Certas Pessoas

Ezra Cohen (Jonah Hill) is a stockbroker who also runs a podcast with his best friend, Mo (Sam Jay), where the two discuss various facets of black culture (or "the culture" as Ezra calls it). Ezra is under pressure from his Jewish family particularly his mother Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to find a woman but Ezra has a streak of bad luck with his family's setups. Meanwhile costume designer Amira Mohammed (Lauren London) is also dealing with pressure from her opinionated father Akbar (Eddie Murphy) a devout Black Muslim. When Ezra and Amira have a chance encounter they eventually start a relationship until after some time Ezra intends to propose to Amira, but the two's families prove to be a massive obstacle.

You People is a new romantic comedy directed and co-written by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and co-written and starring Jonah Hill. The movie features an impressive cast with the likes of Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nia Long, and Deavid Duchovny among several others, and from the marketing you'd probably expect a modern update the framework established by Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with its potentially rich premise of a Jewish family and Black Muslim family creating friction with one another over an incoming wedding, unfortunately while You People has a potentially rich and provocative setup, its payoff feels like a tired rehash of the Fockers films or 2005's Guess Who? With little more brought to the table than an R-rating.

On a positive note, I will say that Hill and London have decent chemistry in their scenes together and on occasion there is an awkward laugh to be taken from individual exchanges in the film, but for the most part the movie doesn't feel like it has a developed cast of characters with most of the talented expanded cast playing very broad one note at best or are given the short shrift at worst. Poor David Duchovny is saddle with a terrible running gag about him going on shpiel's about Xzibit and Elliott Gould is given one line and spends most his presence in the background doing nothing most of the time. Eddie Murphy is also saddled with a role that doesn't play to his strengths as Akbar is a very serious and stoic man who isn't funny or interesting because he's been force to subdue his charisma and he really only comes to life in the role in the last 10 minutes. A large chunk of the movie is an endless parade of scenes where either Ezra or his parents make fools of themselves giving rambling unsolicited commentary on race relations and there's very few scenes where people talk like human beings and these segments are just variations on the same point repeatedly. The movie is also way too long at just under two hours and it feels its length.

You People had a lot of promise as a comedy, but it just does not work at all and most of the best scenes are in the trailer with the rest of the movie an overlong slog that struggles to keep itself going. Sometimes the cast do get a mild snicker from certain exchanges, but not really enough to justify a viewing. Maybe if someone like Jerrod Carmichael had tapped into this kind of material (see On the Count of Three or The Carmichael Show for proof) then maybe something of substance could've been done with it, but as is, it's a mediocre comedy that feels like 2005's Guess Who? With an R-rating.

The black side actually aggravated me more than anything. I'm black and I was almost embarrassed. They just seem incredibly racist! For all that Jonah Hill's character tried to do, it just seems as if they couldn't acknowledge it. They didn't care. He was white and that was the problem. At one point I almost wanted to scream at the screen. As for the white family, or side of the family, they're ignorance, to me, was them just trying to make the girl feel welcomed, in their own misguided way. There were times when this movie actually became a tad bit painful to watch. I know they're supposed to be a moral to this, but this movie almost promoted racism. They, in my opinion, wanted to turn the white mom interest a "Karen" unfairly. I actually felt bad for her because she didn't realize what she was doing and it was brought to her attention in a horrible way. Also, I think Jonah Hill's character was much stronger than Lauren London's character, Amira.

Also, side note! It annoyed me that Eddie Murphy said the "N" word in every other sentence in this movie but took issue with white people. I've had I've always had an issue with this because I've just felt like if you don't like it being said, don't you say it..

It's been some time that I've been so bewildered and frustrated watching a film.

This very talented cast is absolutely wasted on a terrible script filled with inane and outdated jokes. It's 2023, I think we've moved beyond the ridiculous viewpoints and stereotypes displayed in this film. The characters behave in such ridiculous ways. Eddie Murphy suddenly just decides to stop being a racist piece of crap and Julia Louis-Dreyfus has an awakening about how to speak to black people normally. It's all just so freaking annoying to watch.

Hill and London also have net zero chemistry between them, which funny enough, really tends to tank a romantic comedy.

I'd rather listen to crying souls in hell for all eternity than to have to watch such ridiculousness ever again. The storyline was cute and the film could have been FAR more successful if they'd steered clear of Amira's relentless, chip on my shoulder attitude. Like honey, you will treat me with the same respect I am showing. This film seems to comparatively allude that its okay to conclude all drivers must be road ragers based solely on the fact that one driver just side swiped you. What?!? There is ZERO reason for Amira to be so incredibly disrespectful the entire movie. Like your BF is trying to help you by calling a friend and that warranted her tongue lashing in return? Thats not reality. People call in favors for people all the time. Amira is Amira's own worst enemy. Her attitude, her facial expressions, her everything was no no nopety nope for me. Then we have Eddie Murphy's attitude. They were just gross. JLD performance was the most genuine and organic. Ezra, kind of sort of crushed it but my gawd, what an absolute wuss of a "man" character. It was refreshing to see him behave (how I kind of thought most of us already did) by simply liking what he likes and not apologizing for it nor explaining it away. Thats how it should be; but, then he went and lost all pride in himself. I also found it very difficult to believe JLD was his mom. They look maybe ten years apart in age, maybe. (He looked the same age as his dad.) JLD desire to include Amira was palpable. Yet all Amira wanted everyone to know, see, know, see, know some more, and see again...is that shes black. Why? With that attitude I could care less if you black white purple or blue. Character people, character is what carries you or holds you back. The apologies almost made me lose my lunch. Do we want to move forward or not? This movie is definitely NOT bridging any racial disparity gaps.

In this film Jonah hill plays a character that is involved in "culture" but has the same interests and personality as a teenager, liking drake and sneakers worn by pretty much every young person everywhere. Eddie Murphy has a change of pace then the usual goofy character, but he has extremist views and in todays world it's plainly fine, if he had different colour skin I doubt it would have the same comedic affect. The film is about two different cultures coming together, however it's so obsessed with race issues it's seems to create more of a divide then a sense of coming together as one, I don't think I've watched a film where they compare black and white people so much, it did have some good laughs however and can be enjoyable for some.