Is there a genre where a group of friends have an experience, one that puts great stress on the group’s camaraderie, contains a lot of strong language and sex-based humor, and ends with the characters all tighter as a group while also collectively as better people? I mean, yeah. That seems to be something that’s become a thing since The 40 Year Old Virgin at the very least. The latest in this genre would be Joy Ride, where the twist here is the four friends are young Chinese people where one was raised by white people in America and may be looking for her roots.
Granted, I usually like these movies, so here we are.
Audrey Sullivan (Ashley Park) was raised by white people in a mostly white Seattle suburb. As a lawyer, she needs to make a trip to China to seal a business deal. All Ashley really knows about China is she was adopted from there as a baby, but she’s not going alone. Her childhood friend Lolo (Sherry Cola), an artist who specializes in body positivity, is coming along to act as translator, and her college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu), a famous actress in China, will meet them there. Rounding out the group is Lolo’s socially awkward cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), a massive K-pop fan.
Side note: I thought I heard Audrey refer to Deadeye as a “they” at one point, and Sabrina Wu identifies as nonbinary, so I’m going to refer to the character as such as a result if it comes up again here.
However, there’s a twist for Audrey: the businessman (Ronny Chieng) she’s set to do a deal with for her law firm is a huge fan of families, so he won’t cut a deal without getting to know Audrey’s. Lolo then volunteers that Audrey is close to her birthmother, leading the foursome to a cross-country trek to find a woman Audrey only knows from a single photograph in a country where the four have varying degrees of understanding of the local culture. Each member of the group, of course, has their own problems, such as Kat’s trying to hide her sexual past from a devout Christian fiance (Desmond Chiam) or Deadeye’s general lack of friends in their life. Can these four find what they are looking for? And do they even know what that is?
Now, I will say I did like this very much. The central foursome are all likable characters with good group chemistry. Even as Kat and Lolo seem to be competing for the role as Audrey’s best friend, it’s not hard to like the way these four interact. Yes, the most elaborate bit in the movie might have worked better for me if I was more familiar with either Cardi B or K-pop, but that also ended with what was easily the most R-rated and unexpected joke in the entire movie, so I won’t complain too much. That said, I was a little unsure how famous in China Kat was supposed to be since she was stopped in some places by fans and in others completely ignored.
Of course, as I said in the intro, this is a movie of a very certain genre, and even with the Asian twist, it was a movie that hit a lot of familiar tropes. Granted, I still like those tropes, but in many ways, and as fun as it is, I wouldn’t call Joy Ride all that groundbreaking. Still, I found it funny and I was entertained.
Grade: B+
0 Comments