Joy Ride, 2023.
Directed by Adele Lim.
Starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu, David Denman, Annie Mumolo, Chris Pang, Isla Rose Hall, Desmond Chiam, Alexander Hodge, Nicholas Carella, Debbie Fan, Victor Lau, Rohain Arora, Chloe Pun, Kenneth Liu, Brian Cyburt, Johnny Wu, and Daniel Dae Kim.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows four Asian-American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers.
Explicitly raunchy and filled with considerable heart, first-time director Adele Lim’s (and screenwriters Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao) Joy Ride is consistently hilarious all the way through.
It also practically hits the ground running with chaotic energy and humor, opening up with a quick flashback prologue showing how Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lola (Sherry Cola) became friends. Hailing from White Falls (apparently located near Seattle), the adopted Asian-American Audrey struggles to make friends in a neighborhood populated by racist whites until her parents (David Denman and Annie Mumolo) notice the new kid on the playground, Lolo, suggesting they play together since they come from the same background. Not even a minute later, Lolo knocks one of those racist pricks on their ass. Thus, a lifelong friendship is born.
In the present day, Audrey is a hotshot lawyer eager to prove her worth to those around her, specifically white America. Deep into a predominantly male work environment (complete with bro culture, with co-workers questioning if what they say is appropriate while swearing up and down that they are equality allies), Audrey clearly took the childhood bullying to heart over the years and is in a never-ending cycle of shutting up the doubters and trying to fit into a community that initially wanted nothing to do with her, all while muddling up her cultural identity in the process (amusingly, she often comes across racist against fellow Asians while quick to trust the sketchiest white women imaginable, primarily listens to white music, and has never dated another Asian).
Meanwhile, Lolo is a provocative artist living with bestie Audrey until she starts selling some of her projects. They are all sexually charged (involving penises and vaginas in some form or another), expressing that it’s not shock value and that she wants her work to start sex-positive conversations. It’s also transparent that adulthood couldn’t have taken their personalities any further in the opposite direction; Audrey is often stressed out, work-oriented, and perpetually fixated on working her way to the top, simply because that notion of feeling obligated to work harder than everyone else is unshakable when one has been made to feel like an outsider. As for Lolo, she is still, relaxed, and unabashedly open about sex.
Audrey’s work is also taking her on a business trip to her homeland, China. She has enlisted Lolo to tag along as her interpreter, who sees this adventure as an opportunity to find Audrey’s biological mother like they always said they would when they were foul-mouthed kids. This is of no interest to Audrey, who has no desire to connect to anything about her culture or heritage. She is visiting to close a deal, and that’s it. In a turn of events, it turns out that bringing her mom to a party hosted by this business associate would go a long way in accomplishing her task, with Lolo impulsively ensuring that they will bring Audrey’s mom. Shenanigans across China ensue in a race against time to locate Audrey’s mom and attend the party.
While there, Audrey also meets up with college friend Kat (Stephanie Hsu, nominated for an Oscar last year and similarly impressive here tackling a different genre), now a soap opera actress who has reformed her sexually deviant ways, now dating her hardcore Christian co-star who insists they practice celibacy until marriage. Lolo’s hopelessly socially awkward K-pop stanning cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) also tags along, ensuring everyone that she will eventually be meeting up with her online friends that are totally real.
The quartet has lively chemistry, bouncing crude dialogue off one another with heart and sincerity. Joy Ride isn’t just a ridiculously funny movie about cultural identity but also a relatively thoughtful look at the friendships that exist within those cultures and the differences outside them. There are several conversations about what it means to be Chinese or Asian that strike a balance between insightful and comedic. The filmmakers also aren’t using Deadeye as a punching bag for easy jokes about social outcasts but as yet another entry point for exploring what constitutes a true friend.
Everyone also gets an opportunity to be unabashedly horny, aligning with themes about balancing work and fun, or pleasure, so to speak. It’s safe to say that Audrey has completely lost the plot on who she is from diving so far deep down a rabbit hole of professional work, and a character such as Kat has gone too far in changing her personality to someone that she doesn’t recognize in becoming a prude for the man she desires. Perhaps it’s up to Lolo to help everyone find themselves, even if she is quite the mess that gets everyone into wildly awkward situations.
Unsurprisingly, the script indulges in the usual third-act friendship collapse tropes, but such instances are not bothersome here since the film and magnetic ensemble mostly succeeds at exploring identity. Certain dramatic situations feel rushed or overly familiar, but buying into the inevitable friction between the characters is easy. Adele Lim knows when to embrace frenetic lunacy and bold sexual hijinks and when to slow down for the occasional emotional beat. Joy Ride is riotously outrageous and cleverly written, often using laughs to propel story themes forward.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
