We cannot get enough of the friendship between Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and it seems they can’t, either, as they have yet another new project together. After 9 to 5, after seven seasons of Grace and Frankie, after 80 For Brady, there is now Moving On, from writer/director Paul Weitz, who previously worked with Tomlin on Grandma. It’s about two friends who fell out of touch but reunite after the death of their third friend to murder her sh-tty husband, played by Malcolm McDowell. The casting is great, and Weitz did right by Tomlin in Grandma, I am so interested to see what he cooks up for Fonda, too.
But this now adds to the “friend type” conversation Lainey brought up before. Are you a Lily or a Jane or a Sally or Rita, in the context of murder? You know who’s missing in this equation? Dolly Parton. You KNOW Dolly shows up for the murder, you know she’s coordinated everybody’s break-in outfits AND alibis. I’ve always hated that John Mulaney joke that women could never do an Ocean’s 11 because some of the women would talk sh-t about the others (this was before Ocean’s 8, and while he was still married, and the setup for the joke was that none of his girl-friends liked his wife, which…) partly because it’s a lazy joke built on a hacky premise, but mostly because it totally misunderstands female friendship and lady group dynamics, which isn’t surprising, given the source, and yet, my ire with that joke remains. Fried Green Tomatoes is a way better representation of how women get sh-t done for each other. Moving On is kind of giving me Fried Green Tomatoes vibes, and I am fine with that. We are way overdue for a movie about women doing crimes for love and friendship.
