Sabrina Wu as Deadeye, Ashley Park as Audrey, Stephanie Hsu as Kat and Sherry Cola as Lolo in Joy Ride. Photo Credit: Ed Araquel
Courtney Howard // Film Critic
JOY RIDE
Rated R, 1 hour and 35 minutes
Directed by: Adele Lim
Starring: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu, Chris Pang, Rohain Arora, Desmond Chiam, Alexander Hodge, Meredith Hagner
Both the journey and its destination are the attraction of JOY RIDE. Adele Lim’s directorial debut (after co-penning CRAZY RICH ASIANS), centered on four Asian-American women whose friendship is tested on a road trip to China and Korea, is fantastically frank, filthily funny and palpably poignant. Humor and heart are given ample time to blossom, well-earning the audience’s laughter and tears. This raunch-com does what not many have done, acting as a sex-positive, hilariously contemplative study of female friendship and cultural identity.
Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) have been best friends since childhood in their mostly white Washington state suburb. They’re a match made in ODD COUPLE heaven, or so they’re currently maintaining. Lolo, a fierce champion of her bestie, is a foul-mouthed slacker, living in a “She Shed”-sized house in Audrey’s backyard, funding her dirty art projects by working at her parents’ Chinese restaurant. Audrey, however, is excelling at her law firm, despite deflecting her white male co-workers’ obvious overcompensation for racial bias. Her need to be the best started young, driven by her need to assimilate as an adopted daughter to white parents, and it has carried into her adulthood. Yet, even though the gals’ bond is tight, their lives are starting to diverge.
Audrey is up for a partnership at her firm that would, unbeknownst to Lolo, relocate her to Los Angeles if she locks down a deal on a business trip to Beijing. Trouble is, she doesn’t speak Chinese fluently and needs a translator. Lolo volunteers and has some plans of her own, mainly encouraging Audrey to find her birth mother while there – something Audrey’s been reticent to do. Along for the ride is Lolo’s socially awkward, K-pop obsessed cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) and Audrey’s promiscuous-turned-prudish college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu), a successful actress filming in Beijing. The real hijinks and hilarity ensue, though, when Audrey gets herself in a pickle with the person she’s trying to impress (Ronnie Chieng), leading the gals on a road trip that takes them to surprising places physically and emotionally.
With humor on the same wavelength as the ribald, bawdy natures of THE SWEETEST THING and BRIDESMAIDS (while also containing, if not transcending, their similar sentiments on sisterhood), Lim delivers an all-timer. She and screenwriters Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao capture these young womens’ lives dynamically, which makes the emotions resonate universally. They do so through a very specific lens, speaking to cultural heritage and identity. They capture the female gaze with sexiness and wanton lust, taking their time to display the beefcake in sequences featuring Kat’s chaste co-star boyfriend Clarence (Desmond Chiam), her ex-beau Todd (Alexander Hodge), and a few basketball players Audrey eyeballs (Chris Pang and Rohain Arora) and subsequently balls. There’s even a whole music video stylized segment woven in with skillful smarts – one with a final shot that begs Andrew Dominik’s BLONDE to eat its heart out.
The way the filmmakers compound the comedy and escalating conflicts are two sides of the same coin. The uproarious scene on the train where the gals meet a suspicious American traveler (Meredith Hagner) is just as potent – and carries a similar narrative weight – as the scene where Audrey inevitably learns some hard truths about herself. Though Lolo comparatively experiences the least amount of change (which surprisingly works to this film’s benefit as that’s her realization), Kat and Deadeye’s arcs are well-defined and well-developed.
While there are some slight tonal issues transitioning from its second to third acts as it attempts to return to the crass jokes after genuine poignancy, it’s a solid summer comedy. The actresses have great chemistry, proving they’re a phenomenal force when funny women come together and create something truly special.
Grade: B+
JOY RIDE opens in theaters on July 7.
