The Lovebirds

Dir: Michael Showalter (1hr 26mins) (15)

★★★

This lightweight “romcom romp” is the kind of film you might once have enjoyed on a plane, and that’s not meant as a put-down, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. During this difficult time, many of us are in need of a comforting diversion. stars Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae as two young professionals from New Orleans who are just about to end their four-year relationship, then they witness a murder. Fearing the cops will pin it on them, they must run for their lives – and use their wits to solve the crime themselves. As they skitter from one farcical situation to another, their “bantery-squabbly” arguments rarely let up, in a nod to the old screwball classics. The hope, of course, is that this shared adventure will rekindle the spark their relationship once had.

Shut),

The Lovebirds

The pair evade the police, break into a property, and infiltrate a bizarre sex cult (in an enjoyable parody of Kubrick’s

said Sabrina Barr in The Independent. There are no real belly laughs, the ending is “anti-climactic”, and the plot veers into weird arbitrariness at times – but Nanjiani and Rae’s chemistry just about rescues things. They share the same appealing comedic style, said Helen O’Hara in Empire – “bone dry and sardonic, but rarely mean”, making even the silliest moments feel more real, and more funny too. And though the secondary characters are forgettable, director Michael Showalter keeps things moving swiftly enough that you can forgive the film its clichés.

Eyes Wide

Available on Netflix.