Girls Trip review
The funniest movie of the year is even better than you’ve heard.

Laughs, outrageousness, and good old-fashioned debauchery. This is what Girls Trip promises its audiences, and it more than delivers. Director Malcolm D. Lee’s latest follows four women who have been technically friends for the last twenty years, even though they haven’t all been together in five years. They reunite and head to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival hoping that the trip will bring them closer together.
This idea isn’t exactly new. But even though we’ve seen movies about friends who have drifted apart trying to get back to what they once were, we haven’t seen this movie with characters like this. Regina King stars as Ryan, an author and TV personality likened to a young Oprah, who has been invited to be a guest speaker at the festival. She brings with her her college squad, the “flossy posse,” consisting of Sasha (Queen Latifah), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Dina (Tiffany Haddish).
The four lead women have incredible chemistry together and they’re completely believable as best friends even though their personalities at time could not be more different. While Ryan is incredibly successful to the point that she feels pressure to keep up her perfect appearance while contending with an unfaithful husband, Sasha is struggling financially and trying not to reveal her mixed feelings about her friend’s success. Lisa is a divorced mom of two who has had little luck with men in the last few years and is trying to get back out there, while also dealing with her motherly instincts to reign in the raunchy and uninhibited Dina who is waaaaay out there.
Everyone in the cast has a part in the movie being as good as it is, but Haddish’s Dina is the scene-stealing, side-splittingly funny MVP of the film. Think Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids meets Ilana Glazer in Broad City but still with a unique energy that makes this relative newcomer one of the best things to happen to a comedy film in a long time. She’ll make you want to go out and watch her entire filmography while also praying that Hollywood is paying attention and starts casting her in more movies as soon as possible. The only thing she won’t make you want to do is eat a grapefruit (you’ll see what I mean).
The women of Girls Trip each have their moments that put them with the best of the best in terms of vulgar comedy, but the film also has its fair share of heartwarming moments. The bond the flossy posse shares is easily apparent and watching them come back together against the backdrop of a festival that is specifically meant to celebrate black womanhood ensures Girls Trip is memorable even beyond the laughs it provides. Together, the outrageous comedy and the heart behind the film makes this viewing experience a trip well worth taking.
