Girls Trip - Review

Girls Trip

Girls Trip is a contemporary American comedy film, directed by Malcolm D. starring actresses Regina Hall (“Ryan”), Queen Latifah (“Sasha”), Tiffany Haddish (“Dina”), Jada Pinkett Smith (“Lisa”) along with supporting actors Larenz Tate and Mike Colter in a story that revolves around four lifelong friends who travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival and rediscover their sisterhoods and wild sides. What happens when they are together again after many years since their college days is a rediscovery for their lasting friendship, as well as their shared heartaches through the renewed bonding experiences of endless dancing, non-stop drinking, girl fight brawling and women taking charge of romancing men that culminates with a collective relationship being even stronger than before.

REVIEW: I have seen at least two women bonding films this year. One was with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn in the film called “Snatched” and the other starring Scarlett Johannsen and Zoe Kravitz in “Rough Night”. Both in my estimation were unmitigated disasters from beginning to the end mostly because those two films were not very well written much less having anything in the way of a plausible plot. So, with that in mind, where these two films went terribly wrong, “Girls Strip” is a much better effort largely because the cast involved.

The four principle women in front of the camera had a more honest and more natural bond with one another that felt dynamic, familiar and sincere. And while they all had turns executing numerous jokes and verbal high speed bantering between one another, it didn’t feel stale or false. In fact sometimes the jokes were just laugh out loud funny even when predictably over the top. And while there were some jokes about male “appendages” that felt flat and recycled, the cast kept soldiering on to keep their story of female bonding moving steady along.

Ultimately “Girls Trip” is just meant to be a fun film for viewers to watch. There is no great moment of intrigue or having some climatic finale. The film stays in its lane of delivering as advertised; just plain fun with scene after scene of emotions running the gamut from loving and tender, funny and hilarious to raunchy and disgusting to even just outright vulgar to hear, with Actress Tiffany Haddish being the primary source of the vulgar material.

Now don't get me wrong her jokes were largely funny, but to be honest they were also sometimes vulgar too (for some of you who don’t like that style of humor). This film was her coming out for national recognition for future projects as she was the one constant source of energy throughout the films 2 hour running time. In fact she may have broken new ground in vulgarity with a ferocity of dialogue involving male – female genitalia, sexuality and discussions of drugs that I think in the future the Motion Picture Association may very well have to add a whole new rating level called the “Haddish” simply to warn adults over the age 18 she is in the movie.

“Girls Trip” goes through the paces of some outright craziness that are never plausible, but to its credit the craziness was never ever boring, at least not for this viewer. And while it does jump around from one wild scene to the next it does settle down to the fact that these women may be different on the surface, they have a deep abiding love for each other predicated on the many trials and test of life they have endured as women and as modern African American woman. African American Women who are fully liberated in taking their own bite out of the apple of lifelong happiness, seeking no approval from anyone with a full throated energy, genuine vitally and as the French always say ……….“Joie de vivre”. “Girls Trip” was a pleasurable fun ride.

 3.25 Stars