Ready to raunch in the Big Easy N
OW this is how you do a female raunch comedy. Equal parts crass, heartfelt and goofy, “Girls Trip” manages to hit all the right notes. It even pulls off something I thought was impossible: an impromptu dance number that, unlike the one in June’s inferior “Rough Night,” doesn’t come off as a contrived time waster.
Director Malcolm D. Lee (“The Best Man Holiday”) has assembled a cast with ace comic chemistry and, helpfully, a mostly female team of screenwriters. The core of the “Girls Trip” crew, friends from college, is author Ryan (Regina Hall), who’s managed to turn her somewhat-shaky marriage into a self-help empire. The squarest of them is Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), a former party girl who is now a doctor and single mom. Queen Latifah is investigative journalist Sasha, who’s lately been reduced to celebrity gossip blogging. And the film’s secret weapon is its least-famous face, Tiffany Haddish (“Keanu”), as Dina, the wild card whose R-rated rants are spittake-inducingly funny.
The “Flossy Posse” reunites in New Orleans for the Essence Festival, an actual music event for which the film becomes a bit of an infomercial, complete with cameos by Diddy, Mariah Carey, Faith Evans and many more. Ryan’s giving the keynote speech, and her agent, the amiably dorky Elizabeth (Kate Walsh) is joining, although Ryan warns her to tone down the “girlfriend” stuff: “Half a million women will be there celebrating black womanhood. You, my friend, are a guest. Act accordingly.”
The line is delivered casually, but with punch: Unlike Hollywood, this is a setting in which white people are definitely in the minority.
A full-on bacchanal ensues — absinthe overdoses, oral sex involving grapefruit, bar brawls, very public urination. There’s no shortage of male eye candy, not with Larenz Tate, Kofi Siriboe and “Luke Cage” star Mike Colter around (the latter as Ryan’s hubby). And it’s worth noting, by the way, that the title’s a misnomer: Haddish is in her 30s, the others in their 40s. To borrow from Prince: Women, not girls, rule here.
For all its horndog playfulness, “Girls Trip” never strays far from female solidarity. An eleventhhour speech about not fearing singledom is a rarity in a genre that still holds up romantic love as the big prize.
Tweaking that notion feels right for this ode to sisterhood disguised in “Hangover” clothing.