Review: Joy Ride proves gleefully crude and surprisingly sweet - cinema

Joy Ride really does walk very well a remarkable tightrope, managing to be both gleefully crude and, especially in the last 20 minutes, genuinely poignant. For the most part, it’s the gross-out comedy of The Hangover, but for girls – but then when it comes to the emotional stuff towards the end, it definitely manages to remain just the right side of sentimental. And best of all, at just 95 minutes, it doesn’t for a moment outstay its welcome – a joyously rude blast which really leaves you hoping that there might actually be a Joy Ride 2 one day.

The gist is that Audrey (Ashley Park) is a high-flying seemingly completely Americanised lawyer who really truly doesn’t actually know just who she is. She was, so she is told, born in China where her American parents adopted her. But in truth, she’s clearly never truly felt one thing nor the other.

But when her boss at the law firm sends her to China to “seal a deal” and by doing so “make partner” back in the States, her past and her future seem to collide. Though Audrey doesn’t think so, her best mate from way back when Lolo (Sherry Cola) is convinced that this is the perfect chance to track down her birth mother. And guess what, Lolo is going with her, as is Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin. It’s a recipe for disaster/discovery. Deadeye might be oddly monosyllabic in her world of K-pop bands, but Lolo is an over-the-top struggling artist whose artworks are essentially genitals in various guises, all part of her gushy rush for body-positivity.

Completing the foursome is their other best mate from school, Kat (Stephanie Hsu), who is struggling to juggle being a strait-laced Chinese soap star with hiding from everyone, most particularly her Jesus-bothering boyfriend, that she’s got an immovable tattoo just where he might least be expecting to find it. It’s not long before the livelier members of the party have seemingly blown Audrey’s chances of securing the deal; and not long before, with their various overnight antics, they effectively nobble half a sports team. But then Audrey, apparently finding herself, starts plunging into the real China – before things take an unexpected turn, involving the girls attempting to pass themselves off as K-pop superstars.

It's witty, it’s sharp, it’s gross and it’s relentless, but the reward is a final few scenes which really do pull at the heartstrings, poignant moments with a real oomph – and a fitting finale to a film which, despite its heaped-up grossness, really does manage to say quite a few cool things about gender, identity, racism and being just who you actually are. It’s a Joy Ride in so many different senses, but it actually packs a punch too. The girls are so different and so similar, and they draw you into their crazy antics without ever getting too jumping-up-and-down screechy or schmaltzy, especially when the search for the unknown mother comes to a conclusion which you certainly don’t see coming. It’s a film which is great fun, but also a film which actually has something to say.