THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The best kind of trips you take are the ones that become a Joy Ride by the end of it.
PLOT
The 2023 film follows Audrey Sullivan, a Chinese woman who was raide by white parents and grew up in White Hills, Seattle, with her childhood friend Lolo Chen. As an adult, Audrey is an overachieving lawyer working at a prestigious firm, whereas Lolo makes sex-positive art. Audrey tasks herself to a business trip to Beijing to close a deal with Chinese businessman Mr. Chao (Ronny Chieng). Lolo joins her on the trip and brings her cousin Vanessa aka Deadeye with them. When they land at Beijing, the girls meet up with Audrey's college roommate Kat whose now an actress of a popular daytime show and is engaged her to co-star Clarence (Desmond Chiam). Although she was sexually promiscuous in college, her fiance is a Christian and wants to save himself for marriage. At night, the girls would meet Chao at a club and after spending a couple hours partying with him, he insists on only doing business with Audrey if he gets to know her birth family. Although she does explain of being adopted, Lolo tries to save the deal by lying, saying her friend has close contact with her birth mother. She chose to do this due to recently calling the adoption agency, wanting to use the trip to track her down. Believing the lie, Chao agrees to close the deal if he meets Audrey's mother at another party. This leads to the girls boarding a train to the adoption agency the next day. It doesn't go as planned when a drug dealer named Jess (Meredith Hagner) is unable to get rid of drugs before getting inspected, forcing them to consume them or smuggle them vaginally. It would be a pointless decision because she would lie to security and have them kicked off the train, with Kat's luggage getting stolen in the process that had the group's passports. Luckily, Lolo is able to contact former NBA player Baron Davis to pick them up, while he's touring with a Chinese basketball team. As they spend the night, things get out of hand when the girls injure some of the players within separate sex-related incidents. Because of the injuries will affect their season, Baron refuses to drive them to their destination. This leads to the group hitchhiking to the grandmother of Lolo and Deadeye. After they spend the night of her home, they head to the adoption agency and discover Audrey is actually born a Korean, but was raised in China before being adopted. Still wanting to secure the deal, Audrey plans to head to Seoul to find her before the party. Since the group still doesn't have passports, Deadeye contacts an online friend to secure a private jet. They would try to bypass security by posing as a K-Pop group. Despite trying to seal the deal via musical act in which Lolo live-streams, it backfires when Kat's tatted vulva gets exposed. The incident would be claimed as a disturbance, causing the girls to take a boat to Korea. By the time they get there, the live-stream goes viral, which quickly damages Kat's career and her relationship with Clarence. It would affect Audrey because Chao saw it and refuses to do business with her. She would then get fired as well when her boss Frank (Timothy Simons) confirms to have seen it. The group would end up arguing when Kat spills that Audrey was gonna move to Los Angeles without Lolo. Audrey would then blame Lolo for the whole shenanigans they went through due to lying to Chao and calls out Kat for not being honest to Clarence of her past. Lolo would defend her case by explaining she wanted to help her close the deal, as well as help her give the identity she wanted. Audrey would end the argument by claiming the latter's never applied herself due to living in her garage since adulthood. This of course defends her friends since she's had her back since childhood. As Audrey leaves them, Deadeye would be devastated of their separation. On her own, Audrey would find out her birth mother Min Park (Michelle Choi-Lee) passed away years prior from a fatal illness. Upon visiting her grave, she would meet her mother's husband Dae Han (Daniel Dae Kim), who she married before getting sick. He would share with her that she always thought of her ever since. He would even admit her friends told him he would find her at the cemetery. This would inspire Audrey to quickly return to Seattle to make peace Lolo & Deadeye, while Kat patches up with Clarence with her honesty. The film would end in a time jump a year after this trip, showing them have a best friends trip in Paris: Kat's career has recovered and securing a date for her wedding with Clarence, Lolo is successfully selling her art, Audrey has started her own law firm, and Deadeye now identifies as non-binary.
THOUGHTS
I was worried no one was watching comedies anymore because no one around me was watching what's new. It felt like a change in 2023 because I got more comfortable looking for laughter. And making time for this shortly after No Hard Feelings was worth it because I had a good time once again. Director Adele Kim was able to able to make a film that indeed lives up to the name. Raunchiness works in these kind of movies and the majority of it is in thanks to the effect of shock value. So if you can't handle barfing, smuggling vaginally, getting horny while high or seeing a tatted vagina after a stylish musical number, you'll probably walk out halfway. I thought those situations played out very well in a hilarious state because that's a lot to go through in a few days. Behind all the graphic madness, I appreciate its approach to give a fair amount of heart these movies go for. This is one of those stories where you accept your own identity and appreciate the friends that try to help you along the way because not everyone will be willing to do the same. Thanks to a talented ensemble, the message is easily captured. Ashley Park makes waves for being a strong lead here. As Audrey, we respect her for being a hard working lady wanting to make a name for herself, but it's tested when she doesn't entirely consider what her friends are trying to do for her. She avoided searching for her birth mom until she had no choice because she was fine never knowing and didn't want to end up having a disappointing answer. It's already a lot to take when finding out you're a whole other ethnicity when being mistaken to be another your whole life. Despite things not going her way, she still chose to finish the journey because she accepted that any answer wouldn't change the person she grew up to be. And with it giving her solace, she knew she had to make things right with those who were looking out for her, which made me glad she did in the end. Sherry Cola definitely surprised me as Lolo because her sex-positive attitude makes her more laid back, no more how offensive she might be to others unintentionally. It still surprises me that she scored a relationship with Baron Davis of all people. I got the biggest laugh in seeing how calm she was while being very high on cocaine compared to the others. It was pretty crazy of a decision for her to orchestrate a journey to find Audrey's birth mom, but this was truly an act of loyalty to their friendship because she knew it would eat her up the more she chose to ignore it. She didn't want to waste time working with her family because she felt like she was giving up on her dream. But as time went on, she accepted doesn't happen overnight. I adored Sabrina Wu as Deaedye because they still have that free spirited attitude deep down like her cousin. The only problem is that they had a hard time expressing until feeling comfortable about it. Since they are also shy, it was definitely hard to fit in. Luckily, their time with Audrey encouraged her it's okay to be different. I don't know how the light up tattoo works, but at least they are happy about it. The only actress I knew in advance was Stephanie Hsu, who blew up due to the successful Everything Everywhere All at Once. She definitely changed things up in playing Kat as pretty self absorbed as a talented actress, but still makes up for it in efforts being a good friend to Audrey. A whole new chapter in her life happened when she met Clarence to the point where she refused to look back on the past. For an eventful past that was filled with constant hookups, she knew it would be hard to talk about. I mean I don't know how much longer she would've kept secret of the tattoo had the incident not happened at the airport, but she should've known it was bound to be brought up. It was a big relief for Clarence to put his intimidation aside to accept her past because neither should be ashamed of it since it only makes you better than before by learning from it all. Since all four leads get the time to figure themselves out, it's gladdening they get to be on the same page by the end of it and I hope they do more trips that are contained to their liking. This film was indeed fun to get through, but even the fun ones have its moments that didn't make sense to me. Like for instance, it's kind of baffling Audrey never tells Frank to read the room whenever he tries to be woke around her. I know it's part of the joke he's trying too hard to be diverse, but I'd say something after being given a Mulan themed party. I don't even blame her for choosing to not make a big deal of her adoption, but how come she never noticed the adoption agency's ad on the back of the picture? It's so common to flip the picture to see the blank behind it, so it's crazy she never did before. I also thought it was a bad move for Kat to tell Lolo she knows of her living arrangement. Not everyone is proud to live in a garage, so that was cold on her end. She even messes up big time lying about the tattoo. If she told Audrey about it, she should've not denied her issues with it. I feel like if Audrey knew, she'd probably help pay for a more effective surgery. And is it me or did Chao spot the girls in record time? I gotta ask because for one that was drinking in advance, he was pretty lucky to spot them. And let's be honest, the girls are very lucky to not overdose because they consumed a shitload of drugs. If anyone had a bigger risk, it had to be Kate because a bag of coke exploded inside her. Also, where did the girls get the K-Pop costumes? If that came from Deadeye's online friends, I wish that was clear. Lastly, I don't think Lolo should be picked on about the live-stream because like everything else, she's just been trying to help and had no idea how bad things would get. Ignore this, and you'll still be enjoying the film for what it is. In short, 2023's Joy Ride is another memorable comedy for knowing how to roll with the flow. If you still prefer raunchy comedies, this is totally up your alley.
Comments