Cinema Scholars reviews Adele Lim’s hilarious new comedy, Joy Ride. The film stars Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu. Lionsgate is releasing Joy Ride in theaters nationwide on July 7, 2023.
Introduction
What makes a great comedy film? There are many formulas, but it takes a special combination of factors for the humor to really hit the funny bone. In one well-worn comedy trope, a group of curious characters find themselves in some sort of predicament. While solving a central issue, they learn and grow from each other with laughs and perhaps a few sniffles along the way.
When done right, this special brand of situational comedy can lend itself to all manner of zany and ridiculous gags. Checking all these boxes and more, Adele Lim’s Joy Ride is not only one of the funniest films of the year, but it’s also a heartfelt discussion on friendship and identity.
Synopsis
In Joy Ride, Audrey is a focused 20-something Chinese American rising through the ranks at her bro-filled law firm. When a clutch deal with a potential business partner in China is on the table, Audrey uses the cultural card to convince her boss that she’s the best person to nab the lucrative contract. Soon, she is making plans for Beijing with only a few glaring problems. Audrey was raised by corn-fed white Americans, she only speaks a couple Duolingo’s worth of Chinese, and she’s never even stepped foot on her native soil.
Enter Audrey’s BFF and consummate provocateur, Lolo, and her hilariously awkward cousin Deadeye. Both fluent in Chinese and regular visitors, Audrey hesitantly lets them tag along for moral support. Plus, a reunion with Kat, her party girl college bestie who is now a C-drama star, what could possibly go wrong? The answer is a whole lot and with side-splitting results.
Discussion
Joy Ride is the raunchy, rip-roaring comedy this summer needs. You know the kind of movie where you miss a joke because you’re still laughing too hard from the previous one? Lim’s knee-slapping ode to the female Asian-American experience is packed with these moments and more.
Like the mirthful shock when cute little Lolo violently defends tiny Audrey against a racist playground bully in an initial flashback. Or the fateful Beijing business outing where Audrey’s party prowess tragically fails while trying to win over her potential business partner. Then there’s the wild night the friends have when their trip finds them with a professional basketball team, including one of the funniest sex escapade sequences ever.
And we haven’t even gotten to the uproarious drug-smuggling scene, the glam K Pop/Cardi B musical sequence, or the tattoo one character had infamously inked “down there.” Yes y’all, these are but mere examples of Joy Ride’s non-stop laughs and cries of, ”Oh no they didn’t!”
Further Analysis
Beyond the debauched shock value, the veteran writer/first-time director also tells a touching story about friendship and how it evolves throughout our lives. Though Lolo has always been her ride-or-die, Audrey has slowly begun to outgrow her outspoken and eccentric friend’s ways. This is further complicated by the introduction of her college “bestie” who shares a different kind of bond with their mutual friend. On the other end of the spectrum (possibly the neurodivergent spectrum too) Deadeye finds difficulty navigating normal friendships altogether.
Another theme woven throughout the mayhem of Joy Ride is the importance of identity. While addressing and eviscerating racial stereotypes, the film takes into account the cultural gatekeeping people of American-Asian descent often face in the U.S. as well as abroad. Obvious jokes call out familiar pervasive prejudices, but more subtle nods to unreasonable discrimination between different Eastern nationalities illustrate xenophobic tendencies within the Asian culture too.
