Girls Trip

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Girls Trip

As reported by Dollyforme

I actually laughed alot during this movie – saw it in the theatre. So, if Bad Moms and Rough Night got to the femalecentric raunch-comedy first—and who knew such good things could come out of a Hangover?—then the exuberantly trashy and sneakily deep Girls Trip is that formula perfected. We’re still talking about simple drug-and-sex-laden pleasures, this time involving a quartet of black college buddies, formerly inseparable, who have eased into life’s compromises. They head down to New Orleans for a weekend of well-financed debauchery.

Girls Trip is a pleasantly raunchy outing that offers few surprises but plenty of guilty laughs. That's fitting for a movie about a group of college friends who reunite periodically to recall when their constitutions could handle late hours and when they could consume spirits without periodically wondering if they were properly hydrated.

In the decades since the "Flossy Posse" graduated, Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) has achieved fame and and bit of fortune writing advice books, particularly one titled You Can Have It All, where she discusses her good fortune and her marriage to a handsome NFL veteran named Stewart (Mike Colter). The two are a fixture on talk shows even though it's obvious that Stewart appears to consider his marriage vow more of a mild suggestion.

That hasn't stopped Essence magazine from asking her to be a keynote speaker in New Orleans, so Ryan invites the rest of the Flossy Posse to join her for one last bash before her big speech.

While the four of them still wear necklaces with the "FP" logo, there is a good reason why they have seen each other less frequently. Sasha Franklin (Queen Latifah) was once a respected journalist, but she now toils on her own TMZ knockoff with sordid tales of celebrity foibles. The site may keep her in the game, but her scoops don't get enough hits to pay off her car or her housing bills. She gets wind of Stewart's roving eyes and debates whether to make click bait out of him.

Dina (Tiffany Haddish) has similar career problems, but her happy-go-lucky manner implies that leaping from job to job is standard operating procedure for her. She might not stay at any particular office for too long because she has a habit of assaulting co-workers who cross her while using language that would make Seth Rogen wince. Her outbursts and gleefully decadent manner make her more entertaining than dangerous, and her loyalty to her friends enables them to forgive her for potentially attracting attention from law enforcement.

Haddish makes what could have been an irritating role and ends up owning the film. She can play an uninhibited character without ever giving viewers a sense she's winking at them.

Lisa Cooper (Jada Pinkett Smith), on the other hand, is a single mom who goes about her house in hospital scrubs and carries a variety of disinfectants wherever she goes. Her obsession with health threatens to drive everyone in the Flossy Posse as crazy with paranoia as she is.

Screenwriters Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver (Barbershop: The Next Cut) seem to be following a gross-out comedy template, but the two come up with just enough naughty gags to make the familiar journey work. They tweak familiar setups just enough so that they don't feel as if they've passed their expiration date.

There are legions of familiar music luminaries like Sean Combs and Mariah Carey playing themselves, and Lee gives them just enough time to make the party scenes convincing but doesn't clutter the narrative with excessive name dropping.

For some reason with this film, the wildness feels wilder, the vulnerability rawer and the sisterhood stronger. If the movie sends you out on a high (and maybe to the phone to get your own “Flossy Posse” back together), then it’s doing the work of angels.

With unusual equanimity, the script (from a team of writers whose credits include TV’s Black-ish and South Park) features four distinct main characters. Ryan (Regina Hall) is a rising Oprah with—count ’em—a popular TV show, a doting former-pro-football-star for a husband and a bestseller called You Can Have It All, the latter of which pushes her slightly into unbearable territory. Sasha (Queen Latifah) used to be a New York Times reporter; now she’s a gossip blogger. Lisa (Jada Pinkett-Smith) is a single mother of two who’s given up on dating so completely, her wardrobe consists of either hospital scrubs or matronly sweaters suitable for parent-teacher conferences. And Dina (Tiffany Haddish, stealing the movie) is, well, Dina: brassy, impulsive, recently fired and the most fiercely loyal—definitely the fiercest.

Girls Trip is so successful because it lets its cast of improvisers ease into a bond that feels bone-deep. The story’s plot points—a stream of betrayals, some serious, some not—function decently enough and the setting, the Big Easy’s annual Essence Fest, allows for plenty of distracting music-world cameos (Sean Combs pokes the most fun at himself). But it’s the manic energy and intimacy between the four leads that turns the film into something unexpectedly alive, from a euphoric dance-off against millennial Instagrammers, to every bit of rapid-fire hotel-room banter. (Haddish, particularly, unleashes two arias of purely physical craft: an expert ankle-collapsing drunk walk and a rude sex tutorial involving fruit, both of which should be studied in schools.) You don’t mind when the film gets around to making a point, because it’s already delivered on something more meaningful: a fully fleshed gang of jokers who truly love each other.

If you love a raunchy comedy, go see this movie.

Comments

Im sure my ladies will love to watch it together and laugh at me enjoying their sisterhood even more. Ladies, I´ll laugh with you.:) Chris