You (you people) is a comedy about love and racial differences, not necessarily in that order, which premiered on Friday in Netflix and is already in third place among the most viewed films.
Ezra (Jonah Hill) is a young guy who gets tired of his job as a financial broker in downtown Los Angeles, and decides to slam the door and jump into the podcast he does with his friend Mo (Sam Jay). Mo is African American, and many of the comments they will make, on air or in private, will have to do with the racial differences between them (Ezra has the surname Cohen, is white and professes the Jewish religion).
unbearable in-laws
By chance he meets Amira Mohammed (Lauren London), an African American, costume designer and love is born between them. And how You is a comedy, complications will arise when they have to introduce their parents. Misunderstandings and cultural clashes will always be the order of the day.
The screenplay, co-written by Hill and director Kenya Barris (African American), is about these characters, who dream of starting an interracial family, but as we have already said, You it’s a comedy, and we know the genre tends to exaggerate everything to 1) promote laughter, at least smiles or a grimace on the face; 2) talk about deeper issues, somewhat dampened by humor.
But there are too many clichés and platitudes, apart from an important cast.
The first time the character of Julia-Louis Dreyfus (from the series Look, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the Marvel universe) with that of Jonah Hill, it is not clear to us what the familial relationship is between them. And she turns out to be her mother (yes, don’t look her up on Wikipedia: she’s 22 years her senior, so she can handle it, even though she looks much younger at her 62 years).
And well, just like eddy murphywho plays Amira’s demanding Muslim father, and London “plays” African Americans, because it’s Hill, Dreyfus and David Duchovny (Fox Mulder in the series The X-Files He is Ezra’s father, who unlike Amira, who is an architect, is a podiatrist: what a laugh) they play white and Jewish. Because You are the kind of comedy where the “differences” are marked with a brush, both in the images and in the dialogues.
Every time Akbar Mohammed (Eddie Murphy) or Shelley (Dreyfus) open their mouths, inappropriately racist remarks pour out. And the problem with the movie is that there’s no room for surprises, except in how resolution is achieved, but hey, what happens is still to be expected for a rom-com.
Actor and screenwriter Kenya Barris makes his feature film directorial debut following the series #AFBlack Y Blackish. Clearly the theme of the difference in skin color has marked him in his projects, and in this case he wastes the talent of his interpreters.
“You”
Regular
Comedy. USA, 2023. Original title: “You People”. 117′, SA 16. Of: KenyaBari. With: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, David Duchovny. Available in: Netflix.
Source: Clarin
