Joy Ride Review

Theatrical Movie Review - Comedy

Finding the people we connect with can be difficult. We have jobs to go to and families to care for and houses to clean and movies to watch and after all of that, it can be tough to find time to invest in sorting out a new relationship. Which is why long-lasting friendships from eras when we have time to make friends can be so important. They know all of our stories and they can help keep us grounded. This is one of the themes explored in Adele Lim’s new comedy, “Joy Ride.”

Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) have been friends since Audrey’s parents looked to Lolo’s parents for another Chinese girl for their adopted daughter to play with. Audrey was the more reserved overachiever while Lolo was a free-spirited artist. When Audrey needs to go to China to finish a deal for her law firm, she takes Lolo with her to act as a translator. The pair is joined by Lolo’s KPop fan cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) and meet Audrey’s college friend and actor Kat (Stephanie Hsu). While there, the quartet helps Audrey search for her birth mother while each deals with figuring out their identity as individuals.

I loved this movie. Comedies are incredibly subjective and often hard to make work, and raunchy comedies even more so, but this one was a full success in my mind. 

The cast is absolutely perfect. The four actors all have their own personalities that they bring to the screen and while it can be hard to balance out four very different characters, writer Cherry Chevapravatdumrong absolutely nails it. Each one of them gives a fantastic performance, but Park truly shines in this, with probably the most range in her performance. 

Because this is a comedy, one wouldn’t expect this to be heavy on story, and while I don’t want to pretend that it’s a rich, complex film, it deals with its themes of belonging and the effort needed to  maintain friendships as the people in them grow and change are surprisingly well done. I think most comedies are tested by how they handle the heartfelt aspect of the story, and this one does that exceptionally well. 

In addition to all of this, the film looked great. Because of the lower budget, this film wasn’t actually shot in China, but rather in British Columbia, but Lim did an excellent job of making you feel like you were traveling abroad throughout the movie.

One of the big takeaways for me is that it is worth it to check out films from a wide range of writers, directors, and casts. There are elements of this story that are very specific to Asian women that may not be my experience as a white woman in West Virginia, but there is so much that is the same. And honestly, what makes us laugh is probably a lot more similar than we might think.

This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on July 9, 2023.