Joy Ride is a 2023 road trip comedy marking the feature directorial debut of Adele Lim, and details about the movie's release date, cast, story, and more are now available. The Joy Ride movie follows a group of four women who travel to China for work, to find lost family members, and to reconnect with their heritage. While it's Lim's first film as a director, her screenwriting experience includes the adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians and the Disney animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon. Lim also has many television producing credits to her name.
Unlike most movies in the R-rated comedy genre, Joy Ride follows a cast of mostly Asian-American actors, and the writing team consists of Asian Americans Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, both best known for their work on Family Guy. What Joy Ride has in common with the standout raunchy comedies of the 2000s is Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as producers. These two leading comedy figures are strong endorsem*nts for the movie, and early reviews have been positive as well. With a familial story combined with a talented cast and crew, audiences can expect a lot of laughs and emotional heft from the Joy Ride movie.
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Joy Ride Latest News
The most recent Joy Ride movie update is a new clip that showcases more of the movie's raunchy humor (via Billboard). In the clip, the gang attempts to pass themselves off as a K-pop group. They're dressed in eccentric clothing and wigs, and they have given themselves fittingly outrageous K-popstar names. Their K-pop pseudonyms are Sassy, Cutie, Lisa, and Lisa 2. However, the funniest part of the Joy Ride movie clip is when they give a rendition of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's hit "WAP" and it certainly seems to embody the kind of high energy that all the other looks at the movie have shown.
Another recent Joy Ride movie update sees the release of the movie's latest red band trailer. The new footage sells the movie's R-rated humor and the wild road trip style of the story. There is also a special emphasis placed on the ensemble. Following the movie's critically acclaimed premiere at SXSW, the trailer also highlights the positive reactions, featuring pull quotes from some of the most glowing reviews. The movie is clearly looking to gain some buzz and the trailer does a good job of showing it as the next must-watch comedy.
Joy Ride Release Date
Joy Ride is slated to release theatrically on July 7, 2023. A middle-of-the-summer drop is the classic release time for a big studio comedy and a symbol of the producers' and Lionsgate’s confidence in the movie. The film has to compete against some major blockbusters that are sure to make a lot of money.
Joy Ride Cast
The main quartet of the Joy Ride movie is made up entirely of Asian-American actors, one of the few instances of this demographic leading a comedy movie. They are Ashley Park (Emily in Paris) as Audrey, Sherry Cola (Turning Red) as Lolo, Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as Kat, and newcomer Sabrina Wu as Deadeye.
Rounding out the rest of the main cast of Joy Ride is David Denman (The Office), Annie Mumolo (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar), Chris Pang (Crazy Rich Asians), Desmond Chiam (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Alexander Hodge (Insecure), Ronny Chieng (Crazy Rich Asians), and Lori Tan Chinn (Turning Red).
Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg Are Joy Ride Producers
The production company attached to the Joy Ride movie is Point Grey Pictures, founded in 2011 by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Their company has produced some of the biggest comedies over the last decade, including Neighbors, This is the End, and Good Boys. Rogen and Goldberg are also attached personally to produce, and their credits include some very iconic comedies of the early 2000s. Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Knocked Up are just some of the movies that would not have been possible without either Rogen or Goldberg. Having those two as a big part of Joy Ride signals the movie has been made with similar care.
Rogen and Goldberg began their early careers under the tutelage of Judd Apatow, and the trio worked together on a number of projects. The Apatowian-era of comedy has steadily declined since the mid-2010s but the creators who were shaped by it continue to be prominent figures in Hollywood. Rogen, Goldberg, and Point Grey Pictures are spiritual successors to Apatow, and the Joy Ride movie is in an enviable position as the latest in the line of their tentpole comedies.
Joy Ride Story Details
Joy Ride is a coming-of-age comedy that, as the name suggests, takes place over a road trip. Audrey is an Asian-American woman living in Washington State with her adoptive parents, played by Denman and Mumolo. Audrey spends most of her time with her childhood best friend, Lolo, who also happens to be the only other Asian-American person in their town. For her job as a lawyer, Audrey is tasked with traveling to China to close an important deal. Yet Audrey has never been in touch with her culture and invites Lolo, Lolo’s cousin Deadeye, and her college friend Kat along for the ride.
As Joy Ride's cast of characters set out on their journey, Audrey decides to use this once-in-a-lifetime trip as an excuse to also meet her birth parents and connect with her Chinese roots. Their trip is full of adventure, danger, drugs, spontaneous K-pop performances, and every other road trip joke and situation that the Joy Ride movie can be a vehicle for. Like any good R-rated comedy, there is plenty of raunchy sex, outrageous jokes, and unbelievable characters to fill the surprisingly brisk 90-minute runtime.
Joy Ride Trailer
The latest trailer for the Joy Ride movie has been released, once again showing off the raunchy, R-rated tone of the movie. While the new trailer doesn't go into the story as much as the first Joy Ride trailer, it aims to highlight the movie's positive early reactions from critics and audiences. Along with the clips from the movie's road trip antics, the trailer is filled with quotes calling the movie a new comedy classic, praising the ensemble, and comparing it to other hit R-rated comedies like The Hangover and Girls Trip.
A clip has also been released that sees the four main characters dressed up as a K-pop group as they attempt to gain entry into a VIP area they wouldn't otherwise be able to reach. The clip delivers exactly what was being praised by industry insiders after the CinemaCon screening, and it teases the exact kind of crude and over-the-top humor that audiences should expect. Both the new trailer and clip hint at the movie's themes of the characters being Asian-American and the feeling of being separated from their culture. That aspect of the movie makes Joy Ride an even more intriguing comedy, but it makes sense that the latest marketing push has highlighted it as the big summer comedy.
