As of this month, Malaysian American filmmaker Adele Lim has released her directorial debut called Joy Ride. Written by former Family Guy writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao and co-produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the film has currently been garnering strong critical reviews and a fairly warm response from the general public. In a day and age where we are seeing a lot more representation in Asian American filmmaking, it's delightful to see a fun filled chick flick focusing on real people who are as messy and heartfelt as anyone else out there.
The film focuses on childhood friends Audrey Sullvian and Lolo Chen whose friendship comes to near turmoil on a business trip that leads into the origins of Audrey's real life family, all the while conflicting with the lives and careers of their friends and family. With the film establishing Audrey and Lolo's longtime friendship and contrasting differences, with one trying to discover themselves as a mature hard working lawyer and the other being a raunchy aspiring artist, arguably the most notable themes in Joy Ride deal with identity crisis and cultural expectations. In addition to the struggles of Lolo's quirky K-pop obsessed cousin Deadeye and Audrey's former college roommate turned popular Chinese actress Kat, the amount of conflicts the leads share as Asian American women of different backgrounds makes for a genuinely intriguing watch. Aided by a lot of hysterically energetic banter between Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu, one can see how much heart was elevated through an otherwise crazy thrill ride as far as raunchy comedies go these days.
Speaking of raunchy, perhaps the biggest selling point for the whole movie has to be the wacky hijink raunch factor as opposed to the heart. While there are a lot of observational jabs and one liners directed towards people based on race and gender, most of the humor relies on the shock value our leads get themselves into as they encounter one intense obstacle after another. Complete with full body cringe takes and raw sexual banter, there is almost no stoppage of comical situations to enhance the viewing experience, even if some scenes are less tasteful than others. As far as the filmmaking is concerned, Lim knows how to balance the more laid back conversational moments between characters before allowing the scenery to hone in on multiple exterior locations and fast paced timing. Paul Yee's cinematography helps the most in generating some brightly colorful sequences to expose the richness of China and its many exterior wonders. As introspective as the movie can be from a character study point of view, it also knows when to just have fun with itself.
While it is hard to say if Joy Ride will appeal to all movie going audiences during the intense summer blockbuster season, there is just enough sincere heart and shock humor around this character driven sex comedy. If you're down for a more intensely hysterical gross out road trip comedy as opposed to the bigger adventure and action flicks out there now, this one will definitely be up your alley, regardless if you relate to the characters culturally or not. As far as what this film may do for the careers of its lead filmmakers and actors, here's hoping this unapologetically honest film will keep the momentum going for a while.
