In Netflixs The Lovebirds, jokes come first, romance comes second

A universal experience when it comes to dating: after a while, it’s hard to go out without getting roped into a murder mystery. The Lovebirds, a new Netflix movie starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, follows a couple with this terribly relatable problem in one of the funniest romantic comedies of the year so far — even if it’s light on the “romantic” part of the equation. Another strong selling point: a light runtime of 87 minutes, which is a wonderful length for a movie.

After a prologue that introduces how Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Rae) meet, The Lovebirds flashes forward four years to the middle of a very funny argument about whether they would survive The Amazing Race. That fight leads to their breakup immediately after, as...

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