Netflix’s new culture-clashing satire,You People, promised to be a lot more complex and incisive than the average romcom that gets dumped on the streamer every couple of weeks. The feature-length directorial debut ofBlack-ishcreator Kenya Barris,You Peopledigs into the racial and generational differences that arise when a Jewish man and a Black woman get engaged to be married and their parents meet. It was poised to be the perfect antidote to the prejudice and hostility and territorialism in today’s America. With those lofty ambitions,You Peopledidn’t live up to its potential. The film’s social commentary has been criticized as heavy-handed and superficial. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie.You Peoplemight not have the solution to racism – which may have been too much to expect from a Netflix romcom – but it is a great showcase for actors like Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
You Peopleoffers a modern spin onGuess Who’s Coming to Dinner. It’sMeet the Parentswith an interracial couple. The film asks some huge sociological questions. Can a strong, healthy relationship survive the interference of tone-deaf parents? Is it possible for people of different ethnicities to overcome the racial barrier and get along? The first and second acts of the movie are interested in exploring these issues, but the resolution in the third act contradicts all that thematic depth and sweeps it under the rug. To succeed at being a feel-good romantic comedy,You Peoplehas to fail at providing satisfactory answers to the deep questions it raises.
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Critics have not been kind toYou People. Richard Roeper of theChicago Sun-Timeswrote that the movie “sinks under the weight of its obviousness.” Wendy Ide of theObserverwrote that “the points are painfully labored and the jokes run out of steam.”Rotten Tomatoes’ critical consensus complains that the film “dithers between social commentary and romantic comedy without fully committing to either.” But these negative reviews all assessYou Peoplethroughthe lens of social satire. Through that lens, it doesn’t succeed at reaching its ambitions. Through the lens of acting performances and cast dynamics, it hits all the right marks. The cast ofYou Peopleis so fantastic, and the actors are all so perfectly suited to their roles, that the movie is able to coast by on their performances alone.
FromSuperbad’s “scratch your back” scene toGet Him to the Greek’s heroin balloon scene, basking in the cringe of excruciating scenarios has always been one of Hill’s greatest strengths as a comedic performer. TheYou Peoplescript that Hill co-wrote with Barris presented him with ample opportunities to flex this particular comedic muscle. When Hill’s Ezra first meets his girlfriend’s parents, he gets so nervous that he can’t stop rambling until he eventually finds himself saying that his hypothetical son could be the next Malcolm X. At the dinner table, he keeps asking for an update on the potatoes in a desperate bid to change the subject while his Jewish mother and his fiancée’s Black father engage in an intense argument over the teachings of Louis Farrakhan. Hill teed himself up with a script full of rich comic situations and proceeded to knock every scene out of the park.
Murphy gives an uncharacteristically understated performance as the disapproving father-in-law-to-be. Akbar isn’t as outspoken or energetic as classic Murphy characters like Axel Foley orReggie Hammond, but he’s just as funny. His scenes with Hill in particular are a joy to watch. Whenever Ezra is in a conversation with Akbar, Akbar jumps at the chance to make him more and more uncomfortable, like asking who’s in Paris when a Jay-Z and Kanye West song comes on the radio.
Louis-Dreyfus fully commits to the role of Ezra’s virtue-signaling mother, Shelley. Whether she’s bringing up police brutality apropos of nothing or accidentally setting Akbar’s kufi on fire or prattling on about a documentary she saw about the cultural significance of Black women’s hair, Louis-Dreyfus relishes the cringe factor of every clueless faux pas.The star ofSeinfeldandVeepwas the perfect choice to bring this brand of comedy of errors to life.
Hill, Murphy, and Louis-Dreyfus are the film’s M.V.P.s, but they’re surrounded by terrific supporting players: Molly Gordon as Ezra’s achingly awkward sister Liza, Sam Jay as his mocking yet supportive best friend Mo,David Duchovnyas his Xzibit-obsessed father Arnold, and Mike Epps as Akbar’s brother, Uncle EJ, the only one who knows him well enough to call him out (in hilariously blunt fashion). In the role of Ezra’s fiancée Amira, Lauren London is a great “straight man” foil opposite oblivious insensitivity and relentless microaggressions. This cast is so stacked that screen legends like Elliott Gould and Rhea Perlman barely have room to get a word in.
You Peoplemight not be the nextDo the Right Thing, or even the nextCrash. But it is a well-shot, well-directed comedy featuring some of the greatest comedic actors on the planet doing some of their best work. Any fan of Hill, Murphy, Louis-Dreyfus, or any of their co-stars – or any fan of perfectly timed comic performances – should ignore the critics and streamYou Peopleon Netflix.
