WORKOUT BAES Yahya Abdul Mateen II - Men’s Health (2019) Kumail Nanjiani - Men’s Health (2020) Aldis Hodge - Men’s Health (2021) J.D. Pardo - Men’s Health (2021) Marwan Kenzari - Men’s Health NL (2016)
The Lovebirds has a lot to live up to. From director Michael Showalter, it’s the long awaited follow-up to his 2017 film The Big Sick, a sweet but edgily funny romantic comedy that boldly had it’s leading lady in a coma for most of the film. Unfortunately, there’s nothing comparatively fresh or bracing about his new Netflix comedy, but it does have another ace up it’s sleeve in Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani - two actors at the top of their comedic game.
Ironically, the lovebirds of the movie spend much of the movie quite out of love. While we get a brief look at the unexpected meet cute of Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Rae), the cracks start to appear four years into their relationship, when both come to the realisation that they might be incompatible. Yet, just before they break up, things take an even darker turn when they are carjacked by a man who murders a cyclist using their car and disappears to let them take the fall.
As our duo try to elude the police and get to the bottom of the mystery (they decide that their races may disadvantage their alibi), Aaron Adams and Brendan Gall’s story closely follows in the footsteps of other films about ordinary people thrust unwittingly into a world of crime (see Date NightandThe Spy Who Dumped Me). That means threatening yet quirky supporting characters, implausible story developments, and shit predictably hitting the fan. In a year that saw Queen & Slim effortlessly tackle similar topics, the lack of adventure here feels particularly noticeable.
If the plot is forgettable, the comedy it services at least truly delivers, and much of this can be laid at the feet of Rae and Nanjiani. Even in a hilarious early sequence where they bicker over their differences - he is a pretentious documentary maker who takes his craft too seriously, while she is a reality-show obsessive who can’t tear herself away from Instagram - the chemistry with which they built their relationship always feels believable. Both have a gift for using a funny facial expression or improvised line to liven up a limp scene (their expressions of horror during an early murder scene make it unexpectedly funny). This means that, though the laugh rate does decline as the film heads towards its predictable finish, their clever interplay ultimately saves it from mediocrity.
An otherwise by the numbers crime comedy is elevated by the superb comic talents of Rae and Nanjiani, who keep you laughing when the story loses its wings.
I haven’t had a lot of time, so it looks like May is going to have the fewest posts that I’ve shared in a while, but I didn’t want to leave the month without highlighting the amazing first look at Eternals. Everything about this trailer is amazing, and I love that we are opening yet another door to a mysterious new world of the MCU.
This from the first and one of my favorite episodes of Pete Holmes’s podcast, You Made It Weird. He talks with the very funny and talented Kumail Nanjiani and they get on the topic of deserts and how they’re one of those things that doesn’t translate well across cultures.
Its an incredibly funny podcast and also full of heart and insight. You can listen to it through iTunes and well as on Nerdist. Go and listen if you have time! Love ya, Pete!
Quick note: my blog is a safe space and rudeness and negativity will be deleted and ignored :)
All the “bad” things I’ve seen are the reasons I think I’ll love it.
It doesn’t feel like an mcu film, not too much humor with jokes every 5 minutes, slower pace, focus on story instead of action, more adult… All this seems like a win for me!
We have 10 new characters, that are 7 thousand years old, we explore the creation of the universe, different galaxies and planets, and deeper topics like what it means to be human. Of course it’s heavy and dense.
We’ve been spoon fed light plot with cheap humor every 5 minutes, so when we get a decent plot and a character focused story of course it feels alien. But hey, you can’t complain for years about not having character development, not exploring character’s personalities and personal traumas and fears, too many jokes ruining the moment and too much cgi distracting you, and then when we get something different you give it a bad review and a bad ratting saying it feels different. It doesn’t make sense. Do you want a break from the Marvel formula or not?
I completely understand people have different opinions, and I respect that, but what I’m seeing so far are critics (not marvel fans necessarily, let’s not forget that) giving a negative review because it doesn’t have typical mcu jokes and it’s character focused. And let’s not forget this movie has been getting heat since forever, it’s diverse, has gender swapped characters, legit gay representation (gay Joe Russo I’m looking at you) and it’s not made by a white straight american dude.
Also, many reviews are contradicting themselves. They don’t like the directing choices then call it Zhao’s masterpiece, they complain about locations being barren but when Dune was basically all sand it was cinema, they have issues with marvel movies not focusing on characters but then say the movie was too focused on character and plot instead of action.
A movie full of layers, complex, focused on characters and slower paced is far from a bad movie. There’s a huge difference there. Different doesn’t equal bad.
It seems Marvel went out of their comfort zone with this one and I’m really happy with that.
The cast is incredible, Chloé Zhao is a master, I love everything Ramin Djawadi creates, and I’ll always be a Marvel girl. I’m super excited and can’t wait to watch this beauty on the big screen!
Museum of custodial arts, in Community, Modern Espionage, S06E11, 2015 (feat. Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash, Paget Brewster, Kumail Nanjiani).
“Some of the doctors caught the virus early on and tried to raise the alarm. But blowing the whistle while you’re on a ventilator? Ah, that’s a big ask.”
As a huge marvel fan and a striving artist, this is one of the best thing that happened to my life. He even started to follow me. brb. I’m gonna go dry off my tears. instagram.com/janddrawn
