JOY RIDE : Tuesday 18th July 2023.

'JOY RIDE' (Rated MA15+), which I saw earlier this week, is an American comedy film based on a story jointly conceived by Adele Lim and Co-Produced and Directed by Adele Lim in her Directorial debut. The film saw its World Premiere screening at SXSW in mid-March this year, was released Stateside and here in Australia last week, has generated largely positive critical reviews, and has so far grossed US$12.5M.

The film opens up in the mid-1990's in the suburb of White Hills, Seattle, where Joe and Mary Sullivan (David Denman and Annie Mumolo respectively) sidle up in a kids playground to Wey and Jenny Chen (Kenneth Liu and Debbie Fan respectively) and ask if their daughter can play with their daughter. The Chinese parents looks somewhat bewilderingly at the all white American couple, until it is revealed that the Sullivan's have an adopted Chinese child, and they are looking for a young girl from the same cultural background to play with their daughter. And so begins a beautiful life long best friendship between Audrey Sullivan and Lolo Chen. 

We then fast track twenty-plus years to the present day and Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) are living together still in Seattle. Audrey is a go getter over achieving type who works as a lawyer at a prestigious legal firm, while Lolo makes sex-positive art, which she has on display in her parents Chinese restaurant. Audrey is all but guaranteed a promotion to partner and a relocation to Los Angeles if she can seal a deal with a Chinese businessman. Audrey and Lolo take a trip to China, and at the airport are joined by Lolo's cousin Vanessa, nicknamed 'Deadeye' (Sabrina Wu), who is awkward in social situations, has met all her 'friends' online and is obsessed with K-pop. Once there, Audrey meets her former college roommate and close friend Kat (Stephanie Hsu), who is an Actress on a popular daytime show, and despite being sexually promiscuous in college, is engaged to her co-star and seemingly devout Christian fiance Clarence (Desmond Chiam), who is saving himself for marriage. 

The group of four meet with Chao (Ronny Chieng), the Chinese businessman at a nightclub where they play party games, drink copious quantities of alcohol which ultimately leads Audrey to vomit all over his nice clean white shirt. Chao is the forgiving kind it seems and states that in order for him to do business with Audrey, he must meet her birth family, whom she has never met. Afterall, how can he do future business with her, if he doesn't understand her past! Lolo lies to Chao that Audrey is close to her birth mother but that her father has passed away. Prior to the trip, Lolo called Audrey's adoption agency and tracked them down. Audrey reluctantly agrees to meet her birth mother and take her to a birthday party that Chao's is hosting for his 70 year old mother the following Friday. 

The four women board a train to get them to Audrey's adoption agency, where they are seated next to an American woman who has lived in China for the past five years, and as it turns out is a drug dealer. When there is an inspection of every carriage and compartment, they are forced to consume various amounts of cocaine and hide the various stashes both on, and inside their bodies. The drug dealer steals their luggage and passports and has them ejected from the train. Stranded in the middle of nowhere in rural China, Lolo contacts former NBA star Baron Davis, whose team is currently playing in China and who just happen to pick them up in their tour bus. Audrey, Lolo and Kat injure some of the players in sex-related accidents while Deadeye injures a player while dancing to K-pop later that night, causing the team to refuse to drive them to their destination the next morning. 

The group eventually makes it to their destination. There, Audrey learns that her mother had passed away and that she is in fact not Chinese but instead of Korean origin. In a final effort to secure the deal, one of Deadeye's online 'friends' secures them a private jet to get them to Seoul, but without their passports, the customs officer won't let them pass through. And so the women pretend to be a new K-pop teen idol group to pass the border, but the customs officer remains unconvinced and asks for a demonstration of their act. Lolo livestreams their performance on Instagram Live, only for Kat's skirt to inadvertently fall off, revealing a large tattoo of a devil's head and horns on her shaved vagina. They are forced instead to take a boat into mainland Korea. 

Lolo's livestream quickly goes viral, with hundreds of millions of people seeing Kat's tattooed vagina. Chao calls Audrey to inform her that the deal is off, and then Audrey is fired from her job, while Kat is now at risk of losing her television deal with her acting career practically now dead and buried. The women have a fight and split the scene. Audrey visits her grave, but meets her birth mother's husband there (Daniel Dae Kim). Her husband shows Audrey a video recorded by her birth mother before her passing and tells her that her friends had told him he might find Audrey at her birth mother's grave. Audrey returns to Seattle and reconciles her differences with Lolo and Deadeye, both now working at Lolo's parents restaurant, while Audrey confirms that she was fired from her legal firm.

Fast track one year on and Audrey, Lolo, Kat, and Deadeye are in Paris for a best-friends anniversary trip. Audrey has by now set up in business on her own with her own legal practice, Lolo is still waiting tables but has begun selling her art, Deadeye has accepted themself as nonbinary, and Kat is still engaged to Clarence, having come clean to him about her past sexual exploits with the complete A-Z of men she has slept with. 

'Joy Ride' sees four American Asian women further strengthening their relationship through a road trip that is meant to be sentimental, emotional, business-like and professional but fairly quickly turns into a foul-mouthed, oftentimes crass, sexual (mis)adventure and definitely for adults only offering that will likely turn some viewers off while it will have others rolling about the aisles with laughter. These four women on tour turn the tables on the men they all encounter from the very get go and give as good as they get if not better, which is a refreshing showcase of Asian people and women in particular in a comedy film the like of which is all to rare these days. And in first time feature Director, Adele Lim here she has crafted a film that aside from the physical sight gags and the one-liners that all come thick and fast she has also made a film about learning where you belong in the world, and the strength to be derived from family and enduring friendships. All of that said, the comedy didn't really land with me and it's only occasionally funny, but it is elevated by the obvious chemistry on display here between the four female leads and the lean 95 minute run time which is a little over half of some of the other movie epics released of late.

'Joy Ride' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 6th July 2023.

The 34th FIDMarseille - the Marseille International Film Festival - launched on Tuesday 4th July and runs through until Sunday 9th July, in the port city of Marseille, in southern France. It offers a programme of about one hundred films consisting documentaries, fiction, short and feature films. FIDMarseille is a reference point for the independent cinema of today and tomorrow, offering a challenging selection to a wide local, national and international audience. Every year the festival attracts professionals from all across the world. The programme of films showcased is also divided into several competitive strands presenting World or International Premieres.

In the International Competition, which carries an award prize of €8K, the following titles are being screened :-

* 'An Evening Song (for Three Voices) - from the USA and Directed by Graham Swon. World Premiere.

* 'Background' - from Germany and Directed by Khaled Abdulwahed. World Premiere.

* 'Twittering Soul' - from Lithuania and Directed by Deimantas Narkevicius. World Premiere.

* 'De Facto' - from Austria and Germany and Directed by Selma Doborac. International Premiere.

* 'Losing Faith' - from Austria and Germany and Directed by Martha Mechow. World Premiere.

* 'The Diagonal Force' - from Belgium and Directed by Annik Leroy and Julie Morel. World Premiere.

* 'The Bus Station' - from Argentina and Directed by Gustavo Fontan. World Premiere.

* 'Undefined Things' - from Argentina and Directed by Maria Aparicio. World Premiere.

* 'Monisme' - from Indonesia and Qatar and Directed by Riar Rizaldi. World Premiere.

* 'The Mariner' - from Portugal and France and Directed by Yohei Yamakado. World Premiere.

* 'Of Girls' - from Japan and the Netherlands and Directed by Wendelien van Oldenborgh. World Premiere.

* 'Ricorda Ti Che E Un Film Comico' - from France and Directed by Cesar Vayssie. World Premiere.

* 'Night Work' - from Spain and Directed by Christian Bagnat and Elvira Sanchez Poxon. International Premiere.

The other competitive sections held at FIDMarseille are the French Competition which carries an award prize of €5K, the First Film Competition awarding a prize of €3K, the Flash Competition €2K and the Cine + Competition €15K. For the entries into these competitive sections, plus a whole lot more besides, you can go to the official website at : https://fidmarseille.org/en/

Turning attention back to this weeks four new movies gracing a big screen Odeon close to home, we begin with the fifth outing in this hugely successful supernatural horror franchise that is a follow on from the second film in the series that sees the father driving east to drop his oldest son off at university, but the son's college dream soon becomes a living nightmare when the subdued demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both. This is followed by an Aussie drama offering set in the 1940's in which a somewhat rebellious nun takes in a nine year old Aboriginal orphan lad. Next up is a French drama film in which a childless woman forms a deep bond with her boyfriend's young daughter; and closing out the week we have an American comedy offering that follows four Asian-American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'INSIDIOUS : THE RED DOOR' (Rated M) - this American supernatural horror film is Directed by Patrick Wilson in his Directing debut and is seen as a direct sequel to 2010's 'Insidious' and 2013's 'Insidious : Chapter 2' and is the fifth film in the 'Insidious' series which also consisted 'Insidious : Chapter 3' in 2105 and 'Insidious : The Last Key' in 2018. Based on a story once again written by Leigh Whannell (who also Co-Produces here with James Wan and Jason Blum) those first four films in the series grossed worldwide US$543M off the back of combined production budgets of just US$27M making the continuation of this saga a foregone conclusion. The film is released in the US this week too.

Set ten years following the events of 'Insidious : Chapter 2', Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) heads east to drop his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) off at an idyllic, ivy-league University. However, Dalton’s college dream becomes a nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly come back to haunt them both. To end the haunting and to put the demons to rest once and for all, Josh and Dalton must return once again to the Further (a purgatory dimension inhabited by the tortured spirits of the deceased) in order to stop the Lambert nightmare for good. Also starring Rose Byrne as Renai Lambert and Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier. 

'THE NEW BOY' (Rated M) - is an Australian drama film Written, Directed and photographed by Warwick Thornton who made his feature film Directing debut with 'Samson & Delilah' in 2009, and would follow this up with 'The Darkside' in 2013, 'We Don't Need a Map' in 2017 and 'Sweet Country' in 2017 too. This film saw its World Premier showcasing at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, was the Opening Night film at the recent 70th Sydney Film Festival and is released this week here in Australia. Here then, set sometime in 1940's Australia, a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (Aswan Reid) is taken in at a remote monastery in the dead of night, run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett who also Co-Produces here with her husband Andrew Upton). Also starring Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. 

'OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN' (Rated M) - this French drama film is Written and Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski who feature film credits take in her debut 'Dear Prudence' in 2010 with Lea Seydoux, then 'Grand Central' in 2013 with Lea Seydoux again, 'Planetarium' in 2016 with Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp and 'An Easy Girl' in 2019. Rachel (Virginie Efira) is forty years old, single and has no children. She is working as a teacher at a middle school. She has a large circle of friends and also keeps in touch with her ex-husbands. Then one day, she falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem) and his four-year-old daughter Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves) also enters her life. Rachel takes care of the toddler, cares for and soon loves it like her own. But she must recognise that the close bond with Leila also harbours a possible risk, especially in relation to her birth mother Alice (Chiara Mastroianni). Rachel doesn't want to put up with just being an 'extra' in Leila's life. Time is also not on her side and she needs to make a decision whether she should have a child of her own at this age. The film saw its World Premier showcasing at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year, went on release in its native France towards the end of September and only now is it released here in Australia having garnered generally positive critical reviews and grossing so far US$2.8M at the Box Office.

'JOY RIDE' (Rated MA15+) - this American comedy film is based on a story jointly conceived by Adele Lim and Co-Produced and Directed by Adele Lim in her Directorial debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at SXSW in mid-March this year, is released Stateside and here in Australia this week and has generated universal critical claim. Here then, childhood best friends Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola), accompanied by Audrey's former roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu) and Lolo's cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), set out on a journey across China to find Audrey's birth mother. Their epic, no-holds-barred experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are. 

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-