Checked out the new Netflix movie The Lovebirds. This was going to be a theatrical release but I guess they gave up and Netflix got it instead. Probably because expectations were low and the last Kumail Nanjiani movie with a similar theme (Stuber) didn’t do so well. But this is a better movie than that and is worth a watch.
The Lovebirds is about a couple whose relationship is on the rocks… they’ve literally just realized its not working when they run afoul of a killer. Now, on the run from criminals and the police, they have to figure out how to get out of their situation… and maybe see if they still love each other.
This film is in the tradition of similar films films. Average people trying to survive crime in the city using their vague knowledge of tough guy fiction. Films like After Hours, Date Night, Game Night, and Stuber have trod these steps before. It’s an amusing but iffy sub-genre that doesn’t work as often as it works. This movie works for most of its very short run time. I found Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae (as the couple) charming and charismatic, even when they are bickering. In fact, the bickering (which would usually be annoying) was clever and believable for a couple… sometimes barbed, more often loving.
I guess the movie doesn’t work the whole way through though. Once it reaches the final act and has to actually resolve its criminal story, most of the comedy drains away and were stuck with a McGuffiny story that doesn’t really matter. But, up to that point, I genuinely laughed out loud on a number of occasions. This, I felt, worked as a legitimately funny comedy. And not just from Nanjiani… Issa Rae was very funny too.
This is a good, if a little uneven, comedy and it’s unfortunate it wasn’t able to open at the theaters. Compared to Stuber, the previous similar movie starring Nanjiani, it’s more consistently funny and deserves better than being lumped with that flick. Check it out since, hey, they went and put it on Netflix so might as well!
Score: 81