Netflix has released the teaser trailer for Kenya Barris’ interracial rom-com You People, loosely based on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and it stars Eddie Murphy, Nia Long and more.
The film was written by Barris and Jonah Hill and stars Hill, Lauren London, and Eddie Murphy. Joining Hill, London and Murphy are Nia Long, Sam Jay, Elliot Gould, Travis Bennett, Molly Gordon, Rhea Perlman, Deon Cole, Andrea Savage, Mike Epps, Emily Arlook, Alani La La Anthony, Bryan Greenberg and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
The film’s plot has been under wraps since it was announced as Barris’ latest project in 2021. But all we did know at the time as that it was a riff on the 1960s film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, starring Sidney Poitier. Barris’ film also had the pithy promise of discussing race relations. The official logline renews that promise: “A new couple and their families find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences[.]”
The Tudum interview with London has more details about the film: Hill’s character Ezra and London’s character Amira meet under hilariously bizarre circumstances but connect over being sneakerheads and loving music. As their relationship progressed, the two eventually feel like tying the knot, leading Ezra and Amira to think about how their parents will act as one family. Tudum describes Ezra’s parents, played by Louis-Dreyfus and Duchovny, as “progressive and semi-woke,” while Amira’s parents are an “unyielding yet concerned” Muslim couple. “The one thing they have in common? The ability to mercilessly interfere with their children’s lives–with hilarious results,” states Tudum.
The trailer definitely shows some of those differences immediately popping up when Hill’s character tries to ask Amira’s parents for her hand in marriage, only to completely make a fool of himself.
London said to Tudum that the film shows comedic legends doing what they do best.
“These collaborators are masters at their craft,” she said. “You have Eddie Murphy and Julia and Nia Long and David Duchovny and Jonah Hill–and Kenya as the captain of the ship. Everyone brought in their specialness and their art.”
You People comes to Netflix Jan. 27.
