Joy Ride

"Up until the 2010s, silly comedy movies seemed to be an exclusively male-dominated kingdom, both in terms of characters and audience. They were jokes that circulated between men and which sometimes even made fun of women, just take a look at American Pie, Neighbors, What Happened Yesterday?, and so on. Until there was a slight shift in the mid 2010s when a new kind of silly comedy movie emerged: with and for women. These are movies like Girls Trip, Bridesmaids, and Bad Moms that put the reality of women within these stories without leaving out the comedy. And it is precisely within this universe where the fun Joy Ride fits. Directed by debutante Adele Lim, the movie is about a quartet of friends who decide to travel to China. After all, one of them has the desire to meet her biological mother. That is when the director inserts a quite emotional journey, but with a funny context in which they simply don't fit into the Asian country, despite their descent; add to that a good number of sexual content jokes. Despite some instability in the cast (Stephanie Hsu doesn't come off so well, while Ashley Park is an event), the movie is a good escape."