Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy in “You People” (Netflix)
Jonah Hill has a new movie coming out on Netflix that is sure to be a center of controversy with people on all sides of the political spectrum slamming it for one reason or another. “You People” tells the story of a nice Jewish boy who falls for a Black girl who just so happens to be a follower of Louis Farrakhan.
You People follows a new couple and their families, who find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences. In other words, Jonah Hill’s latest uses the story of a mixed faith and mixed race couple to “educate” people about the great – some would even go so far as to say continental – divide between the American Jewish and African American communities.
Jonah Hill seems to like making movies about politically charged subjects. In his last film, the Oscar nominated “Don’t Look Up,” he played the son of a President whose entire administration and personality were obviously based on Donald Trump and intended to slam Trump. The movie was also filled with so many political and cultural references that it barely had time for a plot.
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The movie starts as a typical romantic comedy in which love starved Jonah Hill meets Lauren London when he mistakes her for an Uber driver. The movie trailer shows the sequence which attempts slapstick but will probably be criticized for how it depicts a woman’s reaction when a strange man gets into her car.
There are, of course, stereotypical portrayals of the parents. Jonah Hill’s mother and father – played by David Duchovny and Julia Louis Dreyfus – bend over backward to show just how open-minded and liberal they are by not being bothered with the relationship and being fascinated with Islam. On the other hand, Eddie Murphy, who plays the girl’s father, is not happy with the match and behaves rudely to the other parents even as they try so hard to be nice.
The movie trailer gives a glimpse into exactly what you can expect when they all sit down for dinner. Eddie Murphy gets angry when someone compares the Holocaust to slavery and when Jonah Hill’s parents first here that the other family are followers of Louis Farahan he rushes to shut them up. We just get snippets of the dinner, but do we really need to see the movie to know what is going to happen?
Jonah Hill co-wrote You People with Kenya Barris, who directed the movie. The cast is rounded out with famous Jewish actors like Elliott Gould and Hal Linden who act like typical old Jews do in movies. The movie comes out on January 27.
