joy trip film

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

Almost as soon as they met as children, Audrey and Lolo became inseparable. They were among the few Asian Americans in a painfully homogeneous white town in the Pacific Northwest. When their first playground bully hurled a racist insult at them, Lolo landed a punch right in his face as Audrey looked on in awe. Since that fateful day, the pair stuck by each other through the rest of school, the start of their careers, and the beginnings of many bad choices. Now as an ambitious associate at a law firm, Audrey ( Ashley Park ) has the chance for a life-changing promotion when her boss sends her to China to close a major business deal, and Lolo ( Sherry Cola ), Audrey’s much more chaotic counterpart, comes along on the adventure as a translator back to their homeland. With the help of two more friends, Deadeye ( Sabrina Wu ) and Kat ( Stephanie Hsu ), the group makes it an unforgettable trip that gets dirty and deep on what identity means and how to be true to oneself. 

Making her feature debut, Adele Lim takes bold risks in her raunchy road trip comedy “Joy Ride.” The movie walks a fine line between exploring heartfelt questions about belonging and outrageous jokes played for shock value. It’s as if Lim and fellow co-writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao saw the antics in Malcolm D. Lee ’s “ Girls Trip ” as a challenge to top. It’s safe to say the crew in “Joy Ride” do top the outrageous factor, but whether or not it’s as effective will depend on the viewer’s stomach for bawdy humor.

Still, as uneven as the tone may wobble from Audrey’s search for her long lost mother, who gave her up for adoption, and the group hooking up with members of a traveling basketball team, there's no shortage of jokes and other comical situations to keep the awkward laughs and full-body cringes rolling along. To enhance the movie’s whirlwind melee, Paul Yee ’s cinematography transports audiences from the banality of Audrey and Lolo’s hometown to the luridly colorful animated sequences of the group’s K-Pop fantasy number and the many stops along the way, from misty country roads and expansive rivers to busy cafes and dimly lit clubs. The richness of each scene steadies the sense of whiplash from the story’s breakneck pace. 

Beyond crude humor, “Joy Ride” also pokes fun at Audrey’s identity crisis, using it as a springboard for pointed self-criticism and sharp cultural commentary. One of the movie’s sharpest sequences occurs when Audrey is fooled by a white American, a drug dealer desperate to hide her goods. She initially trusts her fellow American at the expense of sitting with other Chinese passengers and puts the group in an even more precarious situation because, as Lolo puts it, Audrey is prejudiced against people who look like her. There are many little introspective moments throughout the movie, like when they land at the Shanghai airport; Audrey notes what a different feeling it is for her to no longer be in the minority. There are even more observational jokes about missing out on a country’s traditional cuisine or speaking the language when you grew up outside the culture. These one-liners and observations throughout “Joy Ride” give a more nuanced sense of humor to the quips about random sex acts and ill-advised tattoos. 

As with many an ensemble movie, the strength is in its cast, and “Joy Ride” is no exception. Led by the central drama between Ashley Park and Sherry Cola’s characters, their relationship shifts and evolves throughout the journey, forcing them to reckon with their moments of self-discovery. Park plays the pitch-perfect straight character, the high achiever destined for greatness—with all the flaws that can come with that personality. With a deceptively calm demeanor, Cola’s character often instigates many of the movie’s problems but not in a malicious way, almost as if eternally optimistic that she will get the results she wants. Sabrina Wu’s Deadeye and Stephanie Hsu’s Kat bring even more volatility to the mix, as Deadeye’s unpredictability and deadpan expression make it tough for others to connect with her, and Kat’s sordid past comes to haunt her more than once, even as she’s trying to change her lifestyle for a Christian fiancé. 

While not everything in “Joy Ride” comes together smoothly, Lim’s movie is plenty of messy fun. It's mostly lighthearted but occasionally profound in what it says about identity and friendships. The stars of the show embrace the outrageous high jinks, enjoying the free pass to behave badly and push the envelope of raunch comedy. For all its twists and tangents, “Joy Ride” remains unapologetically true to itself and the central friendship that starts us all on our merry misadventure. 

Now playing in theaters. 

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

Now playing

Matt Zoller Seitz

The Long Game

Brian Tallerico

Remembering Gene Wilder

Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces

LaRoy, Texas

Robert daniels, film credits.

Joy Ride (2023)

Rated R for strong and crude sexual content, language throughout, drug content and brief graphic nudity.

Ashley Park as Audrey

Sherry Cola as Lolo

Stephanie Hsu as Kat

Sabrina Wu as Deadeye

David Denman as Joe Sullivan

Annie Mumolo as Mary Sullivan

Writer (story by)

• Cherry Chevapravatdumrong
• Teresa Hsiao

Cinematographer

• Nathan Matthew David

Latest blog posts

25 Years Later, Alexander Payne’s Election Remains as Relevant as Ever

Sharp Writing, Excellent Cast Keep Spy Thriller The Veil Engaging

Take Another Trip to the End of the World with Sony’s Stellar Blade

He's Got Something Going On: David Proval on Mean Streets, and Acting for Martin Scorsese

Advertisement

Supported by

Critic’s Pick

‘Joy Ride’ Review: A Raunch-Com Roller Coaster

Four friends travel to China in a trip that goes entertainingly off the rails in this terrific comedy, starring Ashley Park and Sherry Cola.

• Share full article

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

The new “Joy Ride” offers a modern-comedy bingo card with pretty much all the squares checked: mismatched besties, an oddball crashing a group outing, said outing going wildly off the rails, freewheeling sex, projectile vomiting, unhinged debauchery involving booze and drugs, and a crucial plot point hinging on an intimate body part.

This film, directed by the “ Crazy Rich Asians ” co-writer Adele Lim, may not reinvent the raunch-com wheel (see: “ The Hangover ,” “ Girls Trip ,” “ Bridesmaids ”), but it does change who’s driving the car. And, most importantly, it is really, really funny.

“Joy Ride” processes all of its familiar ingredients into a sustained, sometimes near-berserk, barrage of jokes, interspersed with epic set pieces. That is, up until the two-thirds mark, when the movie paints itself into a corner and presses the “earnest sentimentality” eject button before managing a narrow escape. It’s a small price to pay for the inspired pandemonium that precedes.

The mismatched friends here are Audrey (the brilliant Ashley Park , from “ Emily in Paris ”) and Lolo (a deliciously acerbic Sherry Cola), who have been best friends since childhood, when they bonded over being the only two Asian girls in their Pacific Northwest town.

Audrey, who was adopted from China by a white couple, grows up to become a prim, career-obsessed lawyer. She is sent to Beijing to close a deal, with a promotion hanging on her success. Since her Mandarin is practically nonexistent, she brings along the irrepressible Lolo. Completing the comic superteam are Lolo’s socially awkward cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), whose superpower is extensive K-pop knowledge, and Audrey’s college roommate Kat ( Stephanie Hsu , from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), now a screen star in China and engaged to her very hunky and very Christian co-star (Desmond Chiam).

Eventually, Audrey decides to find her birth mother, and the four women set off on an odyssey that immediately devolves into a series of mishaps. The shenanigans come at breakneck speed, and peak with a repurposing of the Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion hit “WAP” that could become a late-night-karaoke staple in its own right.

The film is especially sharp around identity and assimilation, and the screenwriters Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao have fun with the expectations and stereotypes placed on Asians and Asian Americans — including those that are self-imposed. The seams show only toward the end, when the film’s pace slackens, but even then, the cast’s chemistry and flawless timing hold steady.

As the straight arrow protagonist, Park expertly pulls off a trick similar to Kristen Wiig in “Bridesmaids”: Her character serves as the narrative engine, while also setting up comedy opportunities for the others.

If there is any justice, Park will soon be a marquee name. But this applies to all of the central quartet, who so effectively take advantage of the movie’s many opportunities to shine. With “Joy Ride,” summer has truly arrived.

Rated R for exuberant sexuality, bilingual foul language, brief nudity and liberal use of drugs and booze. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters .

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

As “Sex and the City” became more widely available on Netflix, younger viewers have watched it with a critical eye . But its longtime millennial and Gen X fans can’t quit.

Hoa Xuande had only one Hollywood credit when he was chosen to lead “The Sympathizer,” the starry HBO adaptation of a prize-winning novel. He needed all the encouragement he could get .

Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America  with Texas and California as allies.

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Movie Reviews

Buckle up: this mile-a-minute 'joy ride' across china is a raunchy romp.

Justin Chang

Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), left, Audrey (Ashley Park), Lolo (Sherry Cola) and Kat (Stephanie Hsu) in Joy Ride. Ed Araquel/Lionsgate hide caption

Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), left, Audrey (Ashley Park), Lolo (Sherry Cola) and Kat (Stephanie Hsu) in Joy Ride.

There's an early moment in Joy Ride when you'll know if you're on board with this exuberantly raunchy comedy or not. On a neighborhood playground, a white kid tells a young Chinese American girl named Lolo that the place is off-limits to "ching chongs."

Lolo then does something that maybe a lot of us who've been on the receiving end of racist bullying have fantasized about doing: She drops an F-bomb and punches him in the face. It's an extreme response, but also a hilarious and, frankly, cathartic one — a blissfully efficient counter to every stereotype of the shy, docile Asian kid.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

These are the new movies and tv shows we can't wait to watch this summer.

Lolo soon becomes best friends with Audrey, one of the only other Asian American girls in their Washington state suburb. That aside, the two could hardly be more different: Where Lolo is unapologetically crude and outspoken, Audrey is quiet and eager-to-please. And while Lolo speaks Mandarin fluently and grew up steeped in Chinese culture, Audrey is more westernized, having been adopted as a baby in China and raised by white parents.

Years later, they're still best friends and total opposites: Audrey, played by Ashley Park, is a lawyer on the fast track to making partner at her firm, while Lolo, played by Sherry Cola, is a broke artist who makes sexually explicit sculptures.

The story gets going when Audrey is sent on a business trip to Beijing to woo a potential client. Lolo comes along for fun, and to serve as Audrey's translator. Lolo also brings along her K-pop-obsessed cousin, nicknamed Deadeye, who's played by the non-binary actor Sabrina Wu.

The script, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, is heavy on contrivance: Thanks to Lolo's meddling, Audrey winds up putting her work on hold and trying to track down her birth mother. But the director Adele Lim keeps the twists and the laughs coming so swiftly that it's hard not to get swept up in the adventure.

I'm Really Into

Why 'everything everywhere all at once' feels more like reality than movie magic.

The comedy kicks up a notch once Audrey looks up her old college pal Kat, who's now a successful actor on a Chinese soap opera. Kat is played by Stephanie Hsu , who, after her melancholy breakout performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once , gets to show off some dazzling comedic chops here .

Like Lolo, with whom she initially butts heads, Kat has had a lot of sex, something she's trying to hide from her strictly Christian fiancé. But no one in Joy Ride holds onto their secrets, or their inhibitions, for very long. As they make their way through the scenic countryside, Audrey, Lolo, Kat and Deadeye run afoul of a drug dealer, hook up with some hunky Chinese basketball players and disguise themselves as a fledgling K-pop group for reasons too outlandish to get into here.

'Never Have I Ever' Complicates Its Asian American Characters. That's The Whole Point

In a way, Joy Ride — which counts Seth Rogen as one its producers — marks the latest step in a logical progression for the mainstream Hollywood comedy. If Bridesmaids and Girls Trip set out to prove that women could be as gleefully gross as, say, the men in The Hangover movies, this one is clearly bent on doing the same for Asian American women and non-binary characters.

Like many of those earlier models, Joy Ride boasts mile-a-minute pop-culture references, filthy one-liners and a few priceless sight gags, including some strategic full-frontal nudity. Naturally, it also forces Audrey and Lolo to confront their differences in ways that put their friendship to the test.

Hollywood relies on China to stay afloat. What does that mean for movies?

If it doesn't all work, the hit-to-miss ratio is still impressively high. Joy Ride may be reworking a formula, but it does so with disarming energy and verve, plus a level of savvy about Asian culture that we still rarely see in Hollywood movies. Director Lim can stage a gross-out moment or a frisky montage as well as anyone. But she also gives the comedy a subversive edge, whether she's pushing back on lazy assumptions about Asian masculinity or — in one queasily funny scene — making clear just how racist Asians can be toward other Asians.

The actors are terrific. Deadeye is named Deadeye for their seeming lack of expression, but Wu makes this character, in some ways, the emotional glue that holds the group together. You can hear Cola's past stand-up experience in just about every one of Lolo's foul-mouthed zingers. And Park gives the movie's trickiest performance as Audrey, an insecure overachiever who, as the movie progresses, learns a lot about herself. Maybe that's a cliché, too, but Joy Ride gives it just the punch it needs.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

Ashley park, stephanie hsu take a raunchy road trip in ‘joy ride’ trailer.

Adele Lim’s directorial debut for Lionsgate also stars Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu, and is being teased as the rowdy Asian American friendship comedy bows at SXSW.

By Etan Vlessing

Etan Vlessing

Canada Bureau Chief

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu are four unlikely friends taking a wildly debauched trip to Asia in Joy Ride , a friendship comedy from the producers of Neighbors and Lionsgate.

Crazy Rich Asians co-writer Adele Lim’s directorial debut from Seth Rogen ’s Point Grey features a road trip gone wrong for Audrey (Park) after she enlists help from Lolo (Cola), Chinese soap star Kat (Hsu) and eccentric cousin Deadeye (Wu).

Related Stories

Aziz ansari confirms keanu reeves fractured knee while in his trailer amid filming 'good fortune', seth rogen's point grey pictures inks lionsgate tv first-look deal.

What ensues is a journey of bonding and belonging fueled by alcohol abuse and other raunchy hijinx jam-packed into the two-minute trailer.

Joy Ride is having its world premiere Friday at SXSW, ahead of a wide release July 7, 2023.

Fans of Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once , where she also played a young woman in crisis, will want to strap in for Joy Ride , which also stars Ronny Chieng and Chris Pang of Crazy Rich Asians , Desmond Chiam and Alexander Hodge.

The explicit comedy is penned by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, and based a story they created with director Lim.  

Rogen shares producer credits on the rowdy shock comedy with Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Josh Fagen, Chevapravatdumrong, Hsiao and Lim.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

How ‘dìdi’ director sean wang’s bay area roots helped him make his feature debut, julia garner joins josh brolin in zach cregger’s horror thriller ‘weapons’, amc theatres’ new distribution business hires fandango veteran stephanie terifay, rebel wilson’s memoir to be published in u.k. with sacha baron cohen passages redacted, brian tyree henry joins universal musical from michel gondry, pharrell williams, reese witherspoon reflects on 25 years since tracy flick.

Get Tickets

Create social post

JOY RIDE | Home

Watch Trailer

Full of gags and gusto, "Joy Ride" is a provocative comedy that isn't afraid to probe identity

The road trip film boasts rousing performances, diamond-cut jokes and self-assurance that subverts with sensitivity, by kyle turner.

If the road trip movie tends to literalize a traditional and familiar narrative structure — taking its merry band of characters from Point A to Point B — you could argue that "Joy Ride's" contribution to the genre is, beyond being a near expert (if not wholly surprising) execution of its archetype, gently prodding the limits of that kind of movie.

"Joy Ride" is shiny and looks fresh, certainly amplified by the impressive performances from the ensemble.

Yes, "Joy Ride" is a breezy, delightful movie with an impressive joke density (thanks to a screenplay by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao); yes, it's about friendship ; yes, it aces the "specificity in story underlines universality in theme" test; yes, it lets its Asian men be sexy ; yes, it addresses internalized racism ; yes, it takes pride in sticking its tongue out at a kind of Asian (American) respectability politics and lets its ensemble "be messy," as is so desirable in our various forms of representation discourse . But perhaps more compellingly, "Joy Ride" functions as an interesting example of Asian American cinema by its light toying with the nature of identity . 

There have been other movies, and ones in the road trip lineage, that have had their way with the self: "My Own Private Idaho," "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" and "Two for the Road" among them. But "Joy Ride's" premise rests fairly explicitly on the idea of finding yourself : though ambitious lawyer Audrey ( Ashley Park of "Emily in Paris" ) is going to Beijing for a work trip with the promise of making partner at her all-white bro firm, another incentive lies before her. She could find her birth mother . Audrey was adopted to white parents, leaving her to be the only Asian girl in the town of White Hills, besides her best friend, slacker sex positive artist, Lolo (Sherry Cola, "Good Trouble"). And on their journey they are joined by Lolo's cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) and Audrey's other best friend, successful actress Kat ( Stephanie Hsu, "Everything Everywhere All at Once") . Hijinks ensue. 

Adele Lim, who worked as a screenwriter on "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Raya and the Last Dragon," takes her feature film directorial debut by the hilt and, with editor Nena Erb, focuses on making sure that every setup, premise and absurdist gag is as tight as possible. It makes "Joy Ride's" pace feel self-assured and the relationships between the characters dynamic, even if its insights into emotional displacement occasionally feel trimmed of welcome fat.  

But Lim has a good sense of space, both in terms of the actual environments she's using, from Beijing to Seoul, from an airport walkway to a smaller, cramped home, feel textured and lived in, not only for the characters, but also for the sharpening of a joke. "Joy Ride" is shiny and looks fresh, certainly amplified by the impressive performances from the ensemble. And while its more directly provocative gags are delivered with gusto (props particularly to Sherry Cola and Stephanie Hsu, whose chillness and movie-star high maintenance, respectively, clash with delight), the deadpan buttons from Sabrina Wu, who flexes their ability to vacillate from blank to deeply emotional, are a thrilling, hilarious jolt. 

"Joy Ride" is hardly the first film to drive down the path of "child of adoption seeks birth parents" — such narratives may, in fact, dominate movies about adoption period, from Lion to "Philomena." There's a preponderance of stories emphatically implying that to find one's biological family is to unlock all the secrets of one's identity. And it's something that feels like "Joy Ride" is also going to run with, particularly when Ronny Chieng 's slick and powerful potential business partner character asks Audrey during a business drinking session, "If you do not know where you come from, how do you know who you are?" It is, frankly, a boring, essentialist point of view .

What is worthwhile about its approach, however, is that "Joy Ride" subverts and expands expectations of closure.

Lolo and Deadeye sneak some jabs in about Audrey being "basically white" (she loves The National and can name every character on "Succession" ), and the film nods to the frustrating liminal space that cross-racial adoptees can feel like they occupy: clearly not white, but also seen as not Asian enough. It would have been nice to see how that uncertainty and those feelings of alienation shaped Audrey's life not on this trip, besides the overachieving as her desire to prove herself to an unwelcome society, as well as the pitfalls of raising/being raised as a child from a different racial and cultural background, but the film compensates for that by having Audrey repeat through dialogue her feelings of displacement. But "Joy Ride" still manages to take Audrey's state of flux seriously and does so with sensitivity. 

What is worthwhile about its approach, however, is that "Joy Ride" (without spoiling) subverts and expands expectations of closure. It is a neat movie, many of its ends tied up with a ribbon; but not all of them so neatly that these characters are radically transformed in the way that they might be in another kind of road trip movie. The characters are perhaps better versions of themselves, more honest and caring. But their maturation is less rooted in the essentialist DNA that tends to be embedded within these movies — that their journey to something will have fundamentally changed who they are — and more in refining and polishing who these characters were the whole time. 

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.

Perhaps the film could have leaned more into being headier, more emotional, have more going on. But it's got diamond-cut jokes and it sticks the emotional landing, leaving just enough space for Audrey to rethink how she relates to her identity, not merely on a scale of the "enoughness" of her Asianness. "Joy Ride's" sense of Asian Americanness is liberal and broad (not in a bad way, exactly), embracing a kind of smudgy, melted idea of culture, heritage and identity, strengthened by the community of loved ones, a kind of pan-Asian American camaraderie. 

With its own idiosyncratic sense of humor (that is electrified by the star wattage from its ensemble) that is purely uninterested in being compared to its other white gross-out comedy counterparts, "Joy Ride" cleverly embodies its primary thematic occupations: being the best version of its type. It's the perfect trip for the summer.

"Joy Ride" opens nationwide Friday, July 7.

stories featuring "Joy Ride" stars

• "Everything" star Stephanie Hsu on playing all-powerful: "We would just unleash ultimate chaos"
• Ronny Chieng on Andrew Yang: "There aren't enough Asian people in positions of power"
• Mindy of "Emily in Paris": Nepo baby done good

Kyle Turner is a queer writer based in Brooklyn, NY. His writing on film, queerness, and culture has been featured in W Magazine, The Village Voice, Slate, GQ and the New York Times, and he is the author of " The Queer Film Guide: 100 Films That Tell LGBTQIA+ Stories " out May 16 from Smith Street Books and Rizzoli. He is relieved to know that he is not a golem.

Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Related articles.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Challengers Link to Challengers
• Abigail Link to Abigail
• Arcadian Link to Arcadian

New TV Tonight

• The Jinx: Season 2
• Knuckles: Season 1
• The Big Door Prize: Season 2
• Them: Season 2
• Velma: Season 2
• Secrets of the Octopus: Season 1
• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Season 1
• We're Here: Season 4

Most Popular TV on RT

• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• Under the Bridge: Season 1
• Sugar: Season 1
• Palm Royale: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Baby Reindeer Link to Baby Reindeer
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

DC Animated Movies In Order: How to Watch 54 Original and Universe Films

The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100%

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

‘Seen on Screen’ Podcast: A Celebration of Universal Stories 

Watch An Exclusive Pixar Studio Tour, Plus Inside Out 2 Secrets From The Set

• Trending on RT
• Challengers
• Play Movie Trivia

Where to Watch

Rent Joy Ride on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

A well-constructed B-movie thriller, Joy Ride keeps up the necessary level of tension and chills. Critics also liked Zahn's performance as the goofball older brother.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Paul Walker

Leelee Sobieski

Jessica Bowman

Stuart Stone

Danny (Lewis's Roommate)

More Like This

Movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

The Cast of 'Joy Ride': Your Guide to Who's Who

The film joins 'Bridesmaids' and 'Girls Trip' as an instant classic.

Joy Ride is the latest comedy movie to join the ranks of beloved, raunchy, jaw-dropping chick flicks like Bridesmaids and Girls Trip . Directed by Crazy Rich Asians writer Adele Lim and executive-produced by Seth Rogan, the film follows a group of four Asian American friends as a business trip gone off the rails leads them all to face some big revelations regarding their friendships, relationships, and cultural identity. Don't worry, the surprisingly-heartfelt flick is also full of wild antics, as the girls travel through China in the road trip comedy.

In addition to the film's main foursome, played by Sherry Cola, Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu, Lim has also gathered a packed cast full of many familiar faces. Read on to get re-acquainted with the hilarious cast of Joy Ride .

Sherry Cola as Lolo Chen

Lolo grew up in a traditional Chinese household, and met Audrey after a fateful playground meeting where she defended her new friend against a racist bully. Now as an adult, the bold artist challenges her bestie and makes sure to push her out of her comfort zone.

Cola is a comedian, actress, and writer who's best known for playing Alice Kwan on the long-running Freeform series  Good Trouble . She has also appeared in the shows I Love Dick , Transparent , and Claws , and she was part of the voice cast for Pixar's   Turning Red . Next up, she'll co-star alongside Justin H. Min in the Randall Park's directorial debut   Shortcomings.

Instagram : @shrrycola

Ashley Park as Audrey Sullivan

Raised in Seattle, Washington, after being adopted by loving white parents, lawyer Audrey signs on to the business trip to China partly because of her desire to reconnect with her birth mother and explore her cultural heritage. With Lolo tagging along as an interpreter, the trip becomes a wild, transformative experience.

Park started her career in musical theater, performing in productions including The King and I ,  Sunday in the Park With George ,  KPOP , and  Mean Girls . The Tony nominee is best known for starring as ex-pat Mindy in the Netflix hit  Emily in Paris , and has also appeared in the series Beef and Girls5Eva. Next month, she joins the cast for the third season of Hulu's  Only Murders in the Building .

Stay In The Know

Marie Claire email subscribers get intel on fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more. Sign up here.

Instagram : @ashleyparklady

Stephanie Hsu as Kat

Kat, Audrey's close friend and former college roommate, is now a successful television star in China. She seemingly has the perfect life with her fame, prestige, and loving boyfriend, but she's keeping some secrets about her past.

Hsu is an Academy Award-nominated actress who's best known for starring in last year's multiverse film Everything Everywhere All At Once . She has also appeared in series including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , Awkwafina is Nora from Queens , The Path , and American Born Chinese , in which she reunited with several of her EEAAO co-stars. She also started her career on Broadway, originating the roles of Christine Canigula in  Be More Chill and Karen the Computer in  SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.

Instagram : @stephaniehsuofficial

Sabrina Wu as Deadeye

Also joining the trip is Deadeye, Lolo's eccentric and shy cousin. The admittedly socially-awkward relative is a passionate k-pop fan with tons of online friends, but keeps her talents mostly hidden in the real world.

Wu (who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns) is a writer, actor, and stand-up comedian. Deadeye is their first on-screen role, and they are a staff writer for the Disney+ series  Doogie Kameāloha, M.D . They were also previously honored as a 2022 Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy.

Instagram : @asabrinawu

Desmond Chiam as Clarence

Kat's religious boyfriend Desmond is played by Chiam, an Australian actor who is best known for his portrayal of Dovich in the Disney+ Marvel series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier . He has also appeared in series including Netflix's Partner Track , Prime Video's With Love , and MTV's The Shannara Chronicles , as well as the films Empty by Design and Magic Camp .

Instagram : @deschaim

Ronny Chieng as Chao

Chao is the Chinese businessman making a deal with Audrey's law firm, who believes that knowing a person's family background is necessary to do business. When he second-guesses the deal after learning Audrey's adopted, he inadvertently sets off the journey to find her birth mother.

Chieng is a Malaysian actor and comedian who's best known for being a longtime correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show . He's since appeared in several blockbuster films, including M3GAN , Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings , Godzilla vs. Kong , and Crazy Rich Asians , as well as the shows American Born Chinese , Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. , Young Rock , and Ronny Chieng: International Student .

Instagram : @ronnychieng

Timothy Simons as Frank

Audrey's boss Frank is played by Simons, who's best known for playing perpetual punching bag Jonah Ryan on the hit HBO comedy Veep . Among the actor and comedian's extensive credits include the shows Candy , Fairfax , and Station Eleven , as well as the movies Don't Worry Darling , Happiest Season , The Hustle , Yes God Yes ,   The Interview , and Inherent Vice .

Instagram : @timothycsimons

Meredith Hagner as Jess

Hagner makes a scene-stealing appearance in the trailer as Jess, a woman the four travelers run into on a train who turns out to be a drug smuggler. The actress made her onscreen debut with her four-year-long, Daytime Emmy-nominated run on As The World Turns , and she's best known for playing Portia Davenport on the Max comedy Search Party . Other films among her many credits include Ingrid Goes West , Set It Up , Palm Springs , and Vacation Friends .

Instagram : @merediththeweasel

Baron Davis as Himself

Hodge, an old friend of Kat's, is portrayed by Hodge, an Australian actor who played Andrew Tan on the HBO dramedy Insecure . He has also appeared in the Netflix series Wellmania , the CW's Black Lightning , HBO's High Maintenance , and the Netflix film Resort to Love .

Instagram : @xrhodge

Chris Pang as Kenny

Ashley's love interest Kenny is played by Australian actor Pang, who's best known for playing groom Colin Khoo in the blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians . He also appeared in the Netflix series Marco Polo and Prime Video's As We See It , as well as the films I, Frankenstein ; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny ; Empty by Design ; Palm Springs ; and Blade of the 47 Ronin.

Instagram: @pangeerz

Former NBA star Baron Davis appears in a memorable cameo, playing a fictionalized version of himself. During his U.S. career from 1999 to 2012, Davis played for teams including the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and New York Knicks. He now works as a regular NBA studio analyst for TNT.

Instagram : @iambarondavis

Lori Tan Chinn as Nai Nai Chen

Lolo and Deadeye's grandmother Nai Nai is played by Chinn, a prolific film and television actor who's best known for playing Litchfield inmate Mei Chang on  Orange Is The New Black , as well as Awkwafina's grandma on  Awkwafina is Nora From Queens . She also voiced Auntie Chen in the Pixar film Turning Red .

David Denman as Joe Sullivan

Audrey's adoptive father Joe is played by film, TV, and theater actor Denman, who's best known to The Office fans for playing warehouse worker and Pam's boyfriend Roy. He has also appeared on numerous shows including Parenthood , Outcast , The Recruit , and Mare of Easttown .

Instagram : @david_denman

Annie Mumolo as Mary Sullivan

Playing Audrey's adoptive mother Mary is Mumolo, an actress and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter who co-wrote the comedy films Bridesmaids and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar with Kristen Wiig. In addition to starring in Barb and Star with Wiig, Mumolo has also appeared in the films This Is 40 ; Afternoon Delight ; Bad Moms ; Confess, Fletch ; and Murder Mystery 2 .

Daniel Dae Kim as Dae

Kim, who makes a cameo role in the film, is best known for starring as Jin-soo Kwon in the sci-fi series Lost , and as Chin Ho Kelly in the revival of Hawaii Five-O . The prolific actor has also appeared on the series The Good Doctor and New Amsterdam , as well as films including Crash , The Divergent Series: Insurgent , Spider-Man 2 , and Always Be My Maybe .

Instagram : @danieldaekim

Quinci LeGardye is a Contributing Culture Editor who covers TV, movies, Korean entertainment, books, and pop culture. When she isn’t writing or checking Twitter, she’s probably watching the latest K-drama or giving a concert performance in her car.

The fourth movie might just be the best of the entire series.

By Meghan De Maria Published 22 April 24

She's long been a beacon of support for emerging designers like Peter Do. Now, the actress is not just breaking the internet with custom Loewe and archival Mugler, but also inspiring a new wave of fashion enthusiasts.

By Lauren Tappan Published 22 April 24

Zendaya's lived a dozen lives when it comes to her career, from her Disney days to music video star to the MCU. Here, we provide our definitive ranking of her best onscreen performances.

By Andrea Park Published 22 April 24

• Contact Future's experts
• Advertise Online
• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Cookies policy

Marie Claire is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site . © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Where to Watch

Official Site

Watch JOY RIDE Videos

You may also like:.

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/JoyRide2023

Film / Joy Ride (2023)

Edit locked.

Joy Ride is a 2023 American road trip comedy film that serves as the directorial debut of Adele Lim ; it was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong ( Family Guy , The Orville ) and Teresa Hsiao ( Family Guy , Awkwafina is Nora from Queens ) with a story by Lim, Chevapravatdumrong and Hsiao. The film stars Ashley Park , Sherry Cola , Stephanie Hsu , and Sabrina Wu .

American friends Audrey (Park) and Lolo (Cola) have been inseparable since they were toddlers. When Audrey has an opportunity to go to China for work, she recruits Lolo to be her translator. They are in turn joined on the trip by Audrey's former roommate-turned TV star, Kat (Hsu), and Lolo's awkward cousin, Deadeye (Wu). However, their journey is not a smooth one, and they face many hilarious setbacks along the way.

The film was produced by Point Grey Pictures and distributed by Lionsgate and premiered on March 17, 2023 at that year's South by Southwest film festival, later receiving a theatrical release in the United States on July 7.

Tropes in this film include

• A Good Name for a Rock Band : There's an in-universe K-pop group called "Howdy Fun." When pretending to be K-pop idols, the group call themselves "Brownie Tuesday."
• Adam Westing : NBA star Baron Davis shows up in the movie as someone who regularly sexts with Lolo.
• Ambiguously Bi : A throwaway line early in the movie implies Lolo might be bisexual, but it never comes up again.
• Ambiguously Gay : While the other girls are admiring Kat's shirtless boyfriend , Deadeye merely yawns. They could possibly be asexual but later reacts very jealously when Bao Bao asks if Audrey is single , snapping "SHE'S MY... friend ." And during the skirt-ripped-off scene they're actually quite appreciative, unlike Lolo and Audrey who are freaking out.
• Artistic License – Medicine : The morning after basketball player nookie ends with one being diagnosed with "shattered pelvis" - not only should he be in a wheelchair, but pelvic fractures are potentially fatal due to the major arteries running through there.
• As Himself : Former NBA player Baron Davis, who moved to China to play basketball after his career in America ended, appears in a few scenes as a fictionalized version of himself.
• Ass Shove : When the drug smuggler coerces the group into helping hide her wares, they scramble to try to hide the drug-filled condoms in different parts of their outfits. Kat is desperate enough to shove several condoms up her rectum. Trouble ensues later when she is trying to remove them, and cannot remember how many condoms she shoved up there. Then one of them bursts. Inside.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment : In-Universe . Lolo's parents react to Audrey's White parents' question about them being new to town as a racist microaggression, given her mother's preemptive explanation that they are new to town but not to the country. However, it's assuaged when they reveal that their daughter Audrey is also Asian, and they were just trying to connect her with a potential Asian friend.
• Boomerang Bigot : When Audrey selects a train car, she finds excuses to pass up several occupied by Chinese people until she finds one occupied by a blond woman. Lolo accuses her of being racist against her fellow Asians. It winds up biting them all in the ass when said blond woman turns them into accomplices for her drug smuggling.
• The Cameo : Daniel Dae Kim as the surviving husband of Audrey's birth mother (not the birth father).
• Can't Hold His Liquor : Audrey has trouble keeping up with her Chinese acquaintances in a drinking contest and ends up twice throwing up in embarrassing fashion as a result.
• Celebrity Masquerade : The group has to pose as K-Pop singers in order to get on a plane. Made funnier by the fact that one of them actually is an in-universe celebrity, just not the right kind.
• Chekhov's Skill : Audrey and Kat reminisce about being in an a capella group in college. Their singing skills later come in handy when they have to pose as K-pop stars.
• Childhood Friends : Lolo and Audrey have been besties since their first meeting as kids, even as their differing personalities and eventually lifestyles emerge.
• Compartment Shot : Played for laughs when they show just how much of Kat's devil tattoo actually reaches inside her.
• Covered in Gunge : Drinking with the Chinese businessmen leads to Audrey vomiting all over Deadeye. They are seen getting hosed down by a street cleaner later.
• Creative Closing Credits : The closing credits are illustrated portraits of the characters with clever editing..
• Destructo-Nookie : Baron Davis is not happy to find his players have been injured after having sex with Kat and Audrey.
• Disney Acid Sequence : While impersonating K-pop stars, the gang sings a cover of Cardi B 's "WAP", which turns into an actual music video.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness : Deadeye has this as their default resting face, hence their nickname.
• Eating the Eye Candy : Several instances of the girls ogling attractive men, with a notable shot of Kat aggressively flexing her legs on a gym machine.
• Embarrassing Tattoo : Audrey makes the mistake of mentioning Kat's to Lolo. She claims it's just a small flower on her inner thigh, but it turns out to be a devil on her vagina, including inside .
• Ethical Slut : Lolo, Kat, and Audrey have all had sex with multiple men in their lives but they are still depicted as decent, sympathetic people.
• Female Gaze : Constantly . This is a relentlessly and unapologetically raunchy movie with several straight (or bi) female leads, and they do a lot of checking out various men they meet.
• Foreign Culture Fetish : Deadeye is obsessed with K-Pop and, by extension, Korean culture.
• Given Name Reveal : Done backwards - Deadeye reveals early on that their "legal name" is Vanessa. Then they never bring it up again.
• Going Commando : Kat apparently forgot about panties when the girls masquerade as K-Pop stars. She pays for it dearly.
• Jizzed in My Pants : Subverted. Clarence almost does it but manages to hold it in. He apparently wears three pairs of underwear just in case.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube! : While posing as K-Pop stars and doing a livestreamed dance routine, Kat's skirt is ripped off revealing a giant Devil tattoo on her crotch. She loses her parts in both the TV show and movie she's in. To drive home just how quickly the news has spread, we see glimpses of news reports in Japanese and Tagalog discussing the video.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures : After the reveal that Audrey is of Korean, not Chinese, descent , the girls have a fight where it's claimed that Lolo and Audrey were only friends because they were the only Chinese girls in town . Lolo bites back that they would have been stuck together anyway because white people can't tell the difference between Chinese and Korean.
• Interracial Adoption Struggles : A major part of Audrey's arc is that she's uncomfortable being one of two Asians in town as well as raised by white parents, so that Asians don't consider her Asian enough while her neighbors and coworkers define her by being Asian. Then it gets compounded when she finds out she's not Chinese but actually of Korean descent, adding another leg on her journey of self-discovery.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot : Lolo. Even as a child in the prologue, she's already dropping F-bombs.
• Last-Second Word Swap : When Bao Bao asks is Audrey is single, Deadeye immediately shouts "She's MY... friend". Audrey doesn't notice because it's in Chinese, but even the subtitles delay the word "friend" to emphasize the pause.
• A Minor Kidroduction : The movie starts with Audrey and Lolo's first meeting as children. We then get a brief montage of them through the years, then the plot kicks in with them in their late 20s.
• New Friend Envy : Lolo, Audrey's childhood best friend, starts the movie deeply disliking Kat, Audrey's very close college roommate. They bond over the course of their adventures together.
• Noodle Incident : At some point in the past, Deadeye did something to Audrey's hair (implied to have involved fire). It never fully grew back and Audrey has to style her hair to cover it up.
• Production Foreshadowing : Audrey's apparently random pick of Splinter as a sex symbol - Seth Rogen produces this movie as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem .
• Really Gets Around : Kat, up until three years ago. Lolo and Audrey aren't exactly prudes themselves, but still make fun of Kat for it, especially when they find out about the "good girl" image she's cultivated with her new boyfriend.
• "Rediscovering Roots" Trip : Audrey is a Chinese-American adoptee raised by a white family who travels back to China for the first time. She takes it as an opportunity to discover her roots but isn't interested in reconnecting with her birth mother. Ultimately, she discovers that she's Korean and makes a detour to Korea to discover her real roots .
• The Reveal : Late in the movie, Audrey finds out that she isn't actually ethnically Chinese but the illegitimate daughter of a Korean teenager who was sent to China during her pregnancy to spare her family the embarrassment .
• Road Trip Plot : The plot of the film is kicked off by Audrey's law firm assigning her to close a deal with a client in China, which turns into a journey to track down her birth mother, with Lolo, Kat, and Deadeye tagging along for the trip.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor : In-Universe . Kat is fired from her historical drama after a video of her dancing with no underwear, indecent vaginal tattoo on full display , goes viral.
• Scenery Porn : There's no small amount of this on the last leg of the trip to Haiqing, a particularly rural location.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny : Kat and her devoutly Christian boyfriend Clarence refuse to have premarital sex but are shown to both have a lot of repressed sexual tension. It's revealed that Clarence isn't as devout as he seems and he only avoided sex because he was intimidated by Kat's experience. After an honest conversation, they do it immediately.
• Ship Tease : Deadeye hints at attraction to Audrey via a Last-Second Word Swap , but it never goes anywhere.
• Masquerading as a K-Pop girl group with two members named Lisa ?
• Deadeye is also a huge fan of BTS .
• One of Lolo's bits of teasing toward Audrey about how "white" she is is that she knows the names of all the main characters on Succession .
• After Lolo says Audrey has never slept with an Asian man, Audrey says she has masturbated to Splinter , of all things. Lolo: He's a rat! Audrey: He's a good father.
• Deadeye comes up with fake names for the girls - Hermione, Ron and Harry. Lolo claims Hagrid.
• Audrey does a Gollum impression to entertain a couple basketball players she meets.
• Some of My Best Friends Are X : Audrey's boss repeatedly insists he's an ally. He threw Audrey a Mulan -themed birthday party and when he fires her for getting high, having sex with several basketball players, and traveling China to find her birth mother, he says he fired a white guy for the same reason .
• Starving Artist : In contrast to her professionally successful best friend Audrey, Lolo is still struggling to make ends meet as an artist. The fact that the piece of art that she is most proud of is a diorama of the playground where she and Audrey met, made entirely of phalluses, probably does not help this.
• Stylistic Suck : The scene of the C-drama Kat and Clarence are seen filming is filled with overacting , amateurish camera work, and obviously fake special effects, like comical blood splatter.
• A Threesome Is Hot : Audrey has a sexy threesome with two hunky members of the basketball team, who are a little too experienced at double teaming the same woman. Subverted for laughs, as it ends with both men getting concussions while eating her out at the same time.
• Translator Buddy : The Indian basketball player hitting on Audrey only speaks Chinese and Hindi, so he needs his Chinese-Australian teammate to translate for him. This is how Audrey ends up in a threesome.
• Typecasting : Early on, In-Universe actress Kat notes that she's on the way to being typecast as a good girl. The infamous viral video of her vaginal tattoo presumably puts a stop to this, and at the end she's booked a 'serious' Hollywood gig in a Greta Gerwig movie .
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot : Audrey onto Chao after drinking copious amounts of alcohol (including a shot with a century egg that she's never eaten before. Later subverted when she vomits again over a railing and a later shot shows it was right onto Deadeye.
• Audrey has started her new law practice.
• Lolo 's art is now being displayed in a gallery.
• Kat has gotten a role in a movie with Greta Gerwig and is engaged to Clarence.
• Deadeye hosts regular board game nights and has a light-up pussy tattoo.
• The Whitest Black Guy : Despite being ethnically Chinese, Audrey is repeatedly told by Asians that she's not "Asian enough" due to being raised by a white family. She's not particularly interested in her heritage or her birth family at the beginning of the film but learns to appreciate Chinese culture as well as a little bit of Korean culture by the end of the film.
• An American Pickle
• Creator/Point Grey Pictures
• Asian-American Media
• The Karate Kid
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Creator/Lionsgate
• The Joy Luck Club
• MediaNotes/Restricted Rating
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Joy Ride 3: Roadkill
• AmericanFilms/H to M
• Jigen Daisuke (2023)
• Films of the 2020s
• Kill Boksoon

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Joyride review: Olivia Colman road-trip comedy strays dangerously close to anti-choice propaganda

The oscar-winner is reliably great, but undermined by a script that’s a real toothache, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey

Get our the life cinematic email for free, thanks for signing up to the the life cinematic email.

Dir: Emer Reynolds. Starring: Olivia Colman, Charlie Reid, Lochlann O Mearáin, Olwen Fouéré, Tommy Tiernan. 15, 93 minutes.

According to Joyride , a real toothache of a road-trip comedy, all that’s needed to change a woman’s mind on the topic of motherhood is a light case of kidnapping. Documentarian Emer Reynolds’s first fiction feature is, regrettably, a textbook demonstration of how easily the dogged pursuit of sentimentality can insult those it intends to woo. In the process, it ignores the multifarious realities of womanhood by arguing that a reluctance to have children could really just be a case of “first day at the office” nerves. Joyride isn’t anti-choice propaganda. But it does stray dangerously close.

It’s almost a shock, then, to see Joyride headlined by someone like Olivia Colman , whose roles have helped illuminate each and every crevice of motherhood, whether beautiful or repugnant in their nature. She was even Oscar-nominated for the last one: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter , which tenderly explored the feeling of regret that mothers are always so viciously shamed for. Here, she plays Joy (just as a reminder, the film is called Joyride ), a solicitor in County Kerry, Ireland, who wakes up in the back of a stolen taxicab with her newborn baby. The car has been hijacked by 12-year-old runaway Mully (Charlie Reid), and it’s nowhere close to Joy’s intended destination. Her plan, before it fell so spectacularly apart, went as follows: leave the baby with her best friend, who’s desperate to adopt, and then board a plane to Lanzarote.

There’s a glimmer of that Colman-brand thorniness in Ailbhe Keogan’s screenplay. When Joy is berated by a food-truck owner who thinks she’s let both her kids go hungry, she volleys back with a robust “f*** off”. Colman treats those simple words like they were a three-course meal. That’s what makes her the national treasure she is, even if Joyride insists on dressing her in a yellow-and-cyan co-ord set that makes her look like she’d be air cabin crew on a flight bound straight for hell.

But Colman’s work feels undermined – again and again – by the paltry words of wisdom constantly lobbed at her by other characters. For a road-trip film that checks off all the usual tropes – the car breaks down, there’s a police chase – a noticeable amount of time is spent on lectures delivered either by random men or by Mully, a child with the knowledge base of a professional midwife. At one point, beloved Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan turns up with a tin whistle and the words, “you can’t half-love a child”. Mully is the closest his niece has to a father figure, which gives him the authority to dismiss Joy’s reluctance to breastfeed her baby with a hand-wave. “You just think that she doesn’t want you,” he claims. Joy’s position that she’s “practical and solution-orientated” is viewed as a sign of cold-heartedness and, tellingly, the film never gives her best friend Angela (Aislín McGuckin) the space to explore her own feelings about the adoption.

• DC League of Super-Pets review: Corporate team-up movie is made of nothing but Lego Batman scraps
• Thirteen Lives review: Tham Luang cave rescue film is good, but it could have been extraordinary
• Where the Crawdads Sing review: A glossy, Instagram-primed buffet of cinematic faux-feminism

Reynolds straightforwardly treats the material as broad comedy with smatterings of sincerity – a broad Irish comedy at that, with tourist board-friendly pans of the countryside and plenty of lilting Celtic music. Reid, who is sincere and funny in the role, does develop some chemistry with Colman. But it’s hard to treat Joyride just as a pleasant but easily disposable romp, especially when Reynolds loads up the film with so much cheap symbolism. There’s a Pietà-like tear falling from Joy’s cheek and onto the baby’s forehead. Then a CGI robin that stalks the escapees across the breadth of Ireland. And for what? To tell women to get over their insecurities and embrace motherhood? It’s hard to find the wholesomeness in that.

‘Joyride’ is in cinemas from 29 July

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Joyride review – Olivia Colman grabs the wheel in odd-couple Irish road movie

A woman abandons her baby for a holiday, only to fall in with a 12-year-old thief, in this clumsy comedy with a late redemption

S ome women embrace the wonders and the challenges of new motherhood with open arms and hearts. Others make plans to give away their newborn to someone more in tune with the whole parenting lark and book themselves a flight to Lanzarote to recuperate in a sea of vodka. Joy (Olivia Colman) falls into the latter camp. But her plan hits a snag when her taxi is stolen by 12-year-old Mully (Charlie Reid) and she wakes to find herself halfway across County Kerry.

This odd-couple comedy road movie paints its characters in brushstrokes so broad you could land a jumbo jet on them, while the intrusively affable score lurches into every scene like a drunk with no concept of personal space. And yet Colman saves the picture, her thorny performance gradually revealing a well of pain.

• Drama films
• The Observer
• Comedy films
• Olivia Colman

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Brian Tyree Henry Joins Movie Musical Inspired by Pharrell's Youth Starring Halle Bailey and Da’Vine Joy Randolph

Brian Tyree Henry has been tapped to join a star-studded cast that includes Academy Award winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Halle Bailey, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. in a movie inspired by the youth of Pharrell Williams .

While details are limited, The Hollywood Reporter describes the long-gestating film as a "coming-of-age musical set in the summer of 1977 Virginia Beach" and finds inspiration from the Atlantis Apartments where Pharrell grew up.

Martin Hynes and Steven Levenson wrote the currently untitled screenplay, while Michel Gondry ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ) will direct.

It was announced in January that the multihyphenate's life story will also be told on the big screen through Lego bricks.

"Building with Lego bricks encourages us to follow our imagination…who would've thought that playing with these toys as a kid would evolve into a movie about my life," Pharrell said in a statement. "It's proof that anyone else can do it too."

Directed by Morgan Neville, Piece by Piece hits theaters on Oct. 11.

Much like Pharrell, Henry is in high demand these days. Coming off the theatrical release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire , the Atlanta actor will can be heard later this year in the animated movie Transformers One .

According to his IMDb page , Henry has been cast in The Fire Inside , a film written by Barry Jenkins, who received an Oscar in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Moonlight .

More on this

Pusha T on Pharrell and Chad Hugo’s Neptunes Legal Battle: 'Just a Lawyer Looking to Drain Chad’s Pocket' Trace William Cowen · April 2, 2024

Ranking 'Atlanta' Characters, From Worst to Best Karla Rodriguez · Nov. 11, 2022

Watch Pharrell Credit Marc Jacobs With Ushering in Era of Rap Artists as Designers Jaelani Turner-Williams · Feb. 29, 2024

‘Furiosa’ Has a 15-Minute Action Scene That ‘Took Us 78 Days to Shoot’ and Required Nearly 200 Stunt Workers on Set Daily: ‘It Was Very Important’

By Zack Sharf

Digital News Director

• Angelina Jolie’s Axed ‘Cleopatra’ Was a Love Affair Epic That Had ‘Elements of a Political Thriller With Assassinations and Sex’: It ‘Was Almost Made’ 8 hours ago
• Ben Stiller Says ‘Zoolander 2’ Flop Was ‘Blindsiding’ and ‘Freaked Me Out’ Because ‘I Thought Everybody Wanted This’: ‘I Must’ve Really F—ed This Up’ 13 hours ago
• Sylvester Stallone Thought ‘My Career Is Over’ After ‘Rocky II’ Injury Tore His ‘Pec Off the Bone’; He Saved the Film by Boxing Right-Handed: ‘We Don’t Quit’ 1 day ago

“Mad Max” fans know that topping “Fury Road” is most likely an impossible task, but it sounds like the upcoming prequel “ Furiosa ” has a few action-packed tricks up its sleeve to deliver the goods. Speaking to Total Film magazine , director George Miller’s longtime producing partner Doug Mitchell let it slip that “Furiosa” contains “one 15-minute sequence which took us 78 days to shoot” and required 200 stunt people on set daily. The code name for the sequence during production was “Stairway to Nowhere.”

Popular on Variety

Both Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth recently popped up at CinemaCon earlier this month to tout “Furiosa” and preview explosive new footage from the action prequel.

“It’s a story of relentless hope,” Taylor-Joy told attendees. She also praised Miller’s production design, direction and VFX sensibilities as artful as he “painted every scene, and I mean he paints.”

From Variety’s report on the new footage shown: “The result was a sonic and visual onslaught of fire, metal, chainmail, war paint, crushed bones and bloodsoaked revenge. In other words, it played fucking awesome in the room. The overwhelming footage will likely be a sensation in the IMAX format, given the audience response.”

“Furiosa” will open in theaters May 24 from Warner Bros. after world premiering out of competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

More From Our Brands

Kanye west announces ‘yeezy porn’ amid reports of adult film company, no kidding, swizz beatz owns a camel-racing team—and it could win him $21 million, sue bird joins seattle storm ownership group, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, tvline items: id’s nick and aaron carter docuseries, outlander prequel cast additions and more, verify it's you, please log in.

'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' Gets a Bloody Rating for Violence

The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.

The Big Picture

• Get ready for an unhinged, violent ride with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - full of explosive action and R-rated for strong violence.
• Director George Miller brings back the fan-favorite character Furiosa in a prequel that explores her backstory and journey.
• With an all-star cast including Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, the Wasteland comes alive with nostalgia and excitement.

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has earned an R-rating, as per Comicbook . The Anya Taylor-Joy -led prequel is full of explosive action and has been granted the rating for “sequences of strong violence, and grisly images," meaning fans are in for an unhinged violent ride. Along with the familiar nemesis Immortan Joe, this time around we have Chris Hemsworth playing Warlord Dementus , which adds another layer of intrigue to the feature.

The movie will see a young Furiosa, who is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Dementus. In the apocalyptical Wasteland, when they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe , the two Tyrants war for dominance. While Furiosa survives numerous trials as she tries to find her way home.

Why Did George Miller Recast ‘Furiosa?’

Right after Mad Max: Fury Road , director George Miller was pressed for a follow-up, but the acclaimed filmmaker waited for approximately a decade before he made up his mind to make a prequel. Given Charlize Theron ’s Furiosa was the breakout fan-favorite, Miller decided to tell her back story. The upcoming movie will chronicle Furiosa’s story in different stages right from the moment she was taken from her abode circling the story all the way back to Fury Road .

Previously speaking of re-casting the character, Miller revealed that he thought about de-aging Theron but eventually dropped the idea . “It definitely would have been Charlize [had Furiosa been filmed before Fury Road]. I began thinking, 'Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.' Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn't been licked. All you'd be watching is, 'Look how well the technology works?' It would not have been persuasive." It makes sense given that Taylor-Joy looks perfect as a young Furiosa, and fans are eager to see her performance in the upcoming flick.

The movie is full of action and big set pieces, while we see glimpses of various characters in previously released images , the Wasteland comes alive in trailers , giving fans a dose of nostalgia and excitement to re-enter the familiar world. The movie cast Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus, and John Howard as The People Eater. Further rounding off the cast are Lachy Hulme as Immortan Joe, Angus Sampson as The Organic Mechanic, Charlee Fraser as Mary Jo Bassa, Furiosa's mother, Quaden Bayles , and Daniel Webber as a War Boy.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga revs into theatres on May 23. You can get more details about the film with our guide here .

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max.

Mad Max prequel Furiosa has a 15-minute action sequence that took 200 stunt people 78 days to shoot – and it's "very important" for understanding Anya Taylor-Joy's character

Exclusive: Anya Taylor-Joy and George Miller's producing partner detail Furiosa's epic action scene

Mad Max: Fury Road was never going to be an easy act to follow, but it sounds like upcoming prequel Furiosa, which sees Anya Taylor-Joy play a younger version of Charlize Theron's Fury Road character, has put the pedal to the metal when it comes to reaching the hair-raising thrills of the 2015 movie.

The film "has one 15-minute sequence which took us 78 days to shoot", with close to 200 stunt people working on it daily, director George Miller's producing partner Doug Mitchell tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday, April 25, which features Furiosa on the cover. Known during production as 'Stairway to Nowhere', the sequence marks a turning point for Furiosa. 

"George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long," says Taylor-Joy, who still doesn’t have a driver’s license, despite learning to do a J-turn on her first day of stunt school. "It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot. On the day we finished, everybody got a 'Stairway To Nowhere' wine!"

Starting with her capture by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and his Biker Horde, the new movie follows Furiosa's quest for vengeance and her attempts to reunite with her family in her homeland.

• Pre-order the Furiosa issue of Total Film

Furiosa is released on May 24. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, April 25.

Check out the covers below:

Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy, or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it's in stores, and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers. 

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. 

Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa gets an unsurprising R rating

Director of ultra-violent action movie inspired by anime and revenge movies justifies its R-rating: "If Sam Raimi is your producer, nobody really questions that"

Helldivers 2 dev asks players to stop deliberately shooting at soldiers with that sweet blue pre-order bonus armor that's apparently a yogurt salesman uniform

Most Popular

• 2 Stellar Blade review: "A good action-RPG that I enjoyed a lot despite several issues"
• 3 Manor Lords review: "Brimming with the potential to exceed its already broad horizons"
• 4 Harold Halibut review: "A charming and ambitious handmade sci-fi adventure"
• 5 Broken Roads review: "Systems that sound good on paper don't work as intended"
• 2 Boy Kills World review: "A gleefully bonkers blend of The Hunger Games and The Raid"
• 3 Rebel Moon Part Two – The Scargiver review: "Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic stumbles towards the finish line"
• 4 Abigail review: "A blood-bomb of fun that needs more narrative meat"
• 5 Sometimes I Think About Dying review: "Daisy Ridley demonstrates her star power"
• 2 Knuckles review: "A confident trial run for Sonic 3"
• 3 Alien RPG Building Better Worlds review: "Carrying on the quiet momentum of one of the best TTRPGs out there"
• 4 X-Men '97 episode 6 review: "The heart of the X-Men has triumphantly returned, but at what cost?"
• 5 X-Men '97 episode 5 review: "Heartbreaking at the most catastrophic level"

• Discount Codes

‘Furiosa’ has an action scene that took 78 days to film

The 15-minute scene required 200 stunt workers on set daily

The upcoming Mad Max prequel film Furiosa includes a 15-minute action scene that took 78 days to film, it has been revealed.

• READ MORE: ‘Civil War’ review: Alex Garland glimpses a scary future in this American horror story

Speaking to Total Film Magazine , the film’s star Anya Taylor-Joy and George Miller’s production partner Doug Mitchell spoke about the scene, which Taylor-Joy says is “very important for understanding” the character of Furiosa better.

Mitchell revealed that the film includes a “has one 15-minute sequence which took us 78 days to shoot” and required close to 200 stunt workers on set daily. While little else has been revealed about the scene, it has been described as a “turning point” for Furiosa.

Taylor-Joy explained why the scene plays such an integral role in the film: “George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long. It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot.”

Taylor-Joy and Mitchell also shared that the scene was referred to during production as “Stairway to Nowhere” and that upon wrapping filming of the scene, the entire cast and crew received “Stairway to Nowhere” wine.

Recommended

Taylor-Joy stars in the film as a younger version of Furiosa as the titular character, who was previously portrayed in Mad Max: Fury Road by Charlize Theron. Venturing back to before the events in  Fury Road , the new movie follows the story of a young Furiosa as she is taken away from the Green Place of Many Mothers and forced to find a way to survive.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is due to release on May 24. The prequel film also stars Chris Hemsworth , Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, Nathan Jones and more.

• Related Topics
• Anya Taylor-Joy
• Chris Hemsworth
• Warner Bros. Pictures

You May Also Like

The party never sleeps: fat dog unleashed in america, what now for ‘shōgun’ after that life-and-death finale, taylor swift – ‘the tortured poets department’ review: a rare misstep, ‘fallout’ review: learn to love the bomb in this fun yet flawed adaptation, ‘life eater’ review: twisted kidnapping simulator strikes at the heart, more stories, russell crowe announces first us tour in 12 years, listen to maya hawke’s hopeful new single ‘hang in there’, kard’s bm announces first solo mini-album, ‘element’, us congress approves bill to ban tiktok in the united states unless bytedance sells the platform, hybe, min hee-jin spar over alleged evidence of plans to “seize control” of newjeans agency ador, newjeans to carry on with comeback plans despite spat between hybe and ador.

Screen Rant

“grisly”: furiosa age rating continues mad max franchise tradition (that only 1 movie broke).

The MPA age rating for George Miller’s Furiosa has been revealed, and the film continues a franchise tradition that only one Mad Max movie broke.

"Shocked At What Came Out Of Me": How Chris Hemsworth Developed His Furiosa Villain For Mad Max Prequel Movie

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has earned an R rating from the MPA.
• The rating continues a franchise tradition that only 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome broke.
• Considering the intensity of Mad Max: Fury Road 's action scenes, Furiosa 's R rating is a promising sign for the film.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 's age rating has been revealed, and it continues a long-standing franchise tradition. Director George Miller returns to the world of Mad Max with his upcoming prequel, which chronicles the life of a young Furiosa before the events of 2015's Fury Road . The film, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, is the fifth installment in the franchise overall, and promises to be an action-packed outing.

Ahead of the Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 's release date , FilmRatings.com (h/t to ComicBook.com ) confirms that the MPA has rated the film R for "sequences of strong violence, and grisly images." This rating is in line with three other installments in the franchise, including Miller's 1979 original film, 1982's Road Warrior , and Fury Road . The only deviation to this rating comes with 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , which was rated PG-13.

Furiosa Introduces The Franchise's Very First Hero (Before Mad Max & Anya Taylor-Joy's Furiosa)

Why furiosa's r rating is good news, mad max: fury road has incredible action.

After lying dormant for 30 years, Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road reinvigorated the franchise, introducing Tom Hardy as the titular Max. The film, which boasts a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, essentially plays out as one long car chase, and it's filled with lots of practical car stunts, explosions, and impressive vehicle designs. The film's R rating means the action never feels without consequence , and many characters, both friends and foes, meet their ends in bloody ways.

With Fury Road being arguably one of the best action movies of the 21st century, Furiosa maintaining an R rating is a promising sign. While Miller has been clear that the upcoming prequel is not one long car chase, the action is shaping up to be of the same level of intensity as its predecessor . Not only is the action itself part of what has made the franchise so thrilling, but the R rating will help further flesh out this post-apocalyptic world and the violence that is an ever-present part of it.

Mad Max: Fury Road is currently available to stream on Max and Apple TV Plus.

The only downside to an R rating is that it limits who can see the movie in theaters, potentially impacting box office. With Fury Road having the reputation that it does and with the impressive Furiosa cast , however, it may not end up being too much of an issue. Many questions remain about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , but audiences should evidently prepare for a violent ride.

Source: FilmRatings.com

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

A prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa is an action-adventure film that tells the origin story of the headstrong and fearless Furiosa. Set shortly after the beginning of the "end of the world," Furiosa is kidnapped and brought before a powerful warlord, now forced to work for him. To find her way back home, Furiosa will adapt to the new harsh and arid world as she grows into the Furiosa she becomes known to be. 

• Car Rentals
• Airport Transfers
• Attractions & Tours
• Bundle & Save
• Destinations
• Trip.com Rewards

sapphic factory: a modern queer joy dance party 2024 (Philadelphia) | The Foundry

Get ready to groove at Sapphic Factory: A Modern Queer Joy Dance Party, happening at The Foundry on May 17, 2024. This electrifying event promises a night of non-stop fun and celebration of queer culture. Located at 29 E Allen Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19123, this vibrant party will kick off with an array of pulsating beats and infectious rhythms that will keep you on your feet all night long. From chart-topping hits to underground anthems, Sapphic Factory will showcase a diverse musical lineup that celebrates the spirit of inclusivity and diversity. Be sure to mark your calendars, as tickets will be available for purchase starting from March 22, 2024, at 14:00, until May 18, 2024, at 03:00. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a modern queer joy dance party like no other. Come join the celebration and let the music move you at Sapphic Factory!

Provided by LukePatterson | Published Apr 25, 2024

Are you interested in sapphic factory: a modern queer joy dance party 2024 (Philadelphia)?

Recommended products for sapphic factory: a modern queer joy dance party 2024 (philadelphia) | the foundry, four seasons hotel philadelphia at comcast center, the rittenhouse hotel, the ritz-carlton, philadelphia, the dwight d, w philadelphia, more contents about philadelphia.

• Customer Support
• Service Guarantee
• More Service Info
• Website Feedback
• About Trip.com
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Statement
• About Trip.com Group

Other Services

• Investor Relations
• Affiliate Program
• List My Property
• Become a Supplier