Movie Review: You People Is A Humorous Us Vs Them
In a world that increasingly supports trauma bonding, we forget one simple truth: humanity is competitive, even in pain. Truthfully, I think that competitiveness to claim, protect, and even commodify our pain comes from the inability or lack of wisdom to heal it. For this reason, the idea that sharing a mutual definition or identity of pain is ¨bonding¨ is not, necessarily, true. I say this because out on January 27, You People is the new ¨Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?¨ comedy, and takes two groups, Blacks And Jews, that truly believe they have been the worst treated communities ever and have the historical receipts to back them up.
Directed by Kenya Barris and co-written with Jonah Hill, the humor of You People lies in how, in some ways, we fight amongst each other for ¨the privilege of pain,¨ and the idea that claiming it will absolve us from our own douchery or the pain we inflict upon others. When Ezra (Jonah HIll) and Amira (Lauren London) meet, they quickly become the most adorable couple to ever share a bathroom. Their chemistry is so sweet and gentle, which is why their parents entrance is both cringe and hilarious. Eddie Murphy´s Akbar and Nia Long´s Fatima are VERY quick to call Jews white and privileged, upon meeting Jonah’s parents David Duchovny´s Arnold and Julia Louis Dreyfus´ Shelley. A few ¨Holocaust¨ and Ïsraelite¨ mentions later, with a piano rendition of Xhibit´s greatest hits, what we have is a very real, intense passive aggression between two families and communities on whether their ideas of pain and privilege can match enough to let their lovebird children get married.
Eddie Murphy takes a new turn as Akbar; delivering a more serious, stoic version of his usual bright, laugh out loud comedy. For Akbar, a devout Muslim once named Woody, his precious girl has already had enough ¨white¨ infecting her via a maternal grandfather. He and his wife , want his family to stay pure-blooded with its own race, which is NOT a rare sentiment amongst POCs and white people: sharing a mutual belief that too much bad history cannot ever equate to valuable love. Thus, he WILL definitely be ruining Ezra´s bachelor party, Meanwhile, Dreyfus´ Shelley genuinely tries to embrace Amira, but is 100% terribly misguided by what is allyship and welcome; for instance, no one needs to bring up the history of braiding or black women´s hairography in the middle of a bachelorette party. Just sip the champs and enjoy yourself!
In turn, Shelley becomes both racist, or at least deeply, unconsciously ignorant, and consistently apologizing. After all, meeting a black person does not mean you have to list your favorite rapper, in the same way, I am not Bad Bunny’s cousin because I am Latina. In here lies the gemmed note of You People.
Akbar is absolutely mean and aggressive to Ezra, of which Amira is quick to check fiancé for using such words against her black father: noting history as describing black men with such dismissiveness and diminishment. Yet, calling his mom, Shelley, carries the same feelings of dissent and denote to him, especially to her sincere desire to embrace Amira. Both feel the other is type-casting their parents with words that are often used to end much needed conversations between these groups. Yet, both their parents are racist and mean, and by the end of the film, our young couple realize that these words are just over-simplified, even weaponized descriptions for something much deeper: a complete disconnect from the humanity of the person you are talking to. As Amira mentions, she is not a doll for Shelley to parade to her friends as ¨cultured¨ and Akbar may not like the word ¨angry¨ as a Black Man, but asshole is not the wrong word to describe him towards Ezra and he uses it.
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While You People could have done better to etch the nooks and crannies between Black and Jewish dynamics and discrimination towards each other, at the end, it is a comedy, not a drama, and it still fearlessly allows tension to simmer without a punchline. It elevates viewers into a new wisdom and reveals an exciting element about the future, at least, for me. Perhaps, I am too optimistic, but in watching You People, I noted the power of our elders in keeping us separate and unequal. Both sets of parents made Ezra and Amira’s love about them and their concepts of history and identity politics, but what makes this youth so hopeful, is that love is, actually, powerful enough to conquer hate.
