Movie Review: 'Joy Ride'

Joy Ride (2023)

Directed by Adele Lim

Written by Cherry Chevapravataldumrong, Terese Hsiao, Adel Lim

Starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu

Release Date July 7th, 2023

Published July 11th, 2023

There is a visual gag in Joy Ride that is one of the biggest laughs of 2023. It involves one of the most elaborate and unexpected tattoos ever brought to a film screen. I will not spoil it, but truly, any attempt to describe this gag does not do justice the visual designer who crafted this. I don't know if that was makeup or a CGI design of some sort, whatever it was, it's so funny that I laughed embarrassingly loudly. I laughed so hard that it hurt. My eyes popped open to such a degree that I was concerned. It's just that great of a visual gag.

It's also a very raunchy, incredibly R-Rated gag and thus why you will have to see it for yourself when you see Joy Ride, a terrifically funny and very R-Rated road trip comedy. The film stars Ashley Park as Audrey, one of the boys, despite being very much a woman, at her boy's club of a law office. With her shot at a partnership on the line, Ashley agrees to travel to China to meet with a client and secure a deal. Not speaking Chinese however, Audrey is forced to bring along her childhood friend Lolo (Sherry Cola).

Lolo is a loving and devoted friend but also a bit of a chaos demon. The two met as the only two Asian girls at their local park. Shy and reserved Audrey was there with her adopted, white, parents who could not be more excited to welcome an Asian couple with an Asian daughter to their neighborhood. Lolo secures their friendship when she punches out a boy who uses a racial slur against Audrey. They've been best friends ever since, even as Audrey has gone on to professional success in the law and Lolo has lived in a guest house nearby while working on being an artist.

Because of Lolo's inability to say no to her family, the two are being joined on the trip to China by Lolo's deeply odd and ambiguous Cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu). Deadeye is the Zach Galifianakis of this Hangover style comedy, a breakout weirdo with her own movie happening in her head that we only catch glimpses of. The final member of the Joy Ride foursome is Audrey's friend from college, Kat (Stephanie Hsu), now a famous Chinese television actress known for her radiant innocence. Once you know that, you know how that joke is likely to payoff but you won't believe how it pays off.

The plot kicks into gear when the Chinese firm that Audrey is courting wants to know more about Audrey's family life. She makes up a story about meeting her mother in China as part of this trip and this earns her an opportunity to mingle with the family of her client, but only if she can bring her mother along. This is a problem as Audrey has never met her birth mother. Where this story thread goes is a surprisingly humane and dramatic subplot amid all of the hard-drinking, hard-partying hijinks of the rest of Joy Ride.

The dramatic parental subplot with its unexpected twists and turns is actually quite refreshing amid all of the raunch. I enjoyed the R-Rated humor of Joy Ride for the most part but the movie is even funnier for me because I came to really care about these characters as people as much as comic foils for R-Rated sex gags. That said, the sex gags are fantastic as well. Audrey really lets loose on her trip to China and the sexual freedom of Joy Ride provides some terrifically unexpected scenes, both sexy and very, very funny. Watch out for a cameo from real life former NBA star Baron Davis that is also quite funny.

Joy Ride is fearlessly filthy but underpinned by believable relationship and friendship dynamics that make these characters far more than props for R-Rated jokes. The wonderful foursome of actresses at the front of Joy Ride have tremendous chemistry and their growing bond as the story progresses, tested by their various trials and personal problems, has a realistic bent. These characters are often quite broad but they also feel like recognizable human beings amid all of the chaos of this comic story.

I really enjoyed Joy Ride. This is a very R-Rated comedy, hard R-Rated comedy, but its a movie that earns that R-Rating and really makes it matter. Joy Ride does not hold back, it lets loose with big R-Rated laughs and risky sex gags that may not be suitable for the more prudish among us. Then there is that big visual gag, one of the funniest moments of 2023. It's almost a jump-scare. It happens so unexpectedly and is shot so perfectly that shock hits, followed by a very quick realization of what you are seeing and an absolutely uncontrollable reflex laughter. This joke alone would be worth the price of admission for me, but the whole of Joy Ride is also quite good.

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