Joy Ride is by far the funniest and most outrageous comedy of the summer and, I dare say, the year. There. I said it. The movie showcases four Asian-American actresses spraying the screen for 95 minutes in a movie that is equal parts Bridesmaids and The Hangover. It features the same amount of vulgarity and over-the-top performances, but it never fails to find that one ingredient that makes it a home run: Heart.
The movie stars Ashley Park as Audrey Sullivan, an Asian girl with white adoptive parents. Audrey is a successful lawyer and her best friend is Lolo Chen (Sherry Cola), an artist whose work probably wouldn’t be suitable to hang on a refrigerator. Their friends are Kat (Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu from Everything Everywhere All at Once), a famous actress, and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), who is Lolo’s cousin and seriously lacking in social skills.
Audrey announces she’s going on a business trip to China that could bring her a promotion at her job. Her friends insist on tagging along and making it a girls’ trip, but there is a catch: In order for the business to have dealings with Audrey, they have to meet Audrey’s birth family. And here’s where the movie goes into a profusion of hi-jinks and misunderstandings that propel the plot.
One instance has the girls on a train, and the police are searching for a drug dealer, and the girls just so happen to share the same compartment and are forced to come up with a clever way to dispose of the drugs. Another scene that earns huge laughs is when the girls meet up at a hotel with an NBA team that is playing in China. The girls try to have a romantic night with the guys and end up giving them severe injuries.
Joy Ride was directed by Adele Lim, who penned the screenplay for Crazy Rich Asians, and this is another story that looks at Asian subculture in which all the characters are high-powered with a lot of energy. Here, they get a chance to showcase not only their comedic skills but also they’re given more than enough screen time to not come across as caricatures. They each have moments that display not only their hilarious comedic timing but also the right amount of soul when the story needs it. The scenes involving Audrey searching for her birth mother are emblematic of this. The screenplay has the intelligence and wit that many comedies of this sort would love to have.
Like The Blackening, this is a comedy that is anything but one note about a different culture. It delves into kamikaze-style humor, but it isn’t afraid to be heartfelt and insightful, and that’s exactly what makes this movie shine.
Between this, The Blackening and No Hard Feelings, R-rated comedy might start to make a comeback.
Grade: A-
(Rated R for strong and crude sexual content, language throughout, drug content and brief graphic nudity.)
