Film Review: JOY RIDE (2023): An “R-Rated” Comedy That is Well-Cast and Gets its Thematic Tone Right

Joy Ride Review

Joy Ride (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Adele Lim, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao and Adele Lim and starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu, Timothy Simons, Nicholas Carella, David Denman, Annie Mumolo, Debbie Fan, Kenneth Liu, Alan Tang, Paul Cheng, Chloe Pun, Isla Rose Hall, Belle Zhang and Lennon Yee.

Director Adele Lim’s new comedy, Joy Ride, is, at times, raunchy beyond belief and doesn’t always work perfectly but it does what it sets out to do which is entertain in a way that is reminiscent of “R-rated” comedies such as Bridesmaids. Ashley Park stars in the film as a lawyer named Audrey (Ashley Park) whose slightly less ambitious lifelong best friend, Lolo (Sherry Cola) is a struggling artist with a bit of a wild side. These two characters grew up together and shared some crazy times but they’re about to get a whole lot wilder. Joined by two more colorful characters, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) and Kat (Stephanie Hsu), these four get in more trouble than they bargained for when they head to Asia in order for Audrey to take care of some professional business while trying to get to meet her birth mother, if at all possible.

This movie will take time for viewers to warm up to its crass humor which is a bit frank and over-the-top but, on many occasions, quite funny. The real zaniness begins in the movie in China when the ladies board a train with a blonde girl who has drugs on her. A whole lot of them, actually. Kat hilariously puts bags of drugs up her buttocks to hide them from the authorities while another girl simply sucks a bag of drugs up. And, so on and so forth, the drugs get hidden in hilarious ways. The women get kicked off the train anyway despite really having done nothing wrong themselves. They are picked up by Lolo’s basketball playing male friends which results in some hysterical sexual situations.

The straight-laced Audrey has a threesome while Kat struggles to keep exercising despite the fact that the drugs she has consumed are making her quite a bit horny. There are plenty of male athletes around to keep the ladies company for a while. Deadeye has short hair and is a bit of an outcast so simply does some movements with her body to keep herself busy with the guys. The sexually open Lolo engages in some personally satisfying activity as well.

Lolo makes artistic things like small statues of cats who stick their tongues out. She’s a screw-up but her bond with Audrey has stood the test of time. These two characters respect one another and make the most out of bad situations as well as the good ones. Joy Ride suffers a bit, though, from the lack of a compelling story but the movie is full of hilarious moments which satisfy the needs of audiences who like their comedies on the raunchy side.

A hilarious scene has our fab four trying to board a jet plane and posing as a bunch of rock stars. They dress up and take stage names and perform to try to make up for the fact that their passports were stolen by the woman who had smuggled the drugs on the train which got them kicked off. This “dress up as rock stars” sequence makes for one of the funniest scenes of the year.

When the movie takes its action to Seoul as Audrey tries to find her mom, it still remains entertaining. While the film could have gotten wishy washy with an abundance of sappy sentimentality, Joy Ride balances its sentiment with its laughs beautifully. A laugh-out-loud moment is the reveal of what is going on between Kat’s legs when she accidentally bears it all after trying to get on the aforementioned jet plane.

Ashley Park is a fine actress and superbly plays the lawyer who has missed out on a lot of the important things in life to focus on her career. Cola is always a hoot and is fun to watch as well. Hsu is perfect as Kat who is still in love with her ex-boyfriend and grows to miss him. Hsu is quickly becoming a rising star and her work here is really enjoyable. Sabrina Wu’s Deadeye feels realistic and complements the other three women in an interesting manner as Deadeye is quite the opposite of our other stars in terms of personality and appearance.

Joy Ride doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. The characters here have a wild side and the movie lets them be themselves with their quirks and flaws just as evident to audiences as their strengths. It’s a nicely cast film that benefits greatly from some good music choices and some touching moments when Audrey is left to confront the reality behind who, exactly, her mother is and where she is now.

You may be emotionally moved by a couple of scenes in Joy Ride but the movie is not too manipulative. It stages its scenes in a way that keeps the movie fun and relatable. All the characters are well-written and none of the four leads feel like they got the shorter end of the stick. All four main stars are treated in an equally satisfying manner by the filmmakers in terms of the way they are presented on screen. Joy Ride is not trying to win any awards. It’s just humorous, quirky fun that doesn’t always hit the bullseye but keeps the audience invested in its charming characters throughout. It’s a winner.

Rating: 7/10

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