--- title: Netflix's The Lovebirds Is a Delightful Screwball Comedy description: Netflix's The Lovebirds may have a dumb plot—but then, it’s just a conveyor belt for the charm of Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani. canonical: https://time.com/5839795/the-lovebirds-review-netflix/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-21T02:39:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:46:35.390Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'The Lovebirds' Is a Delightful Screwball Comedy og:description: The plot may be dumb, but Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani make the new Netflix film worth watching og:url: https://time.com/5839795/the-lovebirds-review-netflix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9289d2dcf4f40d44/698a0e4586f68e38216eec32/LB-09092K.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: THE LOVEBIRDS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Lovebirds' Is a Delightful Screwball Comedy twitter:description: The plot may be dumb, but Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani make the new Netflix film worth watching twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9289d2dcf4f40d44/698a0e4586f68e38216eec32/LB-09092K.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Lovebirds_ Is a Delightful Screwball Comedy Elevated by the Charms of Its Leading Duo > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic May 21, 2020 2:39 AM UTC  Kumail Nanjiana and Issa Rae in 'The Lovebirds' on Netflix. Kumail Nanjiana and Issa Rae in 'The Lovebirds' on Netflix.Skip Bolen/NETFLIX—© 2020 Paramount Pictures  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic May 21, 2020 2:39 AM UTC Despite their seeming lightness, or maybe because of it, screwball comedies are complicated to make. It’s much easier for Hollywood to throw pots of money at an action picture than to find two actors with great chemistry who can sustain a hamster-wheeling plot for 90 minutes. Little wonder the screwball comedy is practically a lost genre. That’s why _The Lovebirds,_ in all its harebrained glory, is such a delight. The plot is dumb—but then, it’s just a conveyor belt for the performers’ charm. Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae play Jibran and Leilani, a New Orleans couple who, when we first meet them, are falling deeply and convincingly in love. That part lasts for about four minutes. Next thing we know, they’re four years into the relationship and their nerves are frayed. He thinks she’s foolish for wanting to try out for _The Amazing Race._ Referring to the social-justice documentaries he makes for a living, she shoots back, “They’re just reality shows that no one watches.” The ping-ponging rhythm of their argument is so enjoyable that you don’t really worry they might be on the skids—until, as they’re driving to a party Jibran doesn’t want to go to, the fight takes some serious wrong turns. The cutting accusations fly. Their faces, previously animated by low-grade annoyance, are now blank with pain. On the spot, they decide to break up. Then they hit a bicyclist, who has zoomed out of nowhere. He’s not dead yet, but an aggressive carjacker puts an end to him, in a grimly funny, nerve-jangling way. Jibran and Leilani are afraid to go to the police, knowing how, as two people of color, they’re likely to be treated. They ditch their car and run to a diner, where they sit across from each other stiffly, like crash-test dummies, not sure what to do. The only way out is to solve the mystery themselves: Who was the bicyclist, and why would anyone want him dead? Their quest leads them into a snare of angry white rich people and a house full of frat guys. It also involves a change of costume, to elude capture: at an all-night convenience store, he grabs a dorky souvenir T-shirt. She slips into shiny magenta pants and a furry unicorn hoodie—she’s the tallest, sparkliest magical creature in all the land. _The Lovebirds,_ directed by Michael Showalter (who previously made _The Big Sick,_ featuring Nanjiani, and co-wrote the cult favorite _Wet Hot American Summer_), has a nutty, loose-jointed spirit. The gags by themselves are modest; it’s what Nanjiani and Rae do with them that counts. At the diner, Jibran calms his nerves by driving Leilani crazy with a soliloquy about the extra dollop of milkshake that always arrives, in its metal shaker, along with the regular serving. Why not just measure the amount so it all fits in the glass? He’s not wrong, but you still see why Leilani wants to slug him. Rae plays Leilani with a straight shot of high-strung, high-beam radiance—you can barely imagine her _losing_ a reality-show competition_._ These two are both a little mad, and they’re made for each other; it takes this absurd mystery to make them see it. The screwball comedy is the truest and purest language of love. Like the song of lovebirds, it sounds like dizzy chatter—until you stop to really listen. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5839795/the-lovebirds-review-netflix/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5839795/the-lovebirds-review-netflix/"},"headline":"The Lovebirds Is a Delightful Screwball Comedy Elevated by the Charms of Its Leading Duo","datePublished":"2020-05-21T02:39:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:46:35.390Z","description":"The plot may be dumb, but Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani make the new Netflix film worth watching","url":"https://time.com/5839795/the-lovebirds-review-netflix/","keywords":["movies","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9289d2dcf4f40d44/698a0e4586f68e38216eec32/LB-09092K.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9289d2dcf4f40d44/698a0e4586f68e38216eec32/LB-09092K.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"THE LOVEBIRDS","caption":"THE LOVEBIRDS","creditText":"Skip Bolen/NETFLIX—© 2020 Paramount Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5839795/the-lovebirds-review-netflix/","name":"The Lovebirds Is a Delightful Screwball Comedy Elevated by the Charms of Its Leading Duo"}}]}] ```