Seasoned comedy writer Kenya Barris decided to get his feet wet for his inevitable pivot to directing movies several years ago by helming a handful of episodes of the multiple sitcoms (black-ish, #blackAF) he's served as a showrunner on. Well, that feature debut has arrived in the form of You People and while it's not clear at the moment if directing is something that doesn't suit him as a creative or he just wasn't quite ready to take the plunge, his efforts behind the camera are very shaky.
This culture clash romantic comedy-which he also co-wrote with star Jonah Hill-about a mixed race couple (Hill, Lauren London) whose magical whirlwind romance starts to unravel when they meet each other families (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Duchovny and Molly Gordon play Hill's character's family while Eddie Murphy, Nia Long and Travis Bennett play London's) regularly feels like a string of loosely connected cringe comedy sketches that end abruptly and immediately transition into the next bit without much regard for cohesion or narrative consequences. While Barris is hardly the first writer to not make the most seamless transition into directing, his handle on the gig is rough to the point where it would be fair to question if he absorbed much from watching other director's work on set or in the editing room over the years. It's really hard to fathom how somebody who's had a prominent gig in Hollywood for 25+ years could make something that's assembled in such a rough and discombobulated fashion, especially when it's telling a straightforward story that's been brought to the screen in slightly different forms dozens of times in the past.
Now Barris does have a secret weapon that acts as a major deodorant for his fundamental filmmaking deficiencies: A cast full of gifted comedy stars that can get the most out of nearly any scenario that's thrown out there. There are moments where the script paints the lead yuck-producing trio of Hill, Louis-Dreyfus and Murphy into a corner that they can't escape from by concocting scenarios full of behavior that not even the most tone-deaf or passively racist individuals on the planet would engage in, but for the most part they're able to find humor in the pervasive awkwardness that a situation like this is still very capable of producing in the modern day and build a dynamic between the soon-to-be-blended families from vastly different backgrounds built on testiness, tension and a profound lack of mutual respect that allows the mutual discomfort to take hold in a convincing manner.
Even the back end of You People's ensemble is able to take the ball and power into the endzone when they're given a chance to shine. Sam Jay is able to pull out a handful of her solid standup bits as Hill's best friend/podcast co-host, Mike Epps shows up near the end of the movie as Murphy's brother and drops a handful of good one-liners before riding off into the sunset and cameos from Deon Cole, Andrea Savage and Felipe Esparza are crucial to selling two of the funniest scenes in the entire movie. Barris should give every single one of these actors a little bonus for their engaged, workmanlike efforts to sell this age-old predicament that sits at the center of the story and the bits that spawned off it because without them, You People would've been a DOA mess.
You People finds just enough laughs in its modern take on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? to forgive its poor direction, sometimes uneven writing and occasionally painfully unrealistic depiction of the type of actions white people would engage in while trying to prove they're not racist to a group of black people. Barris may be funny enough and have enough talented comic actors in his rolodex to ever make a truly terrible film, but he's going to have to dramatically improve his understanding of editing, story structure and pacing if he wants to find the same success as a director that he's enjoyed as a writer.
Grade: B-
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