There is another way timeline there You Peoplewhich features the directorial debut of Kenya Barris (black-ish), is the next great romantic comedy. There is another version where it is a painful laugh that penetrates the stress parents can bring to their grown children. There is an even more distant option, where it is a sharp critique on race relations that entertains and touches on the hard truths surrounding the erasure of culture, privilege and faith. While the film clearly wants to be all of these choices, it ends up sinking under the weight of its goals and landing as… it is ok.
Directed by Barris and co-written by leading man Jonah Hill, You People bills itself as today’s twist on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Hill stars as Angeleno sneakerhead and Jewish son Ezra Cohen, who works a finance job he hates while aspiring to become a full-time podcaster with his best friend Mo (Sam Jay). When Ezra accidentally damages Amira Mohammed’s (Lauren London) car during his trip, the two begin a passionate romance full of differences that destroy their relationship.
You People it’s funny sometimes though. Hill imbues his signature self-deprecating charisma, turning pitiful lines into a comical kind of sly passivity. The central encounter is charmingly playful and rough in a way that is closer to romance than cringe-worthy. As Amira’s father Akbar Mohammed, Eddie Murphy lands many lines that soften the antagonistic aspects of his character, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus completely steals the villainous element as Ezra’s well-meaning and oppressive mother Shelley Cohen. Even the one-characters are played by actors with comic talents, leading to occasional laughs from stars like David Duchovny, Mike Epps, Deon Cole, Molly Gordon, Anthony Anderson, Kym Whitley and others. But the film can’t figure out whether it wants to be a love story or a social commentary, and it ends up not doing well.
Hill’s unsatisfying connection with London has nothing to do with their relationship. The audience is never shown what makes them stay together. You People it pushes the couple’s relationship into a short period of long days, matching sneakers and collaboration over LA hip-hop culture (London was a former friend of the late Nipsey Hussle, an icon of LA hip-hop). Whatever chemistry the two have in the pictures, and then that’s it some chemistry, often decreases under the disharmony of their families.
While all of Ezra’s individual emotions and behavior are developed on screen, Amira is given little representation, lines or emotions other than confusion. London’s absence is even more evident when a joke about Ezra’s cocaine addiction during a boys’ weekend gets more screen time than a real face-off between Amira and Shelley about a Jewish mother treating Amira like a shiny, new Black barbie to wear – it’s a shame. as London still manages to shine despite its few lines.
Not at all You PeopleThe sole aim was to produce a two-hour movie with light humor, which can be considered a success. You can’t put Hill, Murphy and Louis-Dreyfus at the dinner table and leave without laughing. But in trying to answer many questions about race, privilege, race relations and religious families, You People it enters into a complex juggling act – and ends up abandoning these heavy topics in favor of higher-level solutions. There are so many beautiful shots of Los Angeles used as interludes that anyone who nods (and you probably nod) will wake up and think they’re watching some Barris-produced number. ish TV series.
You People makes a strong case for cutting off family members who don’t help with the impact it has on cross-cultural understanding. And even with all the timely jokes about vaccines and Kanye West, the film only manages to rehash old arguments and then throw them away for the family feeling it didn’t get – a shoehorned response that makes the film feel less contemporary. take and more like an old racing movie with two new Air Jordans. If you’re looking for a comedy about the world we live in, this might not be the movie for you. Your parents might like it anyway.
