We have another comedy about a female friendship and it's also taking place during a road trip. Wait a minute, haven't I seen this movie before this year? Yeah, it was Rough Night. Ok. I remember how that trip went: it was miserable and unfunny despite the charismatic friendship and chemistry between four women. The movie felt one-note. So, I saw the trailer for this movie and I thought, "Here we go again...an unfunny raunchy comedy celebrating the friendship between four women." But, here is the difference between Rough Night and Girls Trip: I actually cared about the characters in this movie and even though the humor gets a bit filthy for my taste, I laughed more during this movie.
Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall), an author who titles herself as "the second coming of Oprah", has received news from her agent, Liz (Kate Walsh), that the owner of a major company wants to make a deal with her in New Orleans. It is around the same time as the Essence Music Festival so Ryan wants to grasp the opportunity to reunite the "Flossy Posse" together, herself and her best friends: Sasha (Queen Latifah), a gossip columnist who used to work at the Times, Lisa (Jada Pinkett-Smith), a divorced single mother of two and Dina (Tiffany Haddish), a wild woman wanting to have fun.
Sasha is on the phone with her editor, who wants some juicy new material on the celebrities. Her editor demands Sasha to get some dirt on her friend, Ryan. But, she replies that there is none. Dina gets in trouble and is fired, even though she does not get the hint. She picks up Lisa unannounced and makes Lisa's mom uncomfortable with her bad language. The ladies later arrive in New Orleans and while Ryan is signing stuff from fans, Sasha is provided by an autograph that shows Stewart kissing another woman, which enrages her and Dina and Lisa. They agree not to break the news of the potential affair to Ryan. But, Ryan, later on, knows about the affair since they have been having relationship issues and they are working on it. Even though they are thrown out of a lavish hotel where Stewart is staying, they stay at a run-down motel. They start having a great time until business conflicts arise.
It is a comedy and did it catch my drift? Well, not really because it looked like the same typical shtick that other friendship comedies have offered before. However, I was surprised as to how much I laughed at this movie because the dialogue they spew off each other and also the type of situations they face (both serious and comical) are quite nicely balanced. However, with the typical raunchy humor aside (especially two very funny scenes that involve absinthe and another involving a grapefruit), there is a dark shift in the affair subplot in which you typically know where it is going with her posse backing Ryan up but I did not expect its revelation and it is a bit sad. So, I thought that worked.
Regina Hall is great as she finally gets a leading role as she has been in supporting roles as the best friend or the wife character but she is on the cusp of having a business deal with balancing the affair and her friends' loyalty. Queen Latifah and Jade Pinkett-Smith are fine at what they do. But, the big standout is Tiffany Haddish. She is hilarious and dynamite as she delivers some comedic lines perfectly and without her, about most of the energy of this movie would be gone and the experience would be a bit forgettable. Kate Walsh is good as the agent, Larenz Tate and Mike Colter are good too.
Director Malcolm D. Lee is known for The Best Man movies (which were ok), a couple of forgettable movies like Roll Bounce and Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. He has momentum on his side as he made the surprisingly good Barber Shop: The Next Cut last year. But, this is his best movie and the comedy, which is clearly the funniest comedy of the year so far in a year overwhelmingly bad comedies, has well-developed characters, a story with a twist and a nice theme of friendship. My quibbles are that the movie is a bit long, some of the jokes are too filthy and some of the dialogue should have been more fleshed out with less profanity as the dialogue became a bit desperate for laughs. This is a movie full of genuine delight from start to finish with edginess. It is a good time at the movies.
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