Joy Ride

Sabrina Wu as Deadeye, Ashley Park as Audrey, Sherry Cola as Lolo, and Stephanie Hsu as Kat in Joy Ride. Photo Credit: Ed Araquel

A year ago we had an Irish film of a similar name with Olivia Colman.  This couldn’t be much different.  Directorial debut by Adele Lim who scripted Crazy Rich Asians this has much the same mood and involves a road trip to China and Korea by 4 female friends. Audrey (Ashley Park) is a hotshot lawyer who was adopted by white parents from China as a child.  Now, she is returning for the first time for business.  Lolo (Sherry Cola) is her childhood friend accompanying her.  They will meet up with Kat (Stephanie Hsu) who is a star actress now in China and the fourth and incongruous member of the group is Deadeye (Sabrina Wu). In the rather far-fetched script Audrey has to prove her Chinese heritage to win a contract so she sets off to find her birth mother.  

On a train they end up nearly getting busted for drugs, get rescued in the wilderness by a basketball team they then proceed to bed, Audrey gets fired, they pretend to be a K-Pop band and finally Audrey finds family of sorts in Korea.  A final scene back in the USA shows how they move on from all this a year later.

Joy Ride. Photo Credit: Ed Araquel

What works here?  It’s a pacy movie full of jokes, which are not all funny but do raise a laugh on many occasions.  The actresses are natural comedians and it is a joy to watch the way they act.  Parks surprised me with her versatility and Cola was a star in Shortcomings.  Their energy is also vital to help us believe all the implausible plot twists such as becoming a K-Pop band called Brown Tuesday. 

You may not be so keen on the scatological references, the pussy numbers (Cardi B and other musical influences are found here) and some of the Asian jokes seem more like a clichéd stand-up comedy routine than anything else.  And of course it is good to see a comedy propelled by Asian women showing it can stand up against the best.

3 stars plus

Emily in Paris (Series 3)

This month I’ve watched two fantasy series.  This and Elite.  Seems that these unlikely scenarios are what the public want.

The crew behind Emily basically give us more of the same as the first two series.  Product placement takes first place – especially Paris and a few bits of France: Provence and Champagne this time.

The stories revolve around love triangles and on/off romances.  Camille and Gabriel’s third is a Greek woman performance artist.  Mindy has street artist Benoit and her former schoolmate from Switzerland – Nicolás (Paul Forman), spoilt son of a ruthless businessman.

Emily is still holding a candle for Gabriel while officially dating her London squeeze Alfie and even Sylvie is torn between a prickly Danish photographer and her ex-but still legal husband.  There are several business themes running through the series.  

Sylvie forms her own agency and takes the staff with her but ending up losing clients to a big French company that even buys the Pierre Cadault label. Loyalty and dirty tricks are part of the contradictory forces but the most interesting element is the increased focus on Emily as a selfish headline hogger who barges in on everyone else’s pitches and projects and makes them a better success.  

Apart from being unrealistic I would have liked to see more of her facing her shadow.  Her relationship with Mindy and Mindy’s growth as a talented singer are other positive points and it is always great to watch Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie who is the solid central pillar of the show.

Apart from the repetitious romantic plots the negative side of the ledger is the fashion, definitely a mess compared to seasons 1 and 2 and the overly superficial way problems arise and are magically resolved in each episode – many times things that require work and money just get fixed like Samantha’s nose wrinkle in Bewitched.

American romcom froth losing its taste.

2 stars

Emily in Paris (Series 2)

It is fluff and nonsense, as stereotypical as ever and full of product placement but something of the zeitgeist of this series and its slick production is captivating and easily d¡gested. 

If anything, this was a step up from the last series despite being an unbelievable travelogue of sorts.  

Lily Collins as Emily is as annoying as ever but the actors around her make up for this.  

Former flame Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) is still there with his girlfriend Camille, Mindy (Ashley Park) has more protagonism and sings very well,

and there is a new beau for Emily in the form of Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) who plays a Cockney banker!  

The marketing agency staff continue as before led by the excellent Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) who is my favourite character with her fierce looks and French no-nonsense.

She gets her nemesis when Chicago boss Madeline comes over to organize the office and the accounts. 

 Jean-Christophe Bouvet as wacky designer Pierre Cadault is a delight as are several of the other regulars.

If you want to see plenty of scenes of Paris and even of the rest of France and are prepared to suspend disbelief, this is a fun show for you.

4 stars