I have a longtime dear friend (Mary in Jacksonville Beach, Florida) who had a great comment about Eddie Murphy in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR years ago. A comment that I feel was and is quite accurate. She said, "If Robert De Niro had done THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and played all those parts, he'd have gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Actor." I know Murphy is famous for being a comedian, but he's also a good actor. Yes, he got a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing the self-destructive singer in DREAMGIRLS, but his acting depth still feels overlooked by Hollywood in my opinion. Did you see him on Netflix in 2019's comedy/drama biopic, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME? Fabulous! I watched it three times and belly-laughed with each viewing. The Oscars totally ignored that cast -- and that cast deserved some Oscar nomination recognition.
Eddie Murphy plays a strict Muslim father in Los Angeles whose daughter is engaged to a white guy described as "...a Jew from West L.A." He's the White co-host of a podcast about Black culture. His parents live in Brentwood and shop at Gelson's supermarket in Century City. His fianceé is from the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw area. This new Netflix comedy is YOU PEOPLE. It co-stars Jonah Hill who co-wrote and co-produced the movie with its director, Kenya Barris. Barris created ABC's BLACK-ish sitcom that ran for several seasons. This marks the directorial debut of Barris. For Warner Bros,, he's slated to write and direct of remake of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Barris says it will be "a modern reimagining."
Yes, YOU PEOPLE has some "politically incorrect" language, nonetheless is had me laughing in the first five minutes. Jonah Hill's character trading whispered insults with his sister at a Yom Kippur service broke me up. He's good and so is Murphy as the strict, reserved Afro-centric dad who always speaks in a low register as he remains frosty towards his possible future son-in-law.
I grew up near the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw area. My parents shopped at FedCo when it was there. (You Angelenos reading this may remember FedCo which, by the way, got a very funny mention in DOLEMITE IS MY NAME). YOU PEOPLE shows the L.A. that I know and miss.
About Jonah Hill as Ezra. Do you watch MSNBC weekday afternoons? Ever see THE BEAT with Ari Melber? You know how Melber can be reporting on a serious and complicated national news story, yet he'll go out of his way to quote some hip hop rap lyrics done by, say, Flava Flav or Salt-N-Pepa to keep it real? You sit there and go "Oh, Lord, Ari. Can't you drop in some Edward R. Murrow or James Baldwin occasionally?" Well, that's kinda like Ezra.
The highly entertaining cast includes Lauren London as the hip and independent fianceé, David Duchovny, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Nia Long and Mike Epps with special appearances by Hal Linden, Elliott Gould, Richard Benjamin and Rhea Perlman. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and David Duchovny as Ezra's overly-liberal parents trying too hard to embrace Black culture are a hoot.
There are laughs and, in the last act, some truths and lots of heart. YOU PEOPLE is on Netflix and runs a little under 2 hours. I had a lot o' fun watching it. Murphy's THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and DOLEMITE IS MY NAME are also on Netflix.
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