The Lovebirds

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Paramount Pictures/Netflix

Director: Michael Showalter
Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae & Paul Sparks 
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour & 27 minutes 

“The Lovebirds,” a new romantic-comedy starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, is a fun and breezy way to spend an evening at home while perusing through your Netflix library.
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The film, directed by Michael Showalter (who also directed Nanjiani in 2017’s “The Big Sick”) and written by Aaron Abrams and Brendan Gall, was original supposed to receive a theatrical release by Paramount Pictures on April 3, but was one of the first Hollywood releases to be shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic closing theaters and instead found a home on Netflix, where it premiered on May 22.

The movie follows a couple Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Rae), who have been together for four years but are fighting a lot as the film begins as the two are getting ready for a party. Despite the fact that the fight is comical to us viewers as they are arguing over whether or not they’d succeed on the reality-travel series “The Amazing Race,” which shows up in a funny scene at the film’s end, it’s proof that these two will literally bicker over anything and everything.

On the way to the party the two, who have just broken up on the ride over, accidentally hit a cyclist. The injured cyclist refuses their help and rides off and the two almost immediately have their car commandeered by a mustachioed man (Paul Sparks) who claims to be an undercover cop and is after the cyclist. After an exciting car chase through New Orleans the undercover cop drives the car into the cyclist and then backs over him and drives over him again killing him. The man is about to murder Jibran and Leilani when police sirens appear and he runs off. Jibran and Leilani fearing the police will think they’ve killed the cyclist run away themselves and begin a long night of many trials and tribulations that result in many laughs along the way.

Despite the fact that their characters are breaking up at the beginning of the film, Nanjiani and Rae have a terrific chemistry and it’s obvious these two characters still care about each other, even if they spend much of their time together bickering. It’s an absolute blast taking this ride with them and truly a testament to how good these two are together in that essentially the entire 87-minute runtime of the film is just the two of them (I don’t believe there was a single moment they weren’t on the screen the entire film).

“The Lovebirds” isn’t the type of movie that’s going to win any awards, it’s not going to go down as an all-time great comedy and may not even be the kind of movie you feel like watching multiple times. But it makes for a funny viewing and definitely the kind of romantic-comedy you could cuddle up on the couch or in bed with your significant other and forget about the real world for an hour and a half.