STARRING: QUEEN LATIFAH, JADA PINKETT SMITH, REGINA HALL AND TIFFANY HADDISH
DIRECTOR: MALCOLM D. LEE
RELEASE DATE: JULY 25, 2107
While attending famed Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University, they were known as the “Flossy Posse.” Now at various stages in their lives and careers, the posse of four friends are headed to the Essence Festival in New Orleans for some much needed partying and friendship rebuilding. Between the four comrades, Ryan (Regina Hall), Sasha (Queen Latifah), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Dina (Tiffany Haddish), New Orleans is the perfect place to release their emotional baggage.
Girl’s Trip might indeed be the funniest comedy of the year so far. It is crude and inappropriate but it also has the potential to draw you in to see exactly how raunchy the four friends will get. This movie is definitely the female version of The Hangover. The film tells a pretty familiar story of a group of friends reuniting to celebrate an important date for one of them in the party centric city of New Orleans where things unravel quickly. The lady of the weekend, Ryan, is a successful author and self-help guru who has been dubbed “the next Oprah.” Her life is quietly falling apart behind the scenes thanks to her cheating husband Mike (Stewart Pierce), who reminds her daily how important it is to keep their brand looking shiny and problem free. Given the honor to speak at the Essence Festival in Louisiana, Ryan takes the opportunity to invite her three best friends, Sasha, a gossip columnist with whom Ryan has had a falling out with, Lisa, the serious minded mother of two and Dina, the brash, boisterous party animal of the group.
The girls engage in all kinds of trouble including a very unfortunate incident on a zip line and an unforeseen overdose of Absinthe at a party. And while there is a lot of R-rated jokes around every corner, Girl’s Trip manages to tell an effective story of female friendship and empowerment that absolutely resonates beyond the screen. What really comes across here is the affection the characters have for one another and how noticeable the good times are. The enjoyment in so many comedies feels forced which negates any genuine fun on the audience’s part but here there is little doubt that all involved are having a blast. The four leads are all very well cast with Haddish stealing the entire show. She goes all out so fearlessly that watching her character in the film will have you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what she’ll say and do next.
Director Malcolm D. Lee definitely knocked this one out of the park. There’s no question Girl’s Trip will leave you and your friends saying, “Remember that scene?” as you leave the theater. Girl’s Trip receives eight stars out of ten stars.