/ 6 March 2023

One Movie Two Takes: You People

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Awkward: Eddie Murphy and Johah Hill in ‘You People’. Photo: Netflix

Man, where do I start describing how disappointing, uncomfortable and painful Neflix’s You People was to watch. And I had such high hopes for it, too. I really did, since it’s labelled as a romantic comedy and I’m a sucker for those. But the only thing enjoyable about the film was watching it from the comfort of my home. 

The story had virtuous intent — an engaged interracial couple exploring the complexities of merging families with cultural and religious differences in the woke era.  

However, director Kenya Barris (Black-ish and Black AF) failed to get it right. It’s a love story starring Jonah Hill (a talented actor with films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and Don’t Look Up) and Lauren London as Ezra and Amira. They are the most awkward “couple” to watch — there is absolutely no chemistry between them. 

Ezra comes across as an annoying, goofy guy best pal who’s crushing on his female friend but deep down he knows he’ll never have a chance because he’s been friendzoned. But no, Barris wants to convince us they are in love. And he doesn’t manage.  

For London’s career, this role makes sense. She’s been typecast as the sweet, yet sassy, good girl in films like Without Remorse, This Christmas and Baggage Claim. The only time I can recall her breaking  with this was in Tyler Perry’s pathetic Madea’s Big Happy Family, where she took the role of a conniving, self-centred gold-digger. Still, her character didn’t have much depth. But Amira is creative, hard-working, ambitious and socially conscious, which was refreshing to see, but it’s not enough to make up for the lack of romantic chemistry between her and Hill.

Instead of a montage of moments that lead up to the pair falling for each other, Barris should have dedicated a few scenes that take us into what establishes the couple’s relationship and not rely on a sex scene to validate the connection.  

It would be remiss of me not to address the elephant in the film. Netflix takes a huge L for some of the scenes where they used chroma keying — and very poorly — however, in spite of all this the quality of the cinematography was beautiful. 

I know a romcom is meant to be funny but I felt at times the humour was religiously insensitive. There are scenes where spiritual practices are disregarded, almost mocked, which felt like the low-hanging fruit of comedy. They could have showed the religious differences without being insensitive. For instance, Ezra’s family wants their beliefs to be accepted by Amira’s family, yet Ezra himself blatantly ignores his own faith’s practices. It just felt counterproductive. 

I can appreciate Hill’s intention in writing the movie was to show how tone-deaf society can be to cultural, religious and societal variations, and generational differences, but all Hill and Barris have done is give us a half-baked plot where they even had to CGI the couple’s final kiss. Nothing romantic here, I’m afraid. — Bongeka Gumede

I am going through the worst breakup of my life, so yes, I sobbed through some of this movie. Well, I sobbed internally because I am way too gangster to tear up in front of people. After gathering myself and watching it a second time, well, it was … not so great. 

You People, created by the formidable Kenya Barris, who gave us Blacki-ish, Girls Trip and other wholesome shows about blackness, tackles the difficulties and awkwardness of a interracial relationship and the cultural conflict that comes with it. 

The moment I saw Jonah Hill — who is also the co-writer — Eddie Murphy and Mike Epps were in this movie, I prepared myself for a good laugh, but I was disappointed. 

Hill, who had such great comedic timing in 22 Jump Street, misses the mark here. His character Ezra is stale and there are many awkward moments where a joke fails to land. 

It is also important to see actors try new characters but Murphy is almost absent in this movie. He plays Akbar, the stern father of the other half of the pair Amira (Lauren London). I kept waiting for him to say something funny, anything, even if it was dry, but  I got nothing. Murphy did not gel well with Akbar, he tries way too hard and it falls flat. 

The relationship between Amira and Ezra is so awkward. There is no chemistry. It feels as if they are reading their lines to each other. 

Much like their relationship, the build-up of the movie is super quick and rushed. At times, it feels like a behind-the-scenes trailer, a sneak peek at the actors trying to get into character before the actual take. As I was watching, I found myself having a lot of, “But how did we get here?” moments. 

Also, the wokeness was on overload and often cringy. Ms Shelly (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) makes it worse with her tone-deafness. 

If you are going to tackle racial stereotypes and differences on screen you have to do better than cheap jokes and heavy-handed dialogue. There are ways of teaching people about black culture without cramming all of it into a two-hour movie. 

Don’t get me wrong, we need well-made productions to teach about black culture but it is important to ease people into it so they can learn about how deep it is for us, without making them grab notebooks and jot down as much as they can so they can remember to say the right things around us. We have to be conscious of delivery, regardless of the theme of the movie. We cannot rush it. 

What I did enjoy was the styling of the characters. Loved every piece and the hair and makeup are on point. 

The movie has a great soundtrack featuring Jay-Z, Kanye West, Andra Day, James Brown, HER, DJ Khaled, Barry White — and there was even a shoutout to London’s slain husband, rapper Nipsey Hussle. 

I would give this movie four out of 10. With such a star-studded cast, it had the potential to be funny, however, it missed the mark. It felt rushed and delivered an incomplete message that would have been a great teachable moment for many. — Lesego Chepape