The Lovebirds
Director: Michael Showalter
Year Released: 2020
Rating: 2.5
Just as they're about to break-up after dating for four years, Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) accidentally hit a bicyclist with their car, then let a strange man who claims to be a cop commandeer the car and actually kill the bicyclist (and flee), which leads to the couple trying to play Junior Detective. It's like Game Night and Date Night and other similar romcoms - go through series of improbable misadventures, somehow re-bond after dangerous incidents transpire - but the subtext of this is unsettling: neither Jibran nor Leilani bother going to the police station because he's Pakistani and she's African-American and as people of color they don't think the authorities would believe their story (which says a lot about this country at the moment). Most of the banter ranges between 'let's pretend we're hip' to genuinely cute, and I never expected the Eyes Wide Shut reference in act three (the password is no longer "Fidelio," it's on a phone app).