Directed By Kenya Barris

Starring – Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy, Lauren London

The Plot – Follows a new couple (Hill, London) and their families, who find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences.

Rated R for adult language throughout, some sexual material and drug content

You People | feat. Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill | Official Trailer | Netflix – YouTube

POSITIVES

Assembled by a barrage of comedic talent and limitless potential as far as the eyes can see, “You People” carves out the early favorite for the year’s best collective ensemble, with effective performances aplenty between them to keep the audience at least focused on who will pop up next. Hill gives his all to the occasion, triggering the same dry deliveries and blunt transparency that made him a household name in “Superbad”, and Murphy, though subdued in transferrable energy, commands attention with a sternly powerful black figure in depiction whose honesty not only provides his greatest weapon against Hill, but one that serves as the culmination between cultural barriers that services much of the movie’s essential conflict. However, it’s Julia Louis Dreyfuss who is the showstealer for my money, making the most of the inconsistent gags with a tone-deaf humility that basks in the glow of the awkward moments of hip parental desparation, with her undying confidence for pursuit taking her various punchlines miles. Aside from the benefits of a talented ensemble, the film is equally blessed with a mutual dissection between cultures that not only keeps it from feeling one-sided, but also possibly conveys to the interpreting audience a revealing perspective that they’ve maybe never been able to capably experience. Whether in the cultural appropriation of black culture, or the ignorance in stereotypes associated with Jewish history, the film inscribes a fearless approach to its social commentary that proves it’s not afraid to get its hands dirty, in turn supplanting an educational appeal to match the comic dominance that I honestly wasn’t expecting.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, familiarity and predictability feel like the film’s two most defining characteristics, with this film feeling like the uninspired child of “Meet the Parents” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”. Part of the problem is certainly in the one-dimensional types of these characters often repeating the same beats in lies and discouragement that single-handedly drives most of the movie’s conflict, but the greater emphasis lies in the lack of depth or variation to the materializing of the film’s comedy, disappointing more often than not with these dialogue-heavy deliveries eviscerating the effectiveness of the punchlines. This is most prominent on Hill’s character, who uses the opportunities to improvise this kind of tongue and cheek kind of dialogue that all but winks and nods to its audience, leading to a routine that gets old fast and overstays its welcome often. Aside from the diminishing returns of the humor, the film’s stylistic impulses from first time big screen director Barris is rich with cultural relevance in everything from the hip-hop dominated soundtrack to the side-scrolling transitions of Los Angeles imagery, but the presentation is ultimately marred by a TV level of production that feels a bit too cheap and charmless for even a streaming level of cinematic appeal. This is most reflective on the editing of the sequencing, with the aforementioned cinematic landscapes and the abrupt editing between respective subplots attaining an ABC sitcom kind of feel to the enveloping, to the point that it became distracting the longer the film persisted. Adding to this feel equally are the lighting and framing choices for some of the scenes and sequences, which certified an artificiality to interior and exterior naturalism, feeling every bit of the off-screen influence that often intruded on the entirety of the experience. Likewise on the scale of annoyances, the film is simply too long at nearly two hours, highlighted by a meandering second act that revels inside of the many pocketed cultural conflicts, instead of advancing the storytelling. In my opinion, comedies should never even touch the two hour marks, as their plots often lack complexity, and this is certainly the case with “You People”, a film so barebones and derivative that it could’ve easily been edited into a 100 minute finished product without losing anything. Finally, the elephant in the room lending itself to many cultural differences and conversations lacked any semblance of naturalism with the dialogue, leading to a consistency in heavy-handed talking points, but also an absence of romantic chemistry between Hill and London, which condemn even the most basic necessities for a movie like this. Most of the painful interaction stems from Hill, with forced slang and hip phrases inspiring the constant groan from within me, and when contrasted during scenes involving his on-screen love interest, ultimately made them feel like nagging friends, instead of blossoming soulmates.

OVERALL
“You People” is a predictably bland and familiar film about a hotbed issue, with nothing new to add to the discussion. Though the performances from Hill, Murphy and especially Louis-Dreyfus make the most of the derivative encompassing, its biggest obstacle is ultimately the insincerity of its execution, fumbling the heart and honorable intentions of its sentiment with thinly written characters and sitcom surroundings that feel below even a streaming app.

My Grade: 4/10 or D