You People Review You People: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill stir up family feuds in new trailer

In 1967 the innovative romantic comedy by Stanley Kramer with Sidney Poitier Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? introduced Hollywood audiences to the concept of interracial dating and the awkward and racist family reunions that come with it. It’s a concept that has been given a 21st-century fresh coat of paint by Jonah Hill and Kenya Barris, who have collaborated on a script (Barris is also directing his debut) that blends Hill’s comedic experience on the big screen with the thoughtful and sharp perspective of Barris’ award-winning television series blackish.

Avowed hip-hop fan and LA kid, Hill is clearly invested in the person of Ezra, an aspiring podcaster who speaks in rap terms (“I need a collaboration instead of an insult right now,” begs his best friend Mo , played by Sam Jay) and wears his Nike Jordans in synagogue. Hill’s background in Judd Apatow comedies comes in handy here, lending itself to solidly funny banter and self-deprecation (“You look like a young Hulk Hogan,” one character tells him).

Then comes a cute encounter in the classic tradition: Ezra accidentally jumps into what he thinks is an Uber, but it’s actually Amira’s (Lauren London) private car. After the initial confusion sparks fly and soon the pair are inseparable. While the chemistry between Hill and London isn’t always entirely compelling (Amira isn’t as well-written as the male characters), the two are at least very likable company.

It then moves on to the impending nuptials of the happy couple, for this is where the gist of the comedy comes in: Ezra and Amira are begrudgingly forced to be reunited with their future in-laws, a prospect that has rarely been so unsettling or so unpleasant. deeply, naturally embarrassing. On one side of the new family, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny are brilliantly trustworthy as parents to Ezra, a Jewish couple who apparently have no experience interacting with people of color. Not since Bradley Whitford salt I wish I could have voted for a third term for Obama if a white father had made such embarrassing gestures to an interracial couple.

On the other hand, we have Eddie Murphy and Nia Long as a no-nonsense Nation of Islam couple immediately suspicious of Ezra’s intentions. Murphy, in particular, is quietly brilliant, a terrifying, soft-spoken patriarch who will “kill you and put you to sleep for nine hours straight,” as Mo puts it. Polo shirts and, to the delight of any fan of his 80s stand-up promotions, tease whites with a pointed nose print.

So the stage is set for everything to go wrong, just in time for everything to go right in the end. It’s a rom-com, brilliantly shot and lit to boot, so it’s almost deliberately worded, with a final act so neat it could have been staged. But along the way, Barris and Hill’s storyline finds real insight into America’s racial divide and explains why, despite significant advances, a great barrier still exists between the two cultures. “To black people in this country, white people are the cheaters,” explains Mo at one point, “and black people are the girls who can’t get by.”