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By Robert Scucci
| Published
As a movie lover, I always feel like I’m playing catch-up with some genuinely great art because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to consume it all. One blind spot for me involves all the movies from 2020 that never got a proper theatrical release, meaning the marketing was light as so many titles silently made their way to streaming with little fanfare. One such film, 2020’s The Lovebirdscurrently resides on Netflix, and I’ve never heard anybody talk about how great it is. It’s part rom-com, part action thriller, and one of the most laugh-out-loud funny movies I’ve seen in a while.
Even better, you’re in and out in 87 minutes. Not only does the humor in The Lovebirds never wear out its welcome, it leaves you wanting more thanks to its stars, Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae.
The. Escalations. Never. Stop.
The Lovebirds kicks off with a murder, and things only get worse for Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae). The two have been dating and living together for about four years, but only really seem to communicate through petty insults while strongly suggesting their relationship has run its course. While breaking up on the way to a friend’s dinner party, Jibran accidentally runs over a bicycle courier (Nicholas X. Parsons), who seems more concerned with fleeing the scene than tending to his injuries.
A panicked Jibran and Leilani, trying to figure out their next move, are then confronted by a man known only as Mustache (Paul Sparks), who informs them that the man on the bike is actually a criminal, but only after repeatedly running him over with their car to make sure he’s dead. They grab his phone and flee the scene, immediately arousing the suspicion of Detective Martin (Andrene Ward-Hammond).
While I don’t want to spoil the entire course of events in The Lovebirdslet’s just say things escalate fast, and never stop escalating. It doesn’t take long before they’re caught in the middle of an insane blackmail conspiracy, where they’re shot at, tied to chairs and threatened with boiling bacon grease or whatever’s behind the mystery door, chased by cops and the courier’s cohorts alike, all while trying to clear their names with Detective Martin, who, in their minds, has them pegged as the primary suspects in the courier’s brutal murder.
The Situational Humor Is Simply The Springboard
Here’s what makes The Lovebirds such an effective comedy thriller, or at least that’s what I’m calling it: Jibran and Leilani seem like a real couple working through their issues. Their banter and insults are always scathing, but they’re the kind you can only dish out and take if you know somebody well enough to really hit them where it hurts. It’s like trading burns with your oldest friends, knowing that nothing is off limits.
When you take this kind of character dynamic and let it rip alongside a crazy murder plot, you get to hang out with these people while they’re on the adventure of a lifetime, all while trying to figure out if they even want to stay together and realizing that maybe this whole situation is the ultimate test.
Some of the best scenes aren’t even the escalations, but the quieter moments, like when Jibran and Leilani sneak into a discount pharmacy for a wardrobe change, settling for the most ridiculous getups they can find before laying low at the dinner party while being wildly underdressed. Then again, they also end up at an Eyes Wide Shut-style gala, and the escalations just keep coming.
I genuinely can’t remember the last time I actually laughed out loud at a comedy while sitting by myself, but I woke my kids up twice last night while watching The Lovebirds. And the thing is, it’s not trying that hard to be funny. It doesn’t feel like a couple of comedians trying to get their yuks out or recycle old schtick. These characters feel lived in, and they’re simply chewing the scenery being thrust upon them, one escalating incident at a time.
The Lovebirds quietly arrived on Netflix back in 2020 in lieu of a theatrical release. I strongly recommend this to anybody who wants a rom com that’s as dangerous as it is hilarious.
