Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola give R-rated masterclass in 'Joy Ride': SXSW review

Just a year ago, an up-and-coming actress named Stephanie Hsu walked the red carpet at South by Southwest for a movie called "Everything Everywhere All at Once." It burst out of the festival like a googly-eyed cannonball and went on to become one of the most successful Oscar-winning films of all time.

On Friday, Hsu returned to Austin's Paramount Theatre as the people's princess, walking the red carpet as a best supporting actress nominee and a proven performer whose next move is eagerly awaited. (Did you see her in "Everything Everywhere"? The lady can do anything.)

That something next — on the release schedule, if not on her production timeline — is director Adele Lim's filthy and funny "Joy Ride," which made its world premiere on Friday for SXSW Film & TV Festival.

Much like "Everything Everywhere" brought history-making awards for a primarily Asian cast, the cast and creatives of "Joy Ride" were overflowing with pride about their film. As co-star Sherry Cola put it, it's the first time the world's seen an R-rated buddy comedy in the vein of "The Hangover" or "Bridesmaids" starring four Asian women.

Here's what you need to know about the excellent "Joy Ride" before it hits theaters June 23.

'Bridesmaids' is a good reference point, but 'Joy Ride' is its own beautiful beast.

You know this sub-genre of American comedy: A gang of friends, usually brought together by one common link, set out for what should be an incident-free life event, only to run into an escalating series of incidents that usually involves profanity, illicit substances and probably nudity. Why yes, Seth Rogen did executive produce "Joy Ride"; why do you ask?

In Lim's film, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, a business trip to China becomes a girl's trip awash in debauched disarray. Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Cola) grew up together in an all-white small town in the U.S.; Audrey was adopted as a baby from China by a white couple, while Lolo's family immigrated to America. The lifelong best friends are complete opposites, Audrey a driven attorney and Lolo a starving artist whose artwork usually involves genitalia.

To seal a deal for her firm, Audrey has to fly to China and win over a potential partner (Ronny Chieng). But since she doesn't speak Mandarin, she enlists Lolo to come with her and translate. Lolo hopes that they can take the opportunity to track down Audrey's birth mother, but her friend is reluctant to do so until it becomes clear that's the best way to get the deal done.

Already a tall order. Now, throw in Lolo's socially awkward cousin, called Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), and Audrey's college bestie turned Chinese TV star, Kat (Hsu), and you've got the makings of an international incident.

Oh, and then throw in a men's basketball team, a backpack full of drugs, four lost passports, a secret vaginal tattoo and one really great K-pop number, and you've got a real "Joy Ride."

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Do not take your kids to see 'Joy Ride,' and not your parents unless you've got a really progressive relationship.

In a post-film Q&A during Friday's screening, apologies were issued to Park's parents, who apparently were in the audience for the premiere. Hopefully they appreciate filth as much as the next guys, because "Joy Ride" pulls no punches. It actually lands a few that you wouldn't even expect human civilization to know how to throw.

We're talking a gleeful sex montage featuring all of the stars. We're talking a visual punchline involving full-frontal nudity — and, uh, full internal nudity? We're talking one of the new year's funniest film lines, involving Hsu's bougie actress trying to remove a bag of smuggled drugs from her rectum in the middle of a rural field.

Your mileage may vary on the onslaught of raunch; for fans of such things, it'll be an ever-escalating hoot.

Plus, it's not all private parts. Chevapravatdumrong and Hsiao's pens are sharp, imbuing "Joy Ride" with clever gags to spare. Witness Deadeye scamming a child named Bao Bao in a game of cards, and a scene where Park reveals her best idea of flirting is doing her Gollum impression. Sometimes the rhythm sputters a bit balancing the wit and weird, but never fatally.

Did we mention the fully realized K-pop number? Stan Brownie Tuesday for clear skin. Name me one other idol group with two members named Lisa.

A comedy like this lives and dies by its ensemble, and 'Joy Ride' is l-i-v-i-n-g.

Cola said on the red carpet that she hopes audiences will walk away thinking of the film's quartet like the "Sex and the City" ladies. Are you a Kat or a Lolo? Oh, no, you're a total Deadeye. Me, well, I'm an Audrey and I know it.

The four principals each take their comedy archetype and execute it flawlessly. Park's uncool striver makes for a fine POV character, and Wu's Deadeye takes up the weirdo mantle that Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon have so wonderfully held in similar films.

It's so satisfying to know that Hsu's talent is on the world's radar now — have you seen the TikToks of her previous TV gigs that went under-recognized? "Joy Ride" gives her so much to play with, from high-falutin' histrionics to deeply undignified physical comedy involving an exercise bike and a massage gun. The film also, crucially, lets her cozy up to two incredibly hunky men, and good for her.

But the shiniest jewel of "Joy Ride" is Cola, full stop. Hers is a star-making turn: The veteran comedian gets to drop quips and pull mugs (including a memorable moment involving her mouth). Cola is the pace-setter; while Park's character is the fish-out-of-water protagonist, it's Lolo whose emotional beats the audience follows, from zany confidence to truly heartfelt pain. Put Cola in every movie immediately.

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This movie means something.

As the film's team emphasized at SXSW, this is a studio comedy landmark. The story, too, blooms as you're watching into a sensitive exploration of identity and family. Chieng's character asks Park early on: How do you know who you are if you don't know where you come from? "Joy Ride" gracefully — and tearfully, at its emotional climax — explores the many possible answers to that question. Perhaps most clearly, Lim's film says: Whom you love, and who loves you, can be your home.

Grade: B+

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Review of Joy Ride with Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola at SXSW in Austin