Director: Kenya Barris
Writer: Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill
Stars: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy
Synopsis: Follows a new couple and their families, who find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences.
While you embraced him with television’s Blackish (and you probably found his remake of Shaft dismissible), Kenya Barris’s latest, You People, brings to Netflix’s steaming waves his brand of biting comedic commentary on race. While the script has no problem filling the air with irreverent humor and absurd characters, he is unafraid to abandon a sharp and distinct point of view. One that attempts, not always successfully, to examine different generations’ thoughts on oppression and race relations that surface during those times of change.
The story follows a new couple, a financial investor named Ezra (Jonah Hill) and stylist Amira (Lauren London). They met when Ezra jumped into the wrong car – he thought Amira was an Uber driver because the vehicle and the person matched the description. (Evidently, he never thought to check the license plate). She immediately thinks he feels it’s his “God-given white right” to jump in the back of her inexpensive car and order her around. However, Ezra manages to turn things around, explaining that she drove the same car and looks much like the driver. It’s a “23andMe” situation, he explains. (The script allows her to agree with his assessment). While following the rules of romantic comedies regarding “cute” ways to meet, he is immediately smitten with her. Why? Well, Aaron Sorkin once wrote men love being insulted by women because it makes them feel loved, so now we have our answer.
Ezra is passionate about podcasting and hosts one discussing race and other social issues with his best friend, Mo (SNL alum Sam Jay), called the “Mo and E-Z show.” Ezra comes from a Jewish family. His mother, Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), keeps setting him up with women from their synagogue. It’s no different for Amira. Her father, Akbar (Eddie Murphy), tries to set her up with respectable young black men blindly, which is literal. She figures it out because he keeps feeding them quotes about James Baldwin. Akbar is a proud man and a loyal follower of Louis Farrakhan. As you can imagine, things do not go well for Ezra, especially when she asks Amira’s parents for her hand in marriage. Keep in mind this is even before Amira introduces her to them. You can then imagine how the first dinner between the families will go.
Barris co-wrote his film with Jonah Hill. You People owes an obvious debt to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, while putting on its modern comedic spin. Watching Hill squirm around Murphy’s Akbar needling him, especially their bachelor party trip or barbershop (that includes an Anthony Anderson cameo), has a handful of solid belly laughs.
The film has some hilarious performances outside of Hill and Murphy. Deon Cole has one of the more humorous guest spots in the movie, wanting room to grow into his role of a wedding planner. And it’s almost shocking how surprisingly funny and effective David Duchovny is with Barris and Hill’s script. As the now suddenly comically skillful actor keeps talking to Amira or any member of her friends or family about the iconic rapper, actor, presenter, and personality, Xzibit. Trust me. His toast is a stunner.
While the film isn’t perfect – the chemistry between the leads, an ending that plays it too safe, guest stars like Rhea Perlman have virtually nothing to do, and there is an odd choice of almost episodic transition choices between scenes that are distracting to the point of ruining the story’s flow – the film is refreshingly blunt. How? By allowing ruminating thoughts to simmer to the surface, which can be side-splittingly funny. That’s because the script works. After all, Barris wants to deconstruct the argument of the social construct of race. (Social scientists today prefer to describe race now in terms of “ancestry”).
For example, an article from the Harvard Divinity School tackles a Judaism case study (2018) that discovers members of the Jewish community have not only taken on a racial identity but it was thrust upon them at the turn of the 20th century. Amira’s family is African American and part of the Nation of Islam, which takes on the prejudicial brand of Islamophobia. There is an experience here of intersectionality that many viewers may not be aware of or understand.
Some may argue that the film has much to say about the older generation’s attitudes toward race relations dressed in modern-day trappings, like podcasts and style. However, that is rather the point of this Barris comedy. He is looking at how an older peer group’s views have affected the younger one, which is growing increasingly multicultural by the day. (Read Frey’s 2018 book, “Diversity Explosion,” and how this boom will reshape the country in the future).
Barris is fearless in confronting these issues, albeit in a sophomoric way, about views that must be addressed even in today’s increasingly self-aware society. And that includes the nescient behavior (or ignorance) when it comes to showing off someone who is Black as a member of the family or friend (Dreyfus) or an evident lack of respect for the LGBTQ+ community (Murphy). Barris is dismantling the issues between generational attitudes to show growth. As Jane Elliott would say, the writer/director here embraces the sentiment of getting the phrase “I don’t see color” out of our lexicon.
It’s a conversation and a case in point when Amira confronts her future mother-in-law at the rehearsal dinner, which will be hard to hear but necessary. And the issue of Shelley and Akbar, if not for us, but for the next generation.
Grade – B
