Minor spoilers for Joy Ride are ahead. Read with caution.
I love a raunchy comedy, and let’s just say Joy Ride takes the raunch to a whole new level. At one point, Adele Lim’s directorial debut, which lives in the same genre as Bridesmaids and Girls Trip, was supposed to be called Joy Fuck Club, and it lives up to that name. However, the movie is more than its dirty jokes, in fact, it uses this type of comedy to enhance its storytelling and share a refreshing take on female friendship.
This movie, also co-written by Lim, tells the story of Audrey (Ashley Park) as she travels to China to close a business deal with her friend Lolo (Sherry Cola) and Lolo’s cousin Dead Eye (Sabrina Wu). However, the trip turns into a wild quest to find Audrey’s birth mom, and the group, which also features Audrey’s actress friend Kat (Stephanie Hsu), ends up on a wild adventure that includes a drug bust, the song “WAP,” a wild night with basketball players, and more.
It’s a raunchy, hilarious take on a woman trying to find herself, and while the laughs are a mile a minute, Joy Ride also shows audiences the power of friendship in an authentic way.
Joy Ride Doesn't Hold Back From Exploring How Beautifully Messy Friendships Can Be
Much like Bridesmaids, this story centers partly around the idea of mixing friendships, like when your childhood best friend meets your college roommate. And, like that older film, it doesn't hold back when it comes to how messy friendship can be.
My favorite beautifully messy friendship in this movie was between Lolo, Audrey’s childhood bestie, and Kat, Audrey’s BFF from college. The two have an awkward, but really funny rivalry, at the beginning of the movie, because they both want to be Audrey's BFFL, which is honestly so real. Their bickering had me cracking up, but it also depicted this nuanced thing that happens in friendships when groups mix.
Luckily, it had a happy ending, and the two came together to help out their friend.
The other primary example of the complexities of female friendship comes when Audrey has a major breakdown about her identity and her biological mother. While she’s having this moment, she calls out all her friends, specifically Lolo, who had spent the film pressuring Audrey to find her mom. It’s a moment of rage and passion, but it’s also realistic. Following this, even though they’re mad at each other, the characters come back together to truly support one another, showing this undying love.
Overall, Joy Ride shows the ups and downs of companionship, and authentically highlights both the amazing and tough parts of friendship, which I really loved.
Every Character In Joy Ride Is Three-Dimensional, Flawed And Funny
The movie's biggest strength is its leading ensemble of up-and-coming Asian actors. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu each play unique three-dimensional characters that are hilarious and deeply relatable. This ultimately created a wacky, yet perfectly balanced group who complimented one another throughout the whole film.
As I mentioned in my review of Joy Ride, Park plays Audrey, a brilliant lawyer who is also hilarious and horny, she also has a sick Gollum impression up her sleeve. Meanwhile, Cola’s character, Lolo, is a starving artist who is incredibly confident and very sexual. Hsu plays a sexually repressed actress, Wu plays Dead Eye, Lolo’s cousin who is the odd one out at first, but who's also so sweet and caring. When you put all four together its a recipe for beautiful chaos.
Each of the four leading characters are well-defined and complex. For example, Audrey is serious and career driven, but she’s also super down to party and quite silly. Things like this show the nuance of their characters, and because Lim didn’t write them as tropes, it makes for a unique and authentic ensemble. And, said ensemble is one of the major reasons why the film is such a joy.
The Raunchy Humor Actually Makes The Storyline Better, Too
Joy Ride is so specifically funny and raunchy, and by not holding back it makes for not only a hilarious movie but an empowering storyline. For a long time, it felt like topics like a woman’s sex life were taboo and weren’t supposed to be talked about. However, that idea has thankfully been thrown out the window, and this movie smashed it to pieces.
Seeing this cast really lean into the raunchy humor is empowering, and it’s validating to see these characters being their true, authentic, silly and horny selves. I mean, just watch the basketball scene and you’ll know what I mean. Not only does this make the characters more three-dimensional it also enhances the story, and makes it both niche and universal, so people everywhere can relate to it.
I found myself thinking about this a lot when Kristen Meinzer, the co-host of Daily Fail, appeared on Pop Culture Happy Hour, and explained how this hilarious film was the most “nuanced” and “accurate” depiction of her life-experience that she’s seen. She explained that as a “trans-racial Asian American adoptee” herself, it really hit home:
In my life I’ve experienced racism, assumptions from all sides, from non-Asians, from other Asian Americans, from Asian people in Asia. I know what it’s like for certain people to see me as white and others to see me as foreign. And I know what it’s like to have certain friends push me to find my biological parents when I don’t know if that’s something I really want to do. The movie touches on all of that. It doesn't do it in a preachy way, which I appreciated, it’s in a funny way. It doesn't show a perfect happy ending either, which I really appreciate, because, what is a happy ending in this situation? And they don’t try to show or tell us what that is supposed to be.
While the film is raunchy as heck, and should 100% be on the list of R-rated comedies that really earn said rating, it also packs a deep message, one that tons of people can relate to. So, seeing a story like Audrey’s play out on a big screen in a silly yet meaningful way is incredibly powerful.
There’s something so refreshing and empowering about seeing a comedy made by women that doesn't hold back and really leans into the silly. Joy Ride does exactly that while also showing audiences the power of female friendship and being truly seen for who you are, which is why it’s such a wonderful film.
Joy Ride is currently playing in theaters. After you see this phenomenal comedy, make sure to check out the 2023 movie schedule to plan your next trip to the cinema.
