‘You People’ Review: Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jonah Hill Lead Kenya Barris’ Hysterically Funny & Smart Feature Debut
In a nutshell the brilliantly hilarious, pertinent, and wickedly smart new movie, You People is in some ways a new age Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, that landmark 1967 Tracy-Hepburn-Poitier Oscar winning comedy about the effect an interracial relationship has on the parents of the young couple. Of course back then it was a major social issue and even had trouble booking some southern theatres. The idea was switched in a Bernie Mac/Ashton Kutcher 2005 remake that all those years later did not have the same impact. With anti-semitism and racism back on the rise in 2023 America however the concept of an interracial/interfaith marriage, Black and White, Jew and Muslim, could not be more timely or needed, and in co-star Jonah Hill’s and director Kenya Barris’ whipsmart screenplay is also a knock-you-out-of- your-seat laugh riot. Ironically I saw it this week at its World Premiere at the same Westwood Village theatre where I saw Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner all those years ago. With a packed house the laughter was so continuous and loud for You People it was hard to hear a lot of the lines. When was the last time that happened?