Joy Ride – Review
95 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao, and Adele Lim
Directed by Adele Lim
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film in more detail. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Follows four Chinese-American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through China in search of one of their birth mothers.
Remember when Bridesmaids was touted as the female answer to The Hangover films?
We’re way past that, now.
With Joy Ride, writer/director Adele Lim takes the female-centric raunch-comedy to new heights (depths?), but it does it in a film which is actually a pretty interesting story about four women who all share a common attribute: they all have issues with who they are; what is their identity?
As they travel to China to help one of them close a big business deal and secure a partnership, we get a story of nature vs nurture, and how where we “come from” does or doesn’t dictate where we end up.
Family, both born and acquired, is a huge part of the film. Friendship and loyalty, too. These women are each bounded by their differences and bound by their commonalities. It’s really a well put together bit of story-telling.
And then there’s the raunchy bits. And man, are they raunchy, lol. They make The Hangover films look absolutely tame in comparision.
Let’s just say that you’ll never look at a basketball the same way. KPop, either.
Ironically, this film doesn’t need these bits at all, but they absolutely belong to these characters in every way. They fit the characters (for the most part), the situations, and add a level of shock to the film that isn’t normally found in female-led comedy.
But despite being a good film, it’s a difficult one to know who to recommend it to. If the raunch isn’t in your wheelhouse, then I don’t know if you can get past it to the real story. This really is a “personal taste” type of recommendation.
If you generally enjoyed The Hangover and Bridesmaids, then you’ll likely enjoy this one, though it is a completely different kind of movie.
You have been warned.
Let us know what you think.
Joy Ride is in theaters now and stars Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Sabrina Wu, and Stephanie Hsu.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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