The Lovebirds (2020)

Most interracialist films are superficial mirrors reflecting our simplistic views and wishes for race and ethnic relationships. You People is as superficial and shallow as its forbearers. 

People often pat themselves on the back for watching "progressive" Guess Who's Coming to Dinner style movies. They beam with pride despite the little to nigh nonexistent internal reflection about the colorist tropes and implications in said movies. The same people who dismiss race as "just" a social construct, as if their paycheck, relationships, morality, and national identity (to name a few things) are not also social constructs with real-world implications, will champion the "bravery" of movies that explore interracial love. How they can classify these relationships as interracial while purporting to not buy into race because it's "just" a social construct is anyone's guess. It is just as confusing as ever-color-struck Kenya Barris' motivation for creating this mediocre redux. Barris is a controversial colorist, having espoused that mixed people will be "in" in the near future, implicating that he promotes the lighter skin, racially ambiguous aesthetic for practical purposes. It's really just his latest excuse for colorism. Once again, a Black creator with problematic views on colorism, misogynoir, and questionable representation is elevated over more thoughtful ones.

You People follows the formula you expect from another slog into glossed-over sexual racism, desirability politics, misogynoir, and colorism disguised as a progressive commentary. This film is as shallow and superficial in its commentary as most American conversations regarding race relations. Ezra (Jonah Hill), a white male that you are allowed to assume is white based on his phenotype (remember this, it'll be important later), falls for Amira (Lauren London). Amira is essentially coded as Black in the film, despite a throwaway line that tries to explain away why she has ambiguous features and lighter skin by suggesting her mother (Nia Long) has a white grandfather. The film already distrusts its own logic. If Amira's phenotype is perfectly common for the daughter of two dark skin, unambiguously Black parents, why do we need a discount genetics lesson? Barris and Hill likely knew that many Black viewers would scratch their hair at the fridge logic and continued colorist tradition of casting Biracial and Multiracial actresses to play Black women on film. Something tells me they were not educating people on genetic admixture in African Americans. One can not help but wonder why Amira was not created as a biracial character. Could Ezra not have fallen in love with a biracial woman? Then there would be no need for this plot hole masking as a plot contrivance, and there would be no dark skin erasure in this casting.

But alas, the racist one-drop rule strikes again.

The movie makes as much sense as this setup. Predictable hijinks ensue as we watch the couple and their respective families follow a flattened "love conquers all/we are all one race the human race" contrived plot. There is nothing novel about this movie or interracial relationships (they've been happening long before Eurocentrism came along) despite it using "modern" in the tagline. There are a lot of white-centered interracial romance films that superficially gloss over the problematic aspects of the marriage market and its reliance on Eurocentric beauty standards. You People is simply another one.

Happy Valentine's Day, Incluvies!

Today we are showcasing our favorite love stories from all over the African Diaspora. Blackness is a rainbow, and these movies show us every beautiful color of the Black experience.

The Photograph delivers with a tender love story that unfolds between two vulnerable people who weren't even looking for love. Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield will make you believe in love again as their delicate romance weathers a cruel world hellbent on smothering their fledgling love. Those in long distance relationships will find hope here. Those wanting to see positive Black love sans economic and toxic emotional struggle will also find much to love in The Photograph.

Watch it on Prime Video.

After months of nonstop excitement, the moment is finally here. I finally get to talk about The Lovebirds. I’m not saying this ironically. I have been dying for this movie to come out, along with My Spy. Why these films in particular? Because something awakened in me when I saw last year’s Stuber. I sat by myself in a nearly abandoned movie theater and got to enjoy a movie that wasn’t a remake or reboot, wasn’t a 2.5 hour blockbuster, wasn’t a safe approach Disney film, and as much as I love them, wasn’t a superhero film. It was something fresh, as fresh as a buddy comedy can be. I love Kumail Nanjiani, and likewise, I love Dave Bautista (a much better wrestler-turned-actor than The Rock).