Stephanie Hsu's New Comedy Joy Ride Is Already Getting Rave Reviews

Stephanie Hsu made her way into our hearts with last year’s hit Everything Everywhere All At Once, and made her way into the history books as one of the few out queer actors to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a queer role.

Now, her new comedy, in which she stars with fellow queer Chinese-American comedians Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu, is getting rave reviews after its premiere at the SXSW film festival. The movie also stars Ashley Park.

Joy Ride Trailer #1 (2023)Check out the official trailer for Joy Ride starring Sherry Cola! ▻ Buy Tickets on Fandango: ...

Joy Ride, written and directed by Adele Lim of Crazy Rich Asians fame, is a wild and raucous R-rated comedy that follows two childhood best friends as they travel through China looking for one of their birth mothers. And as of now, it has a 100 percent fresh rating from ten reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

“When Audrey’s (Park) business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the aid of Lolo (Cola), her irreverent childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; Kat (Hsu), her college friend-turned-Chinese soap star; and Deadeye (Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin,” the film’s description reads. “Complete with some Bridesmaids-like shenanigans, their experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging, and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.”

While Joy Ride doesn’t seem to have any actual queerness in the film, it does star three of our favorite young queer actors, and so it’s one of the films we’re most looking forward to this year.

Early reviews for the movie praise it's fun and comedy.

“If you miss the days when comedies weren’t afraid to dish out an outrageous serving of full-frontal nudity, hard drug use, unbridled horniness and delightfully gruesome potty humor, boy do I have the movie for you,” writes Aurora Amidon for Paste.

“Joy Ride gleefully reminds us that life’s biggest obstacles and surprises are better experienced within the warm hug of close comradery — after all, there’s nothing quite like pure, unbridled friendship,” says TheWrap’s Lex Briscuso while calling the film “a hilarious but heartfelt buddy film that hits all the right notes.”

Another movie we’re looking forward to, Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, also premiered at SXSW and is also getting great reviews. While it doesn’t quite hold up to Joy Ride’s 100 percent, it has a very excellent 94 percent rating from 18 reviews.

Bottoms, which stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, follows two unpopular, queer high school students who start a fight club in order to hook up with cheerleaders before graduation.

Bottoms (2023) - OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILERBottoms (2023) - OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER Bottoms is an upcoming American teen sex comedy film directed by Emma Seligman ...