Joy Ride
Asian-American representation and bawdy laughs make for winning bedfellows.
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There’s a new “Joy Ride” on the block and it opens in theaters on Friday, July 7. This one isn’t directed by John Dahl, wasn’t co-written by J.J. Abrams, doesn’t star Steve Zahn, Paul Walker or Leelee Sobieski, no one adopts the aliases Candy Cane or Rusty Nail and there’s nary a semi-truck in sight.
This “Joy Ride” is the directorial debut of Malaysian-American screenwriter Adele Lim (“Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) who dreamt up the story alongside veteran TV scribes Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, both of whom recently worked on Comedy Central’s “Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens.” The picture is also produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures. Like many Point Grey productions this one concerns friendship, has tons of heart, is dirty as all get-out and funny AF.
Tony-nominated actress Ashley Park stars as Audrey, a Seattle-based Asian-American woman working as an attorney. She reports to self-proclaimed ally Frank (“Veep” vet Timothy Simons) and is angling for a promotion. Opportunity strikes with a business trip to Beijing where if she can close businessman Chao (Ronny Chieng, “M3GAN”) she’ll make partner.
Accompanying Audrey on her journey is her lifelong best friend Lolo (Sherry Cola), who will serve as her translator. Also tagging along is Lolo’s K-pop obsessed cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu). The trio meet up with Audrey’s college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu, a Best Supporting Actress nominee for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), an actress starring on the television series “The Emperor’s Daughter” who has reclaimed her virginity and is engaged to her chaste co-star Clarence (Desmond Chiam).
Despite Audrey loving her adoptive parents Joe (David Denman) and Mary (Annie Mumolo), Lolo is fairly insistent that she should meet her birth mother during their travels.
“Joy Ride” (hilariously originally titled “Joy F*ck Club”) is indicative of a couple trends – the ascension of Asian women in mainstream Hollywood movies (it’s a direct extension of stuff like “The Farewell” and the aforementioned “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and the return of bawdy, R-rated sex comedies (“No Hard Feelings” released a few weeks back and Happy Madison’s “The Out-Laws” drops on Netflix tomorrow).
Believe it or not the flick would make an awesome back half to a double bill with Korean-Canadian writer/director Celine Song’s “Past Lives” (currently in theaters and currently my favorite film of 2023). Both pictures deal deeply, extensively and sensitively with identity politics. Their protagonists grapple with whether they’re Asian, American or Asian-American. Both movies moved me to tears, but only “Joy Ride” has jokes about keistering cocaine and vagina tattoos and a bitchin’ musical number wherein our heroines transform Cardi B’s “WAP” into a K-pop tune.
The flick’s biggest downfall … and it’s an inconsequential one … comes by embracing the late second/early third act arc prevalent in almost every Point Grey production wherein the friends have a falling out and later reconcile. This cliché was previously trotted out in “50/50,” “This is the End,” “Neighbors,” “The Interview” “The Night Before,” “Blockers,” “Long Shot” and “Good Boys.” (All movies I dig for the record.) Then again – if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Park, Cola, Wu and Hsu are uniformly excellent as is “Joy Ride” itself. It feels authentically Asian and is sex-positive. Representation matters. Laughs matter too. There’s an abundance of both here.