Joy Ride (2023)

Bawdy, raunchy humor generally isn’t my style, but, when it’s done with wit, creativity and no-holds-barred originality, it gets my attention quickly, which this filmmaking debut from writer- director Adele Lim captures from the very first line of the picture (and never lets go thereafter). This rapid-fire screwball comedy follows the exploits of four young Asian women (Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Sabrina Wu, Stephanie Hsu) on an outlandish road trip through China that steadily deteriorates but routinely places them in a host of raucously hilarious, debauchery-riddled situations. In doing so, th…

CinemaSerf

7.0

Jul 21, 2023

When I saw the trails for this, I was not very enthusiastic. Now I am glad to say that this is more of a failing of the teaser makers than of the film itself, which is actually at the better end of the genre. It all centres around the high-flying "Audrey" (Ashley Park) who is on for a partnership at her firm if she can travel to China to seal a lucrative deal. Rather stupidly, she agrees to take her rather unpredictable pal "Lolo" (Sherry Cola) and, well you can just guess how messy it all gets. For the most part this is quite a pithy and earthily written, end-to-end, comedy drama with some en…

A sweet story about family, friends, and learning to love the person you are is wrapped up with a big, vivacious, raunchy bow in director Adele Lim‘s “Joy Ride,” a raucous comedy that celebrates women embracing their inner naughtiness. This diverse, explicit, sex-positive movie is going to make a lot of people (especially misogynistic-leaning men), very, very uncomfortable, and audiences should be there for every delicious second of it. Perhaps a better title for the film would’ve been “Crazy Horny Asians.” A once-in-a-lifetime international adventure is at hand for four Asian-American frie…