I read the reviews on Girls Trip so I guess I stand alone in my opinion of what is served up as comedy these days. I guess I have to say Girls Trip has its moments but for me it was a crude, unnecessarily raunchy farce thrown together by Director Malcolm D. Lee and scripted by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver.
I suppose there is a lot of pressure on women in Hollywood not to age so we are presented with liposuctioned and botoxed African American women beautiful in their own right made to look so Wendy Williams you have to look twice to recognize its Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah in particular.
I kept thinking during the entire movie why do African Americans have to act like buffoons in order to be comical. Girls Trip was more like Girls Trippin. I thought this movie was beneath the dignity of every Black Star who appeared in it. I guess you would say lighten up to me, but well I am sorry but I like to see my people presented with class not as fools.
The premise of the movie is 4 college mates and best friends who haven’t seen each other in a long while (who dubbed themselves in college the Flossie Posse), get together in New Orleans for the Annual Essence Festival wherein Ryan (Regina Hall) the protagonist in the movie, and an author who pens a lifestyle book about her perfect marriage to husband Stewart (Mike Colter) is invited to be the keynote speaker. This is the opportunity she has been looking for to catapult Stewart and herself as the perfect couple into millionaire status. Of course the entire marriage is built on lies with Stewart having a wandering eye and extramarital affair.
Stressed out, Ryan sees the festival as the perfect opportunity to reunite with her posse so invites the entire gang to trip the light fantastic. But the moment the posse arrives they turn the trip into a wild, nasty brawl and sexcapade with several scenes showing male nudity, both old and young.
There is a lot of lying going on with Queen Latifah as Sasha pretending to be successful when she can barely rub two pennies together. Once a successful journalist she has become a blogger dishing up dirt on celebrities. Lisa portrayed by Jada Pinkett Smith is the more responsible of the group. A divorcee with two children. It has been a few years since she has had a man so Lisa goes hog wild during her trip sleeping with a man whose instrument is so big she has to use two grapefruits on him. Lastly the clown of the group Dina (Tiffany Hadish) is the consummate frienenemy. Her idea of a joke is to put an hallucinogenic in her girlfriends drinks, steal their credit cards, and paraphernalia as well as get them kicked out of their hotel while engaging in multiple brawls.
I know, I know, the movie is supposed to be fun but I wonder is this the kind of friends we want in our lives? After all, this is being shown to impressionable minds by major Hollywood stars. I have never referred to my friends as bitches and whores let alone call them that to their faces as if that is their second name. I have too much respect for the people in my life to defile, denigrate and disrespect them in that manner. How low do we go!!!! I guess that is really my question, how low do we go in order to make a movie? And when these movies are made do they have any consideration of a young audience who may think this is the conduct expected of them.
My peers who reviewed this movie all saw it as fun. Perhaps. However for me personally, I would like to see my fellow African Americans depicted with dignity. Haven’t we gone through enough self-hatred, humiliation and tripe than for us to align with our oppressors by peddling raunchy behavior to our people as the new norm.
Yes, there were a few laughs in Girls Trip but not enough to spend your ducats on this droll cliche of a movie.
Come on Black Hollywood you can do better than this! Much better.
