Did I tell you how excited I was to see Netflix acquired this film? As of this writing, I have not been to a movie theater in 97 days. That’s hardly a burden for most people, I know. But –and I know because I keep meticulous notes on the subject- the second longest stretch for me in the past decade has been twelve (12) days, less than one- eighth of my current drought. Now I don’t say this to indulge asshole privilege along the lines of “OPEN UP NOW!!” If fewer people die because I stopped going to the movies, well, I think I can live with that, y’know? One day, theaters will open again and I will indulge and be thankful for the commonplace. Today, however, I note that attending as many theater films as I do, normally I see more trailers than the Florida panhandle. And one of the films I anticipated seeing soon was The Lovebirds.
Leilani (Issa Rae) and Jibrani (Kumail Nanjiani) begin the film in bliss. Issa, Kumail, I know you guys are relative noobs to movie stardom, so lemme just pass some words of wisdom: never begin a film in bliss. Only pain follows, my friends. The joyful naivete quickly cuts to “FOUR YEARS LATER.” Uh oh. The blissful second-daters are now veteran nit-pickers. Luckily, the nit-picking doesn’t get nasty – and this is important because we like both Leilani and Jibrani- but it does mean that their relationship ends at roughly the ten minute mark with her calling him tepid and him calling her shallow. The audience gets about five seconds to consider the impact of these remarks when Jibrani’s car impacts with a cyclist.
And then the cyclist takes off, only to be run down by someone commandeering the Leilani/Jibranimobile while claiming to be a plain-clothes cop . Huh. Most cops don’t attack a perp with a vehicle. Huh. Most cops don’t deliberately run over a downed perp. Huh. Most cops don’t repeat the deliberately running over part several times. You know what, I think Leilani and Jibrani are in trouble.
This film has a pretty good sense of humor as we see in the following scene with the now-abandoned Leilani and JIbrani unsuccessfully attempting to deflect responsibility while an after-the-fact witness reports via phone, “yes, police, the man is also a …person of color. And I don’t think they’re murderers because they’re people of color; I think they’re murderers because they’re murderers.” So this the film: Leilani and Jibrani are trying to avoid jail, but the only way they feel they’ll get a decent shake is if they find the persons and reasons behind the murder in which they unwittingly participated.
Plots like this can go several ways. The Lovebirds took the Date Night route, where the peril is real but the situation is comic. It’s not difficult to see Lovebirds as simply an ethnic reboot of the Date Night scenario. The stakes for Leilani/Jibrani are a little higher as they just broke up – collectively, they gotta 1) save themselves 2) find the killers, and 3) rekindle their flame … but not necessarily in that order.
The Lovebirds is very well cast. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani are both pretty good at “WTF?!” acting. It helps that both have a good taste for comedrama as The Lovebirds constantly calls for humor couched within horror, like in a scene where the couple gets to choose the method with which they’ll be tortured or when they stumble across Eyes Wide Shut, which should freak anybody out even if they’ll not chasing down murderers. I don’t know if I left my standards in the aisle of the local AMC 97 days ago, but I enjoyed The Lovebirds and it’s possible you will as well.
A couple thinks their moment has passed
When they encounter a conspiracy vast
I’d like to anoint
Therapy at gunpoint
If you survive, you get results fast
Rated R, 85 Minutes
Director: Michael Showalter
Writer: Brendan Gall and Aaron Abrams
Genre: Did you see Date Night? It’s Date Night with some color added
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People desperate for a theater-level experience
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Compromised authority figures
