I had heard that You People was a terrible movie. Of course that means I had to watch it. I’m not sure that it’s terrible but I’m not sure that it’s good either.
Ezra (Jonah Hill) is a Jewish man who falls in love with Amira (Lauren London), a black woman. When the two get engaged, they have to figure out how to blend both their families and their cultures without anyone getting hurt or offended. It is much more difficult than either imagined.
Hm. Let me start off by saying that I didn’t hate You People. It has an extremely strong cast - Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nia Long, David Duchovny, and so many cameos that I couldn’t possibly name everyone. They were wonderful. My problem is the script.
I’m not really sure what the point of the movie was. Sure, it was about how cultures are different but, at the same time, it didn’t do anything to resolve the culture issue. Instead, they made Amira’s dad, Akbar (Murphy), a straight up asshole to Ezra. It wasn’t about culture. It wasn’t about Ezra not understanding black problems in the world. It was about Akbar not wanting his daughter to date a white man but he didn’t want to admit it. On the other side, Ezra’s mother, Shelley (Louis-Dreyfus), tries to center everything around herself. When Amira first meets the family and tells them what she does for a living, Shelley literally makes it about herself. At no point does she ever try to understand Shelley or learn more about her as a person. She just wants to be seen as “not racist” so instead she’s a jerk.
If all of the family members had come together with the intention of actually meeting each other and learning more about who they are, this might have been an amazing movie. But no. It’s about Who Has It Worse - Black People or Jewish People. And I wish I could say that it was only the parents who had this mindset. But we don’t even see Ezra and Amira talking to each other about their cultures and their differences. We only see Ezra learning about the black experience through his podcast co-host, Mo (Sam Jay). And even that barely scrapes the surface.
I would love to tell everyone to go watch this movie. That they will learn so much about people who live different lives. But no. All you will learn is that Jonah Hill is sarcastic and Lauren London is gorgeous. And, really, you should have known that before the movie even started. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.