that the film generally avoids jokes about body odour, farts and other secretions, and the girls and guys enjoys balanced amounts of debauchery and irresponsibility. The film is an equal opportunity outlet for bad behaviour, with Alice and Tatiana summarily rejecting any judgment of their lifestyle, least of all from fellow losers like Mike and Dave.

The bad news is that the humour is more miss than hit, there is too much obvious improvisation, plenty of over-acting, and not enough plot, even for a comedy obvious in its intentions to just go looking for the next rude punchline. Scenes are dragged out beyond their best-by date, the editing falling victim to the improvised dialogue where no one is sure where the next joke will come from - or if it's coming at all.

Once Mike, Dave and their dates arrive in Hawaii after the first 20 minutes, very little actually happens other than set-pieces intended to derail Jeanie and Eric's big day. Some of these are quite funny, including Jeanie receiving a spectacularly erotic massage and Tatiana tangling with the lesbian cousin of the brothers. But a drug-induced interlude featuring Jeanie and Alice is less successful, and the awakening of the foursome to the consequences of all their antics is contrived in the extreme.

Mike And Dave Needs Wedding Dates delivers on its minimal promise with a few solid laughs, but the film never rises beyond its predictable stature as an easy to forget time-passer.

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The Movies Of Anna Kendrick

All movies starring Anna Kendrick and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Up In The Air (2009)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

50/50 (2011)

What To Expect When You're Expecting (2012)

The Company You Keep (2012)

End Of Watch (2012)

Pitch Perfect (2012)

Cake (2014)

The Hollars (2016)

Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

The Accountant (2016)

Table 19 (2017)

A Simple Favor (2018)

Stowaway (2021)

Alice, Darling (2022)

Woman Of The Hour (2023, also Director)

Another Simple Favor (2025)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Company You Keep (2012)

A drama about former revolutionaries approaching their twilight, The Company You Keep presents an interesting treatise but is ultimately undermined personalized simplifications.

Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) is arrested in upstate New York. For over 30 years she was living a simple domestic life under a false identity, evading arrest for the murder of a Michigan bank security guard during a 1980 robbery-gone-wrong. Sharon was as a member of the revolutionary Weather Underground, a small group of idealistic students who turned to violence against symbols of the US government. After her arrest, young reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) is encouraged by his editor (Stanley Tucci) to explore Sharon's story. Ben's investigation leads him to Jim Grant (Robert Redford), a widower and well-respected Albany lawyer. Shepard exposes Jim's real identity as fugitive Nick Sloan, another former member of the Weather Underground.

FBI agent Cornelius (Terrence Howard) closes in, forcing Nick to flee. He deposits his young daughter with his brother Daniel (Chris Cooper) and embarks on a cross-country escape to re-connect with his old associates including lumberyard owner Donal Fitzgerald (Nick Nolte) and college professor Jed Lewis (Richard Jenkins). Nick's real objective is to flush out Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), the only former member of the revolutionaries who can clear his name. Ben also continues his chase of the story, and starts to uncover some well-kept secrets related to the botched Michigan heist from many years ago.

The Company You Keep walks a tightrope between a serious examination of idealism in old age, and a rather opportunistic gathering of veteran actors enjoying a reunion. Director Robert Redford manages to land the film just on the right side of relevant, thanks to an earnest tone, committed performances, and a story that touches on broad societal dynamics but always retains a personal focus.

The script by Lem Dobbs presents the many different pathways to adulthood available to young revolutionaries. Sharon and Nick attempted to meld into obscurity. Mimi and her friend Mac Mcleod (Sam Elliott) kept up the subversive protests in any available form, with Mimi evolving into a marijuana trafficker. College teacher Jed never approved of violent methods, and so never forgave the likes of Nick for contaminating the movement of peaceful protesters. Lumberyard owner Donal and organic farmer Billy Cusimano (Stephen Root) moved into seemingly respectable businesses, with just a whiff of illicit dealings.

With the best years well behind them they all ask themselves questions about the value of their youthful struggle, whether the fight was won or lost, and what they could or should have done differently. In adulthood they find varying degrees of contentment, either hiding from their past or celebrating it. As parents Sharon and Nick view life through the lens of their families, a perspective that brings a desire to accept responsibility and right the wrongs of history. The Company You Keep retains its power as long as it rides the wave of social movement commentary through the retrospective and tired eyes of the individuals who influenced it.

The film falters when it starts to resemble a routine chase movie, with Nick always one step ahead of agent Cornelius. And while the focus on individuals is commendable, the ending is fumbled once it gets too personal. As the background to the ill-fated Michigan bank robbery is revealed, threads emerge to entangle Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson), the investigating officer of the time, into the web once inhabited by Nick and Mimi. The film gets distracted by the minutiae of shady family friendships, lost children and selfish behaviour, and the momentum built by the broader social context is all but lost.

A cast this deep in talent was only ever going to be excellent. Redford and LaBeouf get the biggest roles, with Redford showing every one of his 77 years, and LaBeouf perhaps pushing the aggressive young reporter role too hard. While it is a pleasure to see Julie Christie in a short but still meaningful role, frustratingly, stars like Sarandon, Nolte, Elliott and Anna Kendrick (as an FBI agent) get minimal screen time.

The Company You Keep does not fully engage, but does delve into essential issues in the company of outstanding talent.

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