When you get right down to it, there are really only two kinds of New Orleans-set movies. There are those that truly get the city, that carry the New Orleans ethos in their very DNA — movies like “Beasts of the Southern Wild, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Princess and the Frog.”
And then there are movies like Netflix’s romantic action-comedy “The Lovebirds,” a perfectly fine, if thoroughly unextraordinary, genre film that just happens to be set in New Orleans.
It’s like that weird dude from “The Room,” Tommy Wiseau, who lived for a time in Chalmette before moving out to Hollywood. His New Orleansness isn’t part of his way of being. It’s really more circumstantial than anything else. But it’s there.
The same is true of “The Lovebirds,” which follows Jibran and Leilani, a young couple who, moments after breaking up bitterly, become embroiled in a murder that sends them careening through the New Orleans night to clear their names.
Naturally, all that forced together time prompts them to do some serious reconsidering regarding their relationship. The real mystery of “The Lovebirds” isn’t whodunnit but whether Jibran and Leilani will kiss and make up by the time it’s all done.
Directed by Michael Showalter, it was shot almost entirely in the Crescent City in early 2019 and was set for an April theatrical release before the COVID-19 shutdown prompted its sale to Netflix, where it’s now available for streaming.
Admittedly, it’s nice to see the occasional flash of pre-COVID New Orleans as it plays out: Here’s a glimpse of the Hibernia Tower. There’s the Palace Cafe. Is that guy carrying a bag of Zapp’s?
Showalter also deserves credit for resisting the all-too-common practice of cutting to totally random postcard-style images of, say, a steamboat or a guy playing a trumpet, as a lazy way to transition from scene to scene.
At one point, he does give us an image of a streetcar turning from Carondelet onto Canal Street, but then he cuts to the inside of the streetcar, which Jibran and Lelilani are actually riding while considering their next step. I’ll allow it.
The actors playing those characters, by the way, are easily the film’s biggest assets: Issa Rae, who also shot February’s “The Photograph” in New Orleans immediately before “The Lovebirds,” and Kumail Nanjiani.
It’s probably stretching things to say they exhibit uncommon chemistry on-screen. They don’t not exhibit chemistry; clearly they get along well together. But it’s probably also stretching things to say any spark between the two transcends the middle-of-the-road story.
That being said, if it’s remembered at all, it’s hard not to think “Lovebirds” will be looked back at years from now as a curiosity after both actors have inevitably become much bigger stars than they are now.
Nanjaini’s Tom Hanks-flavored everyman appeal has already been proven in “The Big Sick” — which, in addition to earning him an Oscar nomination for screenwriting, was also directed by Showalter.
For her part, Rae boasts a rare comedic elegance — or maybe it’s an elegant sense of comedy? — that’s faintly reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn.
As a bonus, Both Rae and Nanjiani are also genuinely funny. Granted, there are moments in the film that feel suspiciously like recycled standup comedy bits, such as a non sequitur riff about milkshakes that Nanjiani indulges in at one point. But for every shrug of a joke there’s a genuine laugh, such as a giddily absurd scene in which Nanjiani and Rae attempt to interrogate a frat bro.
Good, goofy stuff, that.
It’s a shame that the rest of Showalter’s film isn’t quite as memorable. In its best moments, “The Lovebirds” manages to be cute, but rarely more.
That’s hardly enough to make it a New Orleans-shot classic. But at least it’s not a New Orleans-shot bomb.
******************
THE LOVEBIRDS
2 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Director: Michael Showalter.
