How many times have you heard someone else (or yourself) say, “I have seen this one before?”Do not think too hard cause it does not really matter, but if it dos not ring any bells, it will, sooner or later. However, I happen to believe that originality is not everything when it comes to movies. Consider it a variation of something you once viewed. Possibly, the variations are enough to make a difference in how you feel about the film. Maybe?
Consider 1967’s “Look Who’s Coming to Dinner.” At the time, it was about a highly-taboo subject and yet it was met with a lot of success, in terms of ticket sales for the time. Since then, many have been reminded of this premise across multiple genres, including “Guess Who” from 2005 and “Get Out” from 2017. Today, I am prepared to share my thoughts on another movie with very similar plot devices: “You People.”
Netflix, like any other studio these days, is scrapping to come up with new material. You might say this variation is more like “Guess Who” than “Look Who’s Coming to Dinner” because the roles of the interracial romance are reversed, but no one would confuse the likes of Ashton Kutcher with the likes of Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill (“Don’t Look Up”) is Ezra Cohen. He co-hosts a podcast in Los Angeles and occasionally attends temple with his parents and little sister. Meanwhile, there is also Amira Mohammed, played by Lauren London (“Without Remorse”). She has just escaped the clutches, so to speak, of a man she finds to be too fake and has something of a fractious relationship with her parents and little brother. Amidst their daily lives, they accidentally cross paths and the rest, as they say, is history.
As things progress between the two, the time comes in which they would like to meet each other’s parents. First, Ezra brings Amira to his folks: Shelley Cohen, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”); Arnold Cohen, played by David Duchovny (“The Estate”) and Liza Cohen, played by Molly Gordon (“The Broken Hearts Gallery”). Liza is of virtually no consequence, but Shelley and Arnold do their very best in representing a very well-used cliché in which high-minded white people have absolutely no idea how to act around black people and so they make everything very awkward and stupidly offensive. I would not doubt that these stations exist in the real world, but I have never witnessed such an embarrassment with my own, two eyes. Somehow, people still find it funny and so it keeps being recycled in films like this one. So, things do not go so well for Ezra and Amira, but perhaps there is hope when Amira introduces Ezra to her family…
NOT! Actually, Ezra takes it upon himself to go see the Mohammed family on his own. Well, the parents, at least. They include: Akbar, played by Eddie Murphy (“Coming 2 America”) and Fatima, played by Nia Long (“Look Both Ways”). It goes about as badly as the devious encounter went, only Ezra did not have any backup.
Believe it or not, the two families agree to have a proper meal together. Again, awkwardness ensues, mostly due to Ezra’s parents and in the aftermath, he and Amira begin to question whether or not they should still get married. Eventually, Amira is treated to something of a bachelorette party from Shelley and Akbar chooses to accompany Ezra, with his son, as he makes his way to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. One way or another, things go badly, yet again, but this time it leads to Ezra and Amira breaking things off, shortly before the wedding is set to commence.
I think I will let you decide how things are going to unfold from here. Nothin beyond your cheesy expectations will take place, but something you might like, as I did, were the final exchanges among Amira and Shelley and Ezra and Akbar. It felt a bit like the scenes were added at the last minute to help tie the story up, but they were well-written and aptly-performed. As the sentiment is shared: a white person will NEVER be able to walk in a black person’s shoes and as a result, things will not be totally cool, ever. Sadly, this is probably true, as long as we live in this world, but maybe the knowledge of that can at least provide us with an understanding for one another which can cause us to respect one another a little bit more. I do not think that is an unrealistic prospect and I believe I can live with that, personally.
“You People,” as I implied, does not try to reinvent the wheel. Nothing happened that surprised me and a few of the expected cliches were more annoying than they were funny. To me, Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy were the funniest, but they had only a few scenes together and when they did, the humor was not too memorable. What I did like was the pace and the energy and I feel I have to point out the nice little performance of Mike Epps (“On the Come Up”) as Uncle EJ. If you goin expecting nothing original, you will not be let down, but if you are also open to some unexpected good moments, throughout, you should be pleasantly surprised, as well. Award season is here so all the bait is out of the can at this point. You might as well just relax and try to enjoy.
Director: Kenya Barris (“Cheaper by the Dozen”)
Screenwriters: Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill
Starring: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, David Duchovny, Nia Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eddie Murphy, Molly Gordon, Sam Jay as Mo (feature film debut) and Mike Epps
Music by: Bekon (‘Get With the Times’)
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: January 20th, 2023 (limited) and January 27th, 2023 (Netflix)
