Anna Kendrick, a performer for whom there are not enough superlative adjectives in the entire Webster’s dictionary, was roped into one of Jimmy Fallon‘s dopey little games on Friday’s episode of The Tonight Show. Appearing virtually, suggesting that she could have claimed a poor internet connection to evade the request, Kendrick was asked to “Sing It Like,” a blend of an improv exercise and karaoke jam.
She faced the challenge head-on (literally, she’s looking right at the camera) and kicked things off with her interpretation of The Little Mermaid‘s “Part of Your World” as if she had just received a botox injection. Her natural singing greatness then did battle with some “oh, but my face is frozen” schtick. It’s such fun you hardly mind Fallon’s guffawing (he’s actually pointing at her onscreen, as if we don’t know where to look) and interrupting her with cheers.
After Fallon’s version of “Y.M.C.A.” with bad WiFi (admittedly funny) Kendrick’s next turn was the Whitney Houston banger “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” with food poisoning. The two then joined for a duet of “I’ve Got You Babe” as if reporting from a hurricane. It’s all extremely delightful.
Kendrick’s visit was to promote the new film Stowaway, which just launched on Netflix. Set in the near-future, she stars as a doctor en route to an inchoate Martian colony to engage in medical research. Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette, and Shamier Anderson are fellow travelers, but one of them is not supposed to be there: hence the title! This is a problem when their interplanetary vessel only put in an order of oxygen for three. (There are other issues, too, but it gets complicated.)
The movie, directed by Brazilian YouTube sensation-turned-filmmaker Joe Penna, has been met with decent-to-solid reviews, with a 62 on Metacritic and a 75 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Penna’s previous film, Arctic, was a survival story in the snow, and after Stowaway‘s struggle for life in space, bets are now open to see if his next one is set in the desert or on the open seas.
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