NEW ON THE BIG SCREEN / GIRLS TRIP
COMEDY. With REGINA HALL, TIFFANY HADDISH and JADA PINKETT SMITH. Director: MALCOLM D LEE. 16DLS. In SA cinemas now. Four best friends from college come together for a long-overdue reunion in the colourful streets of New Orleans – and the result is decadence, drama and debauchery.
The film follows the four (Hall, Haddish, Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah) as they attend the Essence Music Festival in a last-ditch effort to reconnect after losing touch over the years. And though they’re excited to rekindle their sisterhood of yesteryear, they soon realise they’ve got more than their checked-in baggage to unpack.
As they learn about each other’s financial woes, infidelity, marital decay and everything in-between, the ladies come to discover the healing force of their friendship.
Even though the movie unapologetically uses every comedic cliché in the book, the genuine sense of camaraderie and interpersonal bonds between the women – that surpass even romantic attachment – are its saving grace.
Though it contains a heartfelt message, be warned that there’s also plenty of heavy drinking, crude language, violence and nudity. So if you liked Bridesmaids (2011) this adult comedy – with its well-balanced ratio of humour-to-raunchy content – is the type of chick flick you’ll enjoy.
The director and writers achieve their mission statement of doing away with respectability politics to simply portray black women being carefree and having fun – just like everybody else.