The Lovebirds Review

The Lovebirds, starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae and directed by Michael Showalter, who also directed Kumail in 2017’s The Big Sick, is funny and only occasionally frustrating. It’s about a couple who, four years into their relationship, break up and are then immediately thrown into an adventure that brings them back together. You’ve seen this movie before, just not with these people, and these people are funny when they’re not actively driving you crazy. I have to assume there was a lot of improvisation on set – several scenes involve multiple quick cuts to single shots of Kumail and Issa delivering one liners – and it leads to a lot of gold. But there are conversations that go on for way too long. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s funny. Sometimes you just need to stop talking.

There are laughs in here, but there are an equal number of moments where the story hinges on otherwise intelligent people behaving so stupidly it defies comprehension. They steadfastly refuse to explain themselves in a concise and honest way and let me tell you, it leads to problems. This film also features a Katy Perry singalong that made me so uncomfortable I had to avert my eyes. A movie has to have a certain tone to get away with singing. I had the same reaction watching the preview for The King of Staten Island when, in the middle of what appears to be a semi-serious, grounded film about loss and solitude, a large group of people starts belting out The Wallflowers’s One Headlight. Really? Did you spend a potion of your limited screen time setting up these characters and their love of One Headlight? The Wallflowers in general? The joke is they only know the words to the chorus, but they could have picked a better song as Jakob Dylan ranks among music’s more intelligible vocalists. My point is by the time I got to the singing in The Lovebirds, I was convinced I was watching a movie with no singing. And then I got singing. I wasn’t ready.

Paul Sparks, who’s great in season 2 of Castle Rock, is underused as the bad guy, and the funny Kyle Bornheimer has almost nothing to do. Anna Camp wins the award for best peripheral character, but the High Efficiency Certificate goes to Moses Storm for generating the most laughs in the shortest amount of time.

This movie is decent, lighthearted, and worth a watch. When my girlfriend and I were looking for something to put on, we boiled it down to a choice between The Lovebirds and the The Wrong Missy. In The Lovebirds, Kumail’s character is asked to choose between having boiling hot bacon grease poured on his face, or being kicked by a horse. He elects to be kicked by a horse and afterwards recommends Issa’s character “take the grease.” It’s a funny line, but it’s clearly insane. You take the horse. You take the horse every time.