You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale
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The post You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: 35-year-old Ezra Cohen (Jonah Hill) is having a tough time finding love and manifesting a partner who sees him for who he truly is. Or, as he puts it, he’s feeling like Views-era Drake, when he should really be feeling like Certified Lover Boy-era Drake. In between working a boring finance job, he hosts a podcast with his best friend Mo (Sam Jay) that covers a variety of topics, but often revolves around Black culture.
When he meets costume designer and fellow Los Angeles dweller Amira (Lauren London), sparks fly immediately: They quickly begin a relationship, fall in love, support each other’s dreams, and eventually move in together. Despite the differences in their cultural backgrounds — Amira is a Black Muslim who grew up in the now-gentrified Baldwin Park, and Ezra is a Jewish guy from Brentwood — they’re bound together and agree to get married.
However, those cultural backdrops are a little trickier to navigate than they expected — specifically each other’s parents. Amira’s mother Fatima (Nia Long) and father Akbar (Eddie Murphy) are immediately convinced that Ezra’s background and personality are a poor match for their daughter, while Ezra’s parents, Shelley and Arnold (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny), are frequently mired in “I’m not racist!” theatrics that end up being totally offensive to Amira.
Both Ezra and Amira are determined to get along with the other’s families, and spend individual time with them to better bond before the wedding. The resulting clashes between both Akbar and Ezra and Shelley and Amira are comical and intense, as the lovers’ union is threatened by their parents’ inability to treat their future children-in-law with enough dignity and respect.
Helmed by black-ish creator Kenya Barris, with a screenplay from Barris and Jonah Hill, You People seeks to be a refreshing update of a common story, characterized mainly in the films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner from 1967 and its 2005 remake, Guess Who. However, Barris and Hill do a terrific job of acknowledging the differences in race relations in 2023, and how their cultural distinctions are much more nuanced than “she’s black, he’s white.”
Comedy Gold: Even beyond some of the cringe-worthy chats that characterize the conflict in You People, the comedy comes from everywhere. Jonah Hill’s Ezra is chock full of hilarious one-liners and reaction shots, while London’s Amira is similarly magnetic. There’s a lightness to their story, often reaffirmed by the colorful B-roll of Los Angeles’ romantic, comforting scenery that breaks up their scenes. The chemistry between the two leads may not be indestructible, but luckily, their comedic chops and charismatic air give us a lot to root for.
You People (Netflix)
Meanwhile, what more is there to say about Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her ability to command a scene? She’s effortlessly funny in You People, and often steals the show. As Shelley, Louis-Dreyfus brings a shockingly real portrayal of the kind of white, neoliberal overcompensation around Black people that seems mostly harmless on the surface, but is actually offensive and tone-deaf. As a woman who is obviously aware of the tension between the two cultures, Shelley thinks that acknowledging it directly in front of Black people somehow absolves her from the blame. But in doing so, she fumbles around serious cultural conversations, which can lead to some hilarious and uncomfortable moments.
On the other hand, Murphy’s portrayal of Akbar Mohammed is one of his more straight-laced roles to date. Where he often brings a larger-than-life quality to his characters, Akbar is rigid and serious to a fault, and Murphy compliments that arc with a restrained and tightly-wound portrayal. While his presence is certainly welcome, it’s not his most dynamic performance, all things considered.
New Year, New Kicks: One of the most rewarding aspects of You People is its modern approach to depicting an interracial relationship. Though Barris is a sitcom mastermind, he resists making any of the central figures a caricature or a dated stereotype: There’s a specificity to the characters that grounds the inevitable conflict — it’s not enough to make Amira’s family Black and Ezra’s white without any further cultural distinctions, because that’s unrealistic. Instead, grounding Amira as Muslim and Ezra as Jewish adds an even more complicated layer of generational and cultural differences.
Barris also chooses to spend equal time investigating the conflicts between both Ezra and Amira’s families, rather than just portray the culture shock for one of them. If this movie were to be made 20 years ago (and it sort of was, with Guess Who), there’d likely be a considerable emphasis on Ezra’s inability to assimilate into their culture. And while Ezra’s quest to win over Akbar and convince him of his good nature leads to some terrific comedy — particularly the first scene between the two at Los Angeles classic Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles — it’s Amira’s difficulties with Shelley that end up feeling more impactful and nuanced.
Akbar disapproves of Ezra because he can’t see himself in Ezra’s shoes; he immediately recognizes that their values are different, and his mind is made up. But Shelley doesn’t disapprove of Amira; in fact, she’s beyond excited to have her join the Cohen family. Her frequent comments about Amira’s appearance, hair, and fashion choices seem normal at first, until it quickly turns into fetishization. She poses questions to the “room” about police brutality, stating that she’s vehemently against it, but it’s clear to see this is a targeted question coming from a defense mechanism.
Indeed, You People succeeds in navigating the questions asked of a post-George Floyd America — many white people are aware, if only a little bit, of the reality of being Black in this country. But in Shelley’s case, rather than focus that awareness towards real allyship, there’s still a tendency to perform, to overcompensate, to disarm with superficial compliments that position Amira as a “toy” for her.
Meanwhile, in Akbar’s case, he goes to great lengths to show that Ezra will never be able to fit in with Black culture. But in doing so, he doesn’t end up teaching Ezra any lessons about the culture — he just alienates him further and further.
You People (Netflix)
The Verdict: Though films about race can often be pressed by the weight of their subject, You People maintains a breezy tone while also acknowledging the hard parts. Much of this is due to Barris and Hill’s airtight screenplay, which contains a surprisingly strong density of jokes. There are also a plethora of great needle drops — Brittany Howard’s “Stay High,” H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar’s “Best Part,” Too $hort’s “Cuss Words,” and quite a few ’90s hip-hop legends receive some engaging musical moments.
As a duo, however, Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill aren’t exactly a match made in heaven. In their scenes, Akbar serves predominately as the straight man to Hill’s anxious antics, and while that rigidity works for the story, it’s a shame we never get to see Akbar lighten up a bit more. Meanwhile, Amira’s character isn’t quite as focused as Ezra — there are some great details and moments of intimacy from London’s performance, but overall, there’s something about Amira that doesn’t feel as worked out as Ezra.
But aside from these small detractors, You People is a rom-com success for Netflix, and it’s a refreshing tale of love persisting across societal boundaries. This film will have you laughing — and hopefully, thinking critically about race, cultural differences, and generational gaps — in the space of a few lines. It may not be a hard-edged satire or a profound, studious exploration of race, but its feel-good aura and stylish composition are enough to log this as a win for Barris and co.
Where’s It Playing? You People arrives on Netflix on Friday, January 27th.
Trailer:
You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale
Paolo Ragusa
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