Horny, gutter-minded and propelled by wholesale quantities of drugs and booze: Joy Ride is the kind of uninhibited blast of bad behaviour that was, until the past decade or so, primarily the domain of young white males. Films such as Bridesmaids and Road Trip did more than simply put lipstick on a familiar formula – they tapped into the very specific tensions that result when the closed circle of lifelong female friendship is breached. Now the reins of the genre have been passed again, this time to a quartet of Asian Americans who work their way through cultural confusion, petty jealousies and most of a basketball team during a trip to China.
High-achieving lawyer Audrey (Ashley Park) was adopted from China by a white American couple and has a tenuous connection with her Asian roots (her favourite band is Mumford & Sons). Her Chinese-American childhood best friend, Lolo (Sherry Cola), is a budding artist who weaves her cultural identity into confrontationally “sex-positive” works that nobody buys. Lolo and her socially awkward non-binary cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), tag along on Audrey’s work trip to Beijing. There, they join Audrey’s college buddy Kat (Everything Everywhere’s Stephanie Hsu), a former wild child turned soap actor who is keen to keep her lurid past concealed, along with her incriminating crotch tattoo.
A skit-based structure gives the story a disjointed feel, and the gross-out elements (the set is awash with projectile vomit at one point) are rather tired. Still, the picture makes sharp observations about identity and belonging. And the humour is crude, ribald and deliciously unsavoury – everything you could hope for, in fact.
