Joy Ride Review: The Thirsty, Chaotic, Asian Chick-Flick You Should Watch With Your Girl Gang!
Damn, I need a girls' trip!
4 / 5
I watched Joy Ride the same week I watched Thank You For Coming. And while the latter left me high and dry, Joy Ride gave me everything and more that my chick-flick horny soul was craving. Joy Ride, which premiered at the SXSW film festival in March this year, is the feature directorial debut of Adele Lim, screenwriter for Crazy Rich Asians and Raya And The Last Dragon, both films I absolutely adore. With Joy Ride, Lim gives us a chaotic, outrageously funny, and sexy chick flick about female friendships that also speaks to the identity crisis of Asian immigrants. The film stars Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu, with Ronny Chieng, Meredith Hagner, David Denman, Annie Mumolo, Timothy Simons, Desmond Chiam, Chris Pang, and Daniel Dae Kim.
Audrey Sullivan is an Asian kid adopted from China by an American couple living in White Hills, Seattle. At the local park, she meets Lolo Chen, the only other Asian kid, and to their parents’ relief, they become best friends. While Lolo grows into this self-assured, foul-mouthed, sex-positive starving artist who lives in her best friend’s garage, Audrey, now a successful lawyer, is constantly reminded by people around her that she is an Asian kid adopted by white Americans. She feels the need to be the perfect American and excel at everything so she can feel like she belongs.
When the promise of a promotion takes her to Beijing for a deal, Audrey has no choice but to ask Lolo to be her Chinese translator. Lolo’s socially awkward cousin and BTS fan, Vanessa aka Deadeye, unknowingly joins them. They meet up with Audrey’s college roommate and Chinese TV sweetheart, Kat, who was once promiscuous but now lies about being celibate to her hunk Christian fiancé and co-star, Clarence. At the business meeting with businessman Chao, a lie uttered by Lolo sets these four women on a cross-country trip to China to find Audrey’s birth mother or risk losing the business deal.
The result… is an utterly chaotic road trip involving everything from drugs to threesomes to a fabulous K-Pop performance of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP that makes the girls go viral for all the wrong reasons! Will they find Audrey’s mother in time? And will their friendship survive this trip? It’s worth riding till the end to know.
Much like its name, Joy Ride is a tight 95-minute outrageously entertaining ride, almost like a Hangover or Bridesmaids with an Asian cast. The writing is relentlessly funny, benefitting from the comedic talents of actors like Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu, with not a single dull minute.
The film has everything you’d want from a good chick flick. The Chinese countryside locations are gorgeous. The girls are getting into insane trouble but it doesn’t matter because they’re in such cute fits. And the men they meet on the way are super hot. In fact, a drug bust scene (hilariously gross!) is followed by a night the girls spend with an NBA team that is such unabashedly raunchy fun, that I was both laughing and turned on, throughout!
But Joy Ride also packs heart, with Ashley Park’s Audrey undertaking the journey of finding who she is, coming to terms with her identity, and the beautiful friendship between her and Cola’s Lolo. An unexpected twist in the story in the second half makes the ending even sweeter. I enjoyed the petty banter between Lolo and Kat over their shared bestie; we’ve all felt possessive of our best friend! And Deadeye will make you want to hug your girlfriends and go on a road trip with them right away.
Also Read: What To Watch This Week of October 1 To 8: Thank You For Coming, Khufiya, Loki S2, Joy Ride, And More!
Verdict
In one scene, when Sherry Cola’s Lolo is explaining her sexually explicit art, she talks about how it looks obscene but all she wants to do is make sex-positive art to address the sexual repression of her fellow Asians. Joy Ride is so sex-positive and carefree in portraying women who are thirsty, horny, and enjoy sex, that it became one of my favourite things about the movie! We need more films like these.
Joy Ride is everything it promises you in its name, and the perfect chick-flick to watch with your gang on a girls’ night in. It is currently streaming on Lionsgate Play.
