You People ☆ ½

Starring: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, David Duchovny, Nia Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Eddie Murphy

Directed by: Kenya Barris

Tagline: Opposites attract, families don’t.

ould you like to watch a film that takes an intelligent, nuanced, incisive look at cultural divide and racism in the modern world? Then you’re going to have to find something other than You People, because this definitely ain’t it!

The new Netflix romcom attempts to offer social commentary through the lens of an interracial relationship, but stumbles under the clumsiness of a grating script that is unfamiliar with the concept of subtlety and presents nothing beyond caricatures and tropes.

The aforementioned mixed-race couple at the movie’s centre are broker and podcasting-enthusiast Ezra (Jonah Hill) and fashion designer Amira (Lauren London). He is white and Jewish, she is black and Muslim. After an accidental meeting, the two begin a relationship. Things start to become more complicated for them, though, when they introduce each other to their respective parents. Amira’s family – especially her father, Akbar (Eddie Murphy) – disapprove of her new boyfriend. Ezra’s family, meanwhile, enthusiastically embrace Amira but are painfully oblivious to their many microaggressions.

As the proceedings lumber on from one awkward exchange to the next, You People fails to build the interesting, compelling narrative that it would have needed to get its message across with any kind of finesse. Instead you’re left with non-stop, repetitive, and very surface-level commentary alongside forced cultural references and bland attempts at humour.

None of it really works. It also doesn’t help that the leads have absolutely no on-screen chemistry and their relationship never seems convincing, let alone solid enough to carry the weight of the very sensitive topics the film is trying to explore. The clunky script (co-written by director Kenya Barris and Hill) squanders the considerable acting and comedic talents of stalwarts like Eddie Murphy and the incomparable Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who, implausibly, plays the mother of Jonah Hill’s character), who, despite their best efforts, can’t do much with the dull material they’ve been given. And the movie could have done without some of the sitcom aesthetics – including jarring scene transitions – that Barris brings to the project and that make it all seem more small screen than big.

All in all, You People is the result of worthy intentions but subpar execution. There is an intelligent, amusing story that can be told about interracial interactions, but You People fails to tell it, and instead delivers its message in such an obvious manner that it doesn’t leave us with much to process and mull over.

Rating system: *Not on your life * ½ If you really must waste your time ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see *** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection