The new Netflix Movie, You People, starring Jonah Hill who portrays Ezra Cohen—-smartly takes on difficult subject matters such as race, religion and family by going the romantic comedy route to cushion what normally are heavy topics.
Hill who also co-wrote and produced the movie is flanked by a couple of legendary comedians like Eddie Murphy who plays Akbar Mohammed, the father of Jonah’s love interest —-Amirah (Lauren London) and Shelly Cohen (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) as the opinionated mother of the groom.
It is a typical story of boy meets girl but with a twist; the boy is a jew and the girl, black. They immediately hit it off after an initial mishap of Ezra mistakenly riding the wrong car driven by Amirah for an uber ride.
This leads to a serious relationship, an inevitable proposal and subsequent engagement. The problem is the parents, because of their obvious cultural differences, makes it difficult for the couple to make it work for everybody outside the relationship.
Social dilemma
“I will never ever know how it’s like to be a black person in this country, but I do know what an asshole is.” Ezra Cohen (Jonah Hill) said to Akbar Mohammed (Eddie Murphy) after getting fed up with Akbar sabotaging his relationship with his daughter.
Racism in America is a very contentious topic to say the least. It is combustible and can take a conversation to the most uncomfortable of places, at worst, sideways.
You really need to understand black culture and history not only in the United States but also around the world to get a grasp of its sordid past and the difficulty in facing it today.
The movie managed to enlighten and put forth real life scenarios of social faux pas and how family dynamic and cultural heritage plays a crucial part in taking a relationship of a couple to the next level.
It also has dialogue that gives reference to racially charged events that have transpired like police brutality, cultural appropriation, racial profiling and plain ignorance.
There were plenty of moments in the film that dramatize real life situations and attitudes.
Like two of the supporting characters, with one who is trying too hard to compensate because it’s politically correct to do so while the other is too angry and cynical to even allow themselves to open up.
Great Casting
Louis-Dreyfuss was hilarious in this movie. She played the overzealous mom to a T.
More impressively, she managed to bring some laughs and occasional cringe worthy moments that won’t go unnoticed.
While Eddie Murphy played the serious father of the bride and acted as counterpoint to Louis-Dreyfuss’ character as the stoic, hard to please and cynical black man.
The Takeaway
There are real life’s lessons here that resonate and unfortunately hold true that makes you realize that romantic love is never enough and usually life gets in the way.
It also portrays the difficulty of dealing with deeply rooted issues such as race and white privilege which is a perennial social problem in the US.
Apart from race, it tackles the complicated issue of religion and a deeply rooted volatile issue in the middle east between the Jews and the Muslims without sounding preachy or academic by using a love story as a mouthpiece.
This movie deserves a 4 star for the valiant attempt in using a romantic comedy trope for the worthy purpose of spreading a message of tolerance and empathy.
