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Tuesday, August 1, 2017
MOVIE REVIEW/Girls Trip
When In N'Awlins, Let Yourself Go! Go! Go! Go!
Regina Hall
as Ryan, Jada Pinkett Smith as Lisa, Queen Latifah as Sasha and Tiffany Haddish
as Dina in Malcolm D. Lee's comedy-drama "Girls Trip".
Universal Pictures
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Tuesday,
August 1,
2017
"Girls Trip" is the epitome of fun. "Reality" TV shows can't touch this
wild, outrageous weekend adventure comedy-drama by Malcolm D. Lee. Four
best-friends who haven't seen each other since 2012 laugh, live and love it up
in New Orleans during the Essence Festival and turn The Big Easy upside down.
Their pure joy and excitement, crudeness and crass behavior is unapologetic,
contagious and highly enjoyable.
Flavored with a great soundtrack, "Girls Trip" sees Sasha (Queen Latifah), Dina
(Tiffany Haddish, scene-stealer extraordinaire), Ryan (Regina Hall) and Lisa
(Jada Pinkett-Smith) take Cajun Country by storm but with history and
entanglements. Ryan and her husband Stewart (Mike Colter) look for a
business deal despite their own personal challenges, while Sasha's financial
situation as a gossip web site proprietor puts her on a tightrope.
Mr. Lee's atmosphere is bright, sunny and replete with the free-wheeling humor
and improvisation that takes "Girls Trip" to all the places that it should go.
We aren't just watching four women have a great time -- we are having a great
time with them. I don't know when the last time was I had the kind of fun
at the movies that I had with "Girls Trip". The zeal and color of "Girls
Trip" is endless, as is the gut-busting humor. There are never dull
moments in this wacky weekend of frolic, lewdness and raunchy romping.
Dina, a ringleader in chaos and calamity, is out there. Anything
that comes to mind -- anything you're thinking, anything at all -- she will say
it. Loudly and clearly. Dina is a presence. A monumental
presence. Ms. Haddish, charismatic, quick-witted and umbridled, is a force
of nature. Her physical comedy is priceless. She injects "Girls
Trip" with the energy, vitality and endless laughter the film's trailer
promises. This volcanic fervor rubs off on Ms. Pinkett Smith, who gets in
on the act as Lisa, a straitlaced woman who lets loose literally and
figuratively. The physical comedy is what makes "Girls Trip" work.
Class and race are woven into Mr. Lee's film. The class clash rudely
invades the realities of the relationships of this quartet, with Ryan being a
cut above financially more so than any of her friends. The film tackles
the issues of class discreetly but with the eyepopping attire and glamor you'd
be forgiven for thinking that money is no object. Ryan warns her white
business manager Elizabeth (Kate Walsh) about appropriating speech she believes
Black women use in colloquy.
Elizabeth is a parody of some managers, and Ms. Walsh plays to type to a T.
And I couldn't help noticing the darker-complexioned Simone (Deborah Ayorinde)
as a rival to the lighter-complected Ryan. In the few scenes she has, Ms.
Ayorinde's Simone is a sullen presence, and I don't know whether Mr. Lee was
making any kind of statement beyond the casting, regardless of the character's
own motives in the script written by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver. I
could have done without the N-word anywhere in this film, and thankfully it
isn't uttered in the second hour of a film that flies by.
One of the many things I admire about "Girls Trip" is its mix of farce and
peace. Though most of the first hour is high-octane things slow to a
truthful gateway, one which I found moving. The film isn't entirely
predictable but there's a great message that will move many. I didn't
expect to be caught up in the moment but you can't watch the exhilarating "Girls
Trip" and not be. (By the way, Larenz Tate, who seems not to have aged
since "Menace II Society" almost 25 years ago, plays a nice supplemental role as
Julian, a musician and long-time friend of one of the women.)
It's great to see Black women on the big screen be something other than a
serious, buttoned-down entity or a strong, resolute person who has to be
everything for everyone else except for herself. Sure, there's been a fair
share of butt-shaking roles in Hollywood, but "Girls Trip" gives these women
full control of what they do, and on their own terms. Mr. Lee sensitively
acknowledges this. Most of the time simply steps back, trains the cameras,
and these unforgettable women let fly, resplendently.
Also with: Lara Grice, Robert Miano -- and a whole host of cameos from people
you will recognize almost instantly.
"Girls Trip" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America crude and
sexual content throughout, pervasive language, brief graphic nudity, and drug
material. The film's running time is two hours and two minutes.
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