Joy Ride
Director: Adele Lim
Year: 2023
Rating: 6.0
This film starts off cute, moves to sweet, then
becomes extremely foul-mouthed and finally predictably verves to sentimental
mush. It is sort of like a Hangover movie except with women. Bonding over
dicks, blow jobs, vomiting, vaginas and K-pop. I am not sure I was ready
for this honestly. I am 70 years-old and the crudeness of the dialogue stuck
in my throat like a dry cracker. I mean I was brought up on the Donna Reed
Show. But it is directed and written by women, so I guess this is how it
really is for that generation. Damn, I am so old-fashioned! I watch films
with men talking like this and don't think twice but coming out of the mouths
of nice middle class American-Chinese girls was hard for me to swallow. I
have a lot to learn about women and I am running out of time. All that said,
this can be quite outlandishly funny as the quartet goes from one absurd
situation to an even more absurd situation. Stretching one's credibility
to the breaking point and beyond. I can imagine writing the script was good
fun - there were no rules - just whatever struck them as silly and dirty.
My mother would have probably enjoyed this.
Like I said it begins cute - somewhere in
white America a Chinese couple move in with their young daughter Lolo (Sherry
Cola). At the park a white couple approaches them and asks if it is ok if
their daughter (Audrey) plays with her. Audrey is adopted and Chinese. As
they go to get on a slide a little shit white boy calls them a slur and Lolo
punches him in the nose. Of such things are life-long friends made. Jump
ahead 20-years or so and they are still best buddies - Audrey is a top lawyer
and Lolo is an aspiring artist of porn art. Audrey (Ashley Park) has to close
a deal in China and Lolo is going with her as translator - joined by Lolo's
cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) a K-pop fan and kind of gender neutral. In China
they meet up with Audrey's college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu) who is a
popular actress in China.
And the adventure begins. With talk of dicks
and tattoos on vaginas. Of Kat pretending to her boyfriend that she is a
virgin though she has had more traffic than the Lincoln Tunnel. All four
of them meet up at a disco with the man (Ronny Chieng) about signing the
deal. Drinks and vomiting all around but he says he won't sign the deal till
he meets Audrey's birth mother. Not so easy and they have to go on the road
with complications like having to stuff drugs up their butt, having a threesome,
having a crazy night with a big Chinese family, disguising themselves as
a K-Pop group to try and get into Korea, becoming a viral video for the wrong
reasons and lots of talk about sex. Maybe it could have been toned down for
an old fart like me. I would guess women would appreciate this more. Four
independent women talking trash and living it. Basically, going fuck you
to those that don't accept them. The director is Adele Lim in her debut.
She was one of the writers of Crazy Rich Asians. I get the impression that
all four actresses are pretty well-known out there in comedy land - stand-up
and such but they were all new to me. Raunchy and funny all with distinct
personalities.
