You People (2023)
You People is currently the top movie on Netflix, and a cursory glance isn’t exactly promising. It looks way too much like what we see on a daily basis, and that is division based on stereotypes and racism, as if the Civil Rights Movement never happened and only the race-baiting by certain nameless individuals and the subsequent fallout exist.
No, we’re not opening that can of worms. The movie does that for us before stuffing those worms back in the can and sealing the lid shut. Problem is, the worms have a lot of time to wiggle first.
Ezra Cohen is an awkward fellow who works in finance while filming a podcast with his friend, Mo, on the side. He meets Amira Mohammed by pure accident when he mistakes her for his Uber driver, and to make it up to her invites her out on a date.
It doesn’t take long for sparks to fly, but their respective families take more convincing, and they’re even less impressed when Ezra proposes to Amira. Amira’s dad, Akbar, and Ezra’s mom, Shelley, are particularly adverse, trying to sabotage things either through obvious disapproval or plain old gaffes. Amira and Ezra watch helplessly, but there’s not much they can do.
The bachelor and bachelorette parties are disastrous, as Akbar tags along to Vegas with Ezra and his friends and glares at them while they do cocaine at a strip club and sit around with inflatable sex dolls in the hotel suite (Obviously this is one of the reasons the movie is R-rated.).
Meanwhile, Shelley compliments a woman on her tattoo and accidentally tears off another woman’s weave during a game of Hangman, which is painful for everyone.
Unfortunately, pretty much none of it is funny. It mostly hurts.
You People initially assumes too much; namely, that everyone outside of one’s immediate ethnic or social group must be a threat or at least inferior and regarded with suspicion. It’s all about ticking boxes and being correct. Being around black people requires a working knowledge of hip-hop and basketball. Jewish people shouldn’t joke about trains or eating bacon. Anyone who talks to Muslims needs to pay homage to Louis Farrakhan. Everyone needs to walk on eggshells on pain of awkwardness, and You People has awkwardness in spades upon spades.
Oh, and someone connected with the movie must have a foot fetish, because every scene, and I mean every scene, pans over feet walking, standing and just plain existing. Anyone who makes a drinking game out of all the pedes love will be plastered in the first twenty minutes if not sooner. Don’t make a drinking game out of the product placement, either—there are Nikes in almost every scene, which means that controversial brand put up a lot of money.
What makes the movie work, at least on some level, is that Amira and Ezra are so stinking cute together. They go to brunch, drink mimosas and while they’re initially suspicious of each other, by the end of the meal they’re playing footsie.
Yeah. More foot stuff. Told ya it was a thing.
Outside of Ezra and Amira’s relationship, it’s a very long two hours, saved only by actual good sense that doesn’t ride in until about a half-hour before the ending credits. I won’t ruin the wind-down, but suffice it to say, these two families realize what their children have been telling them all along: Correctness means nothing when we forget to relate to each other as individuals.
Finally. Thank you, Movie.
You People didn’t need to be so top-heavy. We’ve all heard the arguments it starts out with so many times the average person has probably tuned them out, and I wish its refreshing eleventh-hour message could have been more of a thing sooner.
You People is currently streaming on Netflix. Rated R.
My grade: D+
Principal cast: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Duchovny, Sam Jay, Nia Long, Molly Gordon, Deon Cole, Andrea Savage, Elliott Gould, Rhea Pearlman, Mike Epps
Directed by Kenya Barris.
Written by Jonah Hill and Kenya Barris.