What’s it rated? R
When? 2023
Where’s it showing? Netflix
Kenya Barris (Black-ish, #BlackAF) directs this script co-written with Jonah Hill about a new couple, Ezra Cohen (Hill), who’s white and Jewish, and Amira Mohammed (Lauren London), who’s Black and Muslim. Their problem is their respective families—his are cringy tone-deaf liberals falling all over themselves to act woke, and hers are distrustful of white people. What could go wrong? Turns out, everything.
When Ezra brings Amira home to meet his family—mom Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), dad Arnold (David Duchovny), and lesbian sister Liza (Molly Gordon)—Shelley and Arnold make asses of themselves trying to prove how open-minded they are, and Liza appears sexually attracted to her brother’s girlfriend. Likewise, when Ezra meets her parents—dad Akbar (Eddie Murphy, proving he’s still got terrific comedic chops) and mom Fatima (Nia Long)—he’s met with open hostility, forcing him to grin and bear it. Younger brother Omar (Travis Bennett) seems happy to sit back and watch the fireworks.
It’s all very funny, with machine-gun dialog, especially between Ezra and his podcast partner, Mo (Sam Jay), who’s Black and with whom Ezra talks about the “culture,” frequently about the intersection of Black and white relations. Love may be blind, but America isn’t. (117 min.) Δ
This article appears in Apr 11-21, 2024.
