You People (2023)

You People (2023)

 

5/10

Starring

Jonah Hill

Lauren London

David Duchovny

Nia Long

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Eddie Murphy

 

Directed by Kenya Barris

 

This is no disrespect—I love Eddie Murphy. I’m a child of the ’80s, and I grew up on Eddie Murphy. That said, I blame Seinfeld, Veep, and The New Adventures of Old Christine because the one person I couldn’t wait to see was Julia Louis-Dreyfus. That woman is comedy gold, and she was amazing in this movie for me. So now that I’ve put it all out there, let me dive into the movie, You People.

It had its moments where I laughed, but overall, it’s average because it never quite got it right.

The cast alone must have set Netflix back a lot, because this movie isn’t here to play. The plot, story, and cast were cool up to a point, but then the movie took a path that boiled down to silliness and just became creepy.

This movie is about Ezra (Jonah Hill), a grown man from Jewish parents, who meets and falls in love with Amira, a grown woman from Black Muslim parents. The couple are fine with each other, and even Ezra’s parents welcome Amira with joy. But the stereotypical portrayal of Black people rears its head when Amira’s parents are shown as not being so down with the idea. At first, the way it was going seemed cool and funny, but then the movie took a turn. When the parents meet, I didn’t like how the Black family (or any family, for that matter) were portrayed as hostile jerks.

In reality, if a family doesn’t approve, they probably wouldn’t show up at all, instead of showing up and talking about a character’s anti-Semitic comments while proudly claiming to be a follower of such ideas. Nobody does that—it’s just wrong.

I liked this movie until halfway through, when everything fell apart. The families start comparing the Holocaust to slavery (Jews and Blacks), and I couldn’t believe it. Who does that? Even if someone did, why would anyone think I’d want to see that in a romantic comedy? The movie crossed every line between a social experiment and a rom-com. It would have been better if it fully committed to one genre—either comedy or drama focused on social issues.

The movie drips with things we’ve all seen before, borrowing ideas left and right. Still, after the first 10 minutes, I was sold. But then the families meet, and I wanted to return the ticket.

One thing that almost made me walk away before watching this was Kenya Barris. I haven’t liked much of his work (Soul (2020) was good, though), so I had a feeling this movie wouldn’t be for me—and I wasn’t wrong.

However, Julia Louis-Dreyfus was heads and shoulders the best thing that happened to this movie.