I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I'm probably not the target audience for Girls Trip, but looks can be deceiving. Truth be told, I don't mind a good chick flick- emphasis on the "good" part.
I wasn't one of those guys that blew a gasket when they decided to do an all-female Ghostbusters reboot- I just wish it'd been a better, funnier movie. But sub-par though it may have been, my childhood remains intact, thank you very much. Anyone who says differently really needs to check their priorities- if not their privilege.
Likewise, I was really looking forward to Rough Night. I'm a long-time Scarlett Johansson fan, and always thought she was great on SNL- plus the rest of the cast, not unlike Ghostbusters, was made up of ace comedic performers, including Kate McKinnon, Illana Glazer (I freaking ADORE Broad City) and Jillian Bell (Workaholics).
Unfortunately, the film ended up being a lukewarm female take on Very Bad Things. As a direct result, I opted to skip Girls Trip, because what were the chances it wasn't just as bad? Shows what I know. Sometimes it takes a new angle to disrupt the balance of things.
In this case, it was a quartet of African-American actresses, led (and grounded by) by Regina Hall, who I always enjoyed in her over-the-top turns in the Scary Movie franchise. Interesting how the one who seemed the craziest in the past is now the glue holding this one together- the times they are a'changing, indeed.
Hall plays a would-be Oprah type, Ryan Pierce, looking to land a TV-chat-fest with her hunky husband, Stewart (Mike Colter, aka Luke Cage), as a sort of couple variation on one of those self-help shows that are so popular right now.
Unfortunately for her, her man is a cheater, and the news breaks right before they're getting ready to sign a huge deal. Can she keep a lid on it until the papers are signed? Maybe, thanks to old pal, Sasha (Queen Latifah), who runs a gossip blog, and is the one who first gets a heads-up about the news. But should Ryan even bother?
Ryan finds out about the slight from Sasha just as she arrives in New Orleans, where she's meeting up with old friends to attend the Essence Festival, including near-shut-in-and-stay-at-home-mom Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith, Gotham) and wild child party girl Dina (scene-stealer comedian Tiffany Haddish).
Determined to have a good time and not let the revelation get her down, she and the girls take to the streets to party down, getting into a wide variety of nutty situations, which are actually pretty funny, more often than not.
Along the way, they eventually have a falling out, over Ryan's decision to give her husband the benefit of the doubt and give him a second chance, but more because of the show than any real feelings she has for him, which doesn't go over well with her friends.
To make matters worse, her hubby's cheatee, Simone (Deborah Ayorinde, also of Luke Cage) shows up at the festival to wreak havoc, threatening to blow the lid off their affair herself, in order to further her own career. This also causes quite a bit of strife with Ryan's posse. Shenanigans ensue.
I watched this on a free HBO preview, figuring it was no big loss if it sucked because I literally had nothing to lose, save time wasted, if it did. Knowing that it was one of those comedies that runs over two hours- too long comedies are a pet peeve of mine- I didn't expect much, despite knowing it was a huge box office hit and seemed to have gotten solid enough reviews from critics.
Well, as I learned from previous experience- see also my review of 22 Jump Street, which I recently posted- you never know sometimes. I was aware of Tiffany Haddish, certainly, not living under a rock. I'd seen the bulk of her largely autobiographical stand-up special She Ready!, as well as her fairly amusing turn in Key & Peele's movie Keanu, but I wasn't aware until fairly recently that she'd been plugging away at fame since the early mid-2000's.
Haddish is undeniably the break-out star here, and her enthusiasm is infectious. I can only imagine how well this played to female audiences in the the theaters, but I was admittedly in near-hysterics at times, and I can be a tough laugh sometimes. Here, I actually woke up my roommate, who got up to see what the hell was so funny.
Haddish really goes for broke here, and is gloriously filthy. (Wait till you see the "grapefruit" scene!) It's safe to say her sense of humor won't be for everyone, but from what I've seen of her on talk shows and her recent hosting gig on SNL, she's being pretty true to herself, in terms of how her actual persona lines up to the one here.
By contrast, her turn in Keanu and especially on the new TV show The Last O.G. are much more subdued, showing the girl has range. As such, she's definitely worth checking out in general, but especially here, where she is off-the-charts funny. You haven't lived until you see that zip-line scene, lol.
I also dug how each of the girls brought their own thing to the table, each getting their own laughs their own way. Hall, formerly the crazy one in the Scary Movie series, reigns things way in for this one, but manages to mine some solid laughs as someone tightly-wound, especially in her scenes with the invaluable Kate Walsh (Grey's Anatomy) as her would-be-down manager.
Walsh does her fair share of scene-stealing her own damn self, as she tries her best to be "down" with the main girls. A lot of African-American-heavy films would reduce a character like this to a token "white girl" thing (as in, "Isn't that funny, a white girl trying to be "street"?"), but Girls Trip actually gives Walsh a chance to get laughs and sympathy, as she tries her best to help Ryan navigate these thorny waters.
Indeed, that's sort of the key to why this film works. By juxtaposing laughs with heart, and generating pathos by virtue of the set-up, it all works like gangbusters. You feel for Ryan, who, after all, is being cheated on, just as she was about to get her big break.
Meanwhile, you also feel for the other girls, with Sasha working below her station as a gossip columnist when she used to want to be a serious reporter- something she was supposed to do via a website with Ryan, who abandoned her along the way for her own career.
Lisa was supposedly the "freaky" one, but now has settled into a boring single mom lifestyle who can't remember when she last when on a date. And Dina is her own worst enemy, getting the girls tossed out of their swanky hotel before they're fully even checked in, and starting trouble wherever she goes, almost unable to help herself.
In short, you care about these girls because their characters are well-defined and the scenario is so laden with drama, which makes the release of the laughs hit all the more harder. It actually manages to justify the lengthy running time, as a direct result. Sure, they could have pared down, say, some of the musical performance sequences, but all in all, it earns the length, I'd say.
So, there you go. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir to some people by now, but for those who were dubious this wouldn't be their cup of tea, give it a shot- you might be surprised. It's got laughs and heart, and for my money, puts a lot of the other female-fronted ensemble would-be comedies I've seen over the last few years to shame. Check it out! 😃😜
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