- Main Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu
- Director: Adele Lim
- Writers: Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao
Joy Ride is a little bit raunchy, a little bit sweet, and a whole lot of fun.
Audrey(Park) and Lolo(Cola) are childhood friends that get an opportunity to travel to China in order to close a deal for Audrey’s law firm, with Lolo serving as her translator. Tagging along are Lolo’s cousin, Deadeye (Wu) and Audrey’s college bestie, Kat (Hsu), to round out this unlikely troop of travel companions.
On the surface Joy Ride is a “road trip” comedy, but there are some very poignant moments and deeper issues explored, some of which are uniquely Asian. Ultimately this film is focused on the changing definition of friendship and family. This movie stops just short of taking itself too seriously, always successfully bringing it back to the laughs in a spritely and ribald way.
Things go sideways almost immediately when they land in China and they spend the rest of the film struggling to close Audrey’s deal and make it back home without getting arrested, fired, or killed in the process. As a half-Asian American Gen Xer, I found this film hilarious and many of the themes explored were painfully relatable.
Joy Ride is a little gem of a film about self-realization, chock full of delicious cameos and outrageous side quests.
Review by Soma
Score: B
