Lionsgate knew they had a winner when Adele Lim‘s “Joy Ride” had its world premiere at SXSW back in March. Critics loved it at the festival, but now it’s time to see how the raunchy road trip comedy fares with audiences and other critical voices as the film hits theaters today. But. EW reports that Lim isn’t fazed by some of the negative press her feature directorial debut received on Twitter earlier this week. In fact, she’s happy to clap back if her R-rated flick bristles some feathers.
In response to a Twitter critic who chastized “Joy Ride,” claiming it “objecitifies men” and “targets white people,” among other charges that the film is “incredibly unpleasant” and “all shock value,” Lim kept her answer short and sweet. And boy, is it pithy: “Imma need ‘Objectifies men, targets white people’ on a T-shirt,'” the writer/director tweeted back. That’s the spirit, Ms. Lim: if you don’t want to take the ride, don’t buy a ticket.
“Road Trip” follows four friends who head to China to help one of them track down their birth mother. But when the foursome cross paths with a drug smuggler aboard a train, things veer off-course fast and in debaucherous and madcap ways. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu star in the film as the friend group, along with Ronny Chieng, Meredith Hagner, David Denman, and Annie Mulomo. Lim directs a script from Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao.
As stated earlier, Lim’s debut film has a lot of buzz coming out of SXSW,” and for multiple reasons. “It’s the first time that we are putting four Asian faces in the middle of an R-rated comedy,” Lim said to THR earlier this summer. “If you f*ck up — if a project with a queer lead, a Black lead, or an Asian lead fails — the industry’s knee-jerk reaction is to blame it on the otherness. You don’t want that fear to paralyze you and keep you from creating from a place of joy.” Lim’s cast followed up her statements in a recent “Around The Table” for EW, too. “Before diving into the process of “Joy Ride” and seeing the script and how refreshing it was, there was a part of me that needed to be a part of this,” Cola said. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is rare. The first of its kind.’ And it’s also just so unapologetically funny.”
Park agreed that the script for “Joy Ride’ was one-of-a-kind. “I think all of us, when we got the script, we were like, ‘This movie has to happen,” she said. “As much as we’ve all wanted things in the past, it was more about, ‘If I get to be a part of this, that’s so cool, but please, please, please let this movie happen.'”
And happen it did. The Playlist’s review of “Joy Ride” at SXSW called it an “instant crowdpleaser,” and other critics feel similarly: the film currently holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But for those who don’t buy RT ratings, it’s time to find out for yourself as Lim’s film hits theaters today. So if “No Hard Feelings” didn’t mark the return of the raunchy summer comedies for some people, maybe “Joy Ride” will. Take a look at a red-band trailer for the film below.
