'Joy Ride' review: All your friends will be talking about this fem-centric raunchfest
Girls-gone-wild comedies are nothing new. But "Joy Ride" makes its naughty, R-rated way into theaters with a crucial difference from say, "Girls Trip" or "Bridesmaids": an Asian American cast, three female leads and one nonbinary lead, ready to lace every laugh with human complication.
All your friends will be talking about this fem-centric raunchfest, so get in quick on "Joy Ride" before someone spoils the scrappy surprises. This trippy road trip marks the knockout directing debut of Adele Lim, who co-wrote the script for "Crazy Rich Asians." This one is way crazier.
Lim eases us into the madness with a sweet childhood prologue set in Washington state in 1998, when two young Asian girls, Audrey and Lolo, meet and bond as practically the only two kids of color in their white suburban town. It's even called White Falls. A racist crack from a playground kid earns him a smack upside the head from Lolo. Game on.
Cut to the present when Audrey, played by Ashley Park ("Emily in Paris"), is now a corporate lawyer about to take a business trip to Beijing that could make or break her career. The racist dudes in charge at her firm -- she's the only woman -- just assume she can speak Mandarin. Should Audrey tell them she's an adoptee with white parents? Maybe. But she doesn't.
That's why Audrey invites along Lolo (Sherry Cola of "Shortcomings"), a struggling artist, as her translator. To complete the quartet, we have Lolo's K-pop-loving cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu -- they were named the 2022 Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy) and Audrey's college bestie Kat, played by "Everything Everywhere All at Once" Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu.
And we're off, driven by four acting comets who know how to make comedy cut bone deep. Though Lolo worries that she and Audrey are drifting apart and shy Deadeye wonders if anyone notices her, Kat is right at home in Beijing where she stars in her own TV show with Christian fiance Clarence (Desmond Chiam), who adheres to strict rules of moral conduct. Yikes!
Clarence won't know what hit him as this foursome indulges in hi-jinx that would make the "The Hangover" dudes blush. They love talking smack about sex, drugs, vaginal tattoos and a drinking session that ends in explosive vomiting to rival anything in "Bridesmaids."
Lim deliciously skewers the stereotypes within the Asian diaspora. But she doesn't hide the hurt. Lim recently spoke of a Hollywood producer telling her: "I look at you and think, 'Dragon lady with a nail salon who might be human trafficking.'" No wonder her humor stings.
In "Joy Ride," giggles bubble out of character instead of blunt-force farce and that makes all the difference. Working from a script that allows the actors a chance to improvise from their own experiences, the film shines with an authenticity that sticks in the memory.
Instead of chasing men, the women in "Joy Ride" chase the professional and personal goals that they want to define them. Lim rocks the house with funny and then pulls the rug out by letting us see these women as raw, relatable flesh-and-blood humans.
Take the way Audrey uses her China trip to search for her birth mother. Don't expect spoilers here, except to say that "Joy Ride" delivers on the promise of its rowdy title while taking us to emotional corners that lazy joke machines prefer to skip. This you don't want to miss.
