Genre: Comedy
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Starring: Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Mike Colter, Kate Walsh
Runtime: 122 minutes
Once best friends in college, lifestyle guru Ryan (Regina Hall), gossip columnist Sasha (Queen Latifah), divorced and devoted mother of two Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) and loose cannon Dina (Tiffany Haddish) have slowly let their best-friendship decline over the years. But when Ryan is asked to be the keynote speaker at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, she and her Flossy Posse head down for a weekend of booze, guys, and trouble, reconnecting along the way.
‘Girls Trip’ is a loud, sexy, over-the-top romp that grounds outrageous humor in the reality that, with four best friends, on one huge trip, anything can happen. It’s this relatability that guides us through the film’s biggest laughs – flashers, peeing on crowds and hallucinations – but it’s also what makes the film funny throughout its whole runtime, peppering ‘Girls Trip’ with one-liners and throwaway quips that are belly-busters in themselves. And while Tiffany Haddish does much of the heavy lifting, the entire cast is hilarious: Hall’s career-obsessed Ryan is fed up, Queen Latifah’s Sasha is fun, and Haddish’s outlandish Dina gives Pinkett-Smith’s single mum Lisa the push she needs to get out of her comfort zone. Together they bring an enormous amount of chemistry not only to their comedy but to the core friendship.
‘Girls Trip’ is also a heartfelt comedy, highlighting the strength and importance of female friendships and sisterhood as well as homing in on a lot of other issues facing modern women today. It tackles ideas like retaining your identity as a mother, and the true meaning of success as a woman, as well as the concept of women needing to “have it all”, without becoming too much of a “message movie”, and the overall idea that your friends will always support you is presented warmly and sincerely, something that is relatable for not only women, but men too.
But most of all, ‘Girls Trip’ is memorable: not only does it land its scandalous humour, but many of the scenes are unforgettable, as are its characters – there are elements to Ryan, Dina, Sasha, and Lisa that we can all relate to, yet they are fully formed, complex female characters dealing with real female friendships and issues, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a comedy since ‘Bridesmaids’. When ‘Bridesmaids’ was released, it was hoped that it would usher in a new age of female comedies; hopefully, the success of ‘Girls Trip’ will actually deliver on this promise, and we can see more women leading amazing comedies like this one.
My Verdict
My Rating
3
‘Girls Trip’ is memorable: not only does it land its scandalous humour, but many of the scenes are unforgettable, as are its characters – there are elements to Ryan, Dina, Sasha, and Lisa that we can all relate to
