★★★★

It would be reductive, if not entirely unfounded, to one-line Joy Ride as being Adele Lim’s ‘Asian Bridesmaids’. For a film all about heritage, the Paul Feig comedy is an inescapable ancestor. Malcolm D. Lee’s Girls Trip sits too somewhere on this most scatological of family trees. It’s less mimicry than shared intention with impressive and engaging cultural specificity. The formula is as genealogical and gynaecological. Oh but Joy Ride does it so well. What’s more, Lim delivers high on thought provocation in ways Feig never has. This is fiercely funny stuff, smart as a whip, and delivered with gross abandon by a pitch perfect central quartet. In short, there’s ample riding and it’s a joy to behold it.