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You People begins with financial bloke Ezra (Jonah Hill – Don’t Look Up) and his best friend, Mo (Sam Jay), in their fledgling podcast career which they want to take to the big leagues, yet still are performing their show in a huge studio, so they must be doing well.
That said, they don’t actually speak directly into the mics, so how are the devices supposed to adequately pick up their voices?
Anyhoo, still at the tender age of 35 (+VAT, Mr Hill!), at a large ceremony, Ezra’s criticised for not wearing his yarmulke at this time of Yom Kippur, whilst also feeling understandably uncomfortable at hearing elders say ‘pussy’ or making borderline homophobic jokes. He’s at an age where he’s trying to meet the right woman, despite being set up for dates by his parents which are never going to work, until the day when he accidentally gets into Amira’s (Lauren London – True Story) car, thinking she’s an Uber driver.
He’s forever looking for the perfect woman. Will that be Amira? Well, she’s second in the cast list, so take a wild guess.
Over time, they eventually meet each other’s parents. For Jonah’s, Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever) is the embarrassing mum, trying to give the impression of being inclusive, because Amira is black, and daughter Liza (Molly Gordon) is a lesbian, yet stating how she’s “queer, lesbian”, and similar phrases. Dad Arnold (David Duchovny – The Bubble) comes out with equivalent embarrassing words.
This then spreads to Ezra’s brain, since he wants to marry Amira, yet finds himself being just as embarrassing as his parents, such as when it comes to talking to Amira’s parents for the first time – her Dad, Akbar, being played by Eddie Murphy (Coming 2 America) who hasn’t aged a day in 40 years – talking about mixed race relationships, saying how Malcolm X is ‘their guy’ and mixed race.
Add in some cringe comedy, and after about 45 minutes, You People really starts to run out of steam, jokes and ideas, as Amira spends the day with Shelley, and Ezra with Akbar. So, that fits into the typical “overbearing father-in-law” addition to the story, a path we’ve been down many times before.
So, with Shelley’s dialogue largely being embarrassing about black people, and Eddie’s dialogue largely centering around being anti-white people, we have a script which mixes race and religion and just feels so dated, awkward and out of place.
There was hope when Akbar’s opening gambit to Ezra was, “Do you hang out here in the hood all the time, or do you just come here for our food and women?”
But then his character didn’t have anything else to add that was welcome, and any form of comedy didn’t last long, and it’s a very long two hours.
Naturally, no spoilers, but there will be nothing in this film that will surprise you.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
You People is on Netflix from Friday January 27th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 117 minutes
Release date: January 27th 2023
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1
Score: 3/10
Director: Kenya Barris
Screenplay: Jonah Hill, Kenya Barris
Producers: Kenya Barris, Jonah Hill, Kevin Misher
Music: Daniel Tannenbaum
Cast:
Ezra: Jonah Hill
Amira: Lauren London
Akbar: Eddie Murphy
Shelley: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Mo: Sam Jay
Fatima: Nia Long
Omar: Travis Bennett
Arnold: David Duchovny
Liza: Molly Gordon
Demetrius: Deon Cole
Becca: Andrea Savage
Mr. Greenbaum: Elliott Gould
Bubby: Rhea Perlman
Uncle EJ: Mike Epps
Shaela: Alani La La Anthony
Tiffany: Yung Miami
Renee: Khadijah Haqq
Issac: Bryan Greenberg
Danny: Jordan Firstman
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.