Reel Review Roundup

Joy Ride (MA)

Directed by: Adele Lim

Starring: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu

Reviewed by: Julian Wright

How would you like a large dose of raunch with your identity crisis?

Besties since they bonded as children over being the only Asian children in town, Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) are opposites.

Audrey, who feels stuck between two cultures as an adoptee of a white couple, is a studious lawyer and Lolo is an outgoing, struggling artist.

When Audrey scores a work trip to Beijing, Lolo comes along, but brings her awkward K-pop loving cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), and the three meet up with Audrey’s college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu, who stars in a hit Netflix series.

The new location gives Audrey the opportunity to track down her birth mother, but complication abound and the foursome find themselves in a few spicy situations.

Mixing the best parts of Bridesmaids and Girls Trip, Joy Ride is about four adult women getting up to adult shenanigans.

The stars are an absolute dream of chemistry and comic timing, and director Adel Lim is unafraid let them loose.

Lim’s own eye for comedy is not to be overlooked (the vagina POV shot is a comedic highlight) and she manages to balance the filthy with the heartfelt.

While we have seen comedies about female friendships before, what this one looks at it through a identity crisis lens, offering a new dimension.

But with full frontal nudity, a threesome, coarse language and more, this is a gloriously filthy celebration of funny women in film.

This entry was posted on July 6, 2023 at 9:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.