A quartet of mismatched women take a road trip across China in a journey of self-discovery in Adele Lim's raunchy comedy.
Four Asian-American women journey to China, an adventure which turns into a complete clusterfuck of a road trip as they bounce between mishaps, discover each others’ worst sides and try to make peace with their conflicting cultural roots in Joy Ride. Director Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians), makes her feature debut with this riotous, if sometimes a bit sappy, lady-boner comedy.
Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (comedian Sherry Cola) have been best mates since they were tiny, when the latter beat up baby racists in the playground on behalf of the former, who was adopted by white parents. Lolo is chaotic, cheeky and cocksure – an artist living in Audrey’s spare room, played with frenetic aplomb by Cola. Audrey is a pristinely turned-out hotshot lawyer who plays squash at lunchtime with her Boomer boss, and whose assumed Whiteness and internalised racism is the subject of good gags galore. Audrey takes Lolo on her work trip to China as a translator, and Lolo invites her awkward non-binary cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), who loves K-Pop and hangs out predominantly online.
After landing in China, the trio rendezvous with Audrey’s old college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu) – formerly wild, but now leaving room for Jesus for her Bible-bashing beefcake fiancee – who instantly grinds Lolo’s gears. The gang accompany Audrey to work drinks with the Chinese businessman (Ronnie Chieng) she’s been tasked with striking a deal with, and things go amusingly awry as she tries and fails to prove herself in the face of thousand-year-old-egg shots. To save the deal, the gang must track down her birth mother to prove herself to everyone, which sparks a domino effect of unfortunate events including being hustled by a drug dealer, crippling a basketball team and masquerading as K-Pop stars.
The Hangover is an obvious comparison (both films feature outrageously ill-placed tattoos), as is Bridesmaids – though I would argue that Joy Ride presents less farcical bitchiness and more realistic acid notes that exist particularly between female friends. But it’s impossible to ignore the influence of Superbad on the film. It is, after all, produced by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg and there is clearly a parallel Seth, Evan and Fogel in Lolo (who makes art with dicks), Audrey (highly strung and secretly planning to move to LA with Kat) and Deadeye (odd, but ultimately endearing).
Similar themes are explored, in terms of how childhood friendships are tested by adulthood, and how acute the fear of losing these relationships is. This produces entertaining microaggressions and bittersweet moments (whereas the film flags when attempting to be overtly moving, hammering home individual characters’ self-discovery), enriched by the added complexity of the gang’s Asian-American identities and places within their families. The near-romantic jealousy between long-time friends, and the excruciating but sometimes rewarding difficulty of introducing contrasting friends to one another, are explored to squirm-inducingly funny effect.
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Published 4 Aug 2023
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