"You People" Snapshot Review
- Vega
- Jan 29, 2023
- 2 min read
Release Date: January 27, 2023
Platform: Netflix
The newest movie from Kenya Barris, the creator of "Black-ish," is wrongly billed as a romantic comedy and, subsequently, wastes the comedic talents of its stars. The narrative follows Ezra (Jonah Hill) and Amira (Lauren London), an adult, interracial couple whose engagement stands on thin ice as their families disagreements on deeply rooted issues becomes too magnified to ignore. These families are, respectively, led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Shelley and Eddie Murphy’s Akbar, a pair of comedy powerhouses who are neutered in the sake of sociopolitical and religious commentary. The narrative proves to be heavily cookie-cutter, with a storyboard that any audience member could plan out from beginning to end simply from the synopsis. There is not much fault in that, as many romantic comedies live among a similar backbone.
Where this movie fails is in creating much sense of romance or comedy to actually enjoy the interactions between or become invested in the characters. Instead, every character is relegated to representing some point on the sociopolitical spectrum, which serves as their primary motivation. Although the interactions between Amira and her prospective mother-in-law were slightly lighter in tone and lent itself to a few comedic shocks, the interactions between Ezra and Akbar were downright tense. The movie hits hard with all of its underlying messages and, in doing so, replaces the comedic discomfort with just straight discomfort, nullifying any actual entertainment. If this is the impact the story was meant to have, it would have been better off reworking some its good pieces of dialogue for a different genre and story framework. "You People" exists in an awkward intersection between romance, comedy, satire, and social commentary, blending into a wasteful way of spending 118 minutes. If you want a tense look at race relations, turn to Jordan Peele’s "Get Out" (2017), or if you want to laugh about such issues, spend some time with "Dear White People" (2014).
RATING: ⭐ ⭐ / 5
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