This Underseen Spicy Comedy With an ‘Emily in Paris’ Star Hits a New Streamer Next Month

The 2020s have blessed theaters with raunchy comedy hits aplenty, from Jennifer Lawrence‘s uncomfortable yet riotous No Hard Feelings to the acclaimed teen black comedy Bottoms with Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri. Yet, among the raunchiest is director Adele Lim and writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao‘s unapologetically explicit road-trip feature Joy Ride. Released in 2023, the film casts Emily in Paris regular Ashley Park and Nobody Wants This star Sherry Cola as childhood best friends on a business trip to Asia that goes off the rails into debauchery… and a surprising amount of self-discovery. Starting on November 1, this pair, along with Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu, is about to reintroduce themselves and heat things up once again on Netflix.

Joy Ride initially premiered out of SXSW and immediately became a hit for its mix of chaotic, raunchy humor and heart. Currently, it holds a Certified Fresh 90% from critics and an 83% score from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, earning major plaudits from, among others, Oscar-winning Anora filmmaker Sean Baker. Collider’s Therese Lacson gave it a B+ in her review at the time, saying it was “not only chock-full of ribald comedy, but it’s a wholesome story about friendship, which is what grounds these types of movies.” Despite all the praise, Lim’s R-rated directorial debut adventure failed to capture much of an audience in theaters and grossed just under half of its reported $32 million budget with a $15.8 million global box office haul.

Park leads the film as Audrey, a rise-and-grind lawyer at a prestigious law firm who has a shot at a promotion to partner if she flies to China and closes a deal with a potential business partner (Ronny Chieng). To make the most of the trip, she brings along her longtime friend Lolo (Cola), Lolo’s K-pop-obsessed cousin Vanessa, aka Deadeye (Wu), and, after a run-in in Beijing, her close college friend-turned-actor Kat (Hsu). When the businessman insists on meeting the Chinese adoptee Audrey’s birth parents, however, what should have been a simple meeting evolves into a life-changing journey across China involving run-ins with drug dealers, sexcapades with basketball star Baron Davis, and a lot of bonding and learning what it means to love oneself.

Will ‘Joy Ride’ Ever Get a Sequel?

The lackluster box office returns all but guarantee that another Joy Ride with Park, Cola, Hsu, and Wu is unlikely, but there are certainly some ideas if the band ever gets back together. In an interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff back when the film was released, Hsu revealed that there was some excellent material that didn’t make the final cut of the group’s adventure, including a queer storyline involving Kat and Lolo. “There’s a whole gay track between Sherry’s character and my character that kind of got edited and will be saved for the sequel,” she shared. “Sherry’s livid about it.”

For now, Lim, who also helped write the screenplays for Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the Last Dragon, is gearing up for a bigger challenge for her second feature as a director — The Princess Diaries 3 with a returning Anne Hathaway.

Joy Ride arrives on Netflix on November 1. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on all the biggest titles coming to and leaving streaming throughout the year.

Release Date

July 7, 2023

Runtime

95 Minutes

Director

Adele Lim

Writers

Adele Lim, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao