Get your ass to the theater while you still can
It’s August and you’ve finally come down off your Wonder Woman high, so what’s a girl to do? Regain that ladyfabulous buzz with Girls Trip, of course!
In case you missed it, this raunchy buddy comedy set box office records when it came out a few weeks ago, bested only by Dunkirk in its opening weekend, hanging on for a strong second weekend, and having grossed over $70 million domestically less than two weeks into its release. Fueled by word of mouth and amazing talk show clips, Girls Trip has emerged as the surprise hit of the summer, thanks in large part to Tiffany Haddish. (Seriously, click that link stay for the whole story of how she took Will and Jada Pinkett Smith on a Groupon swamp tour.)
If, like me, you don’t watch a ton of TV (where her credits include Real Husbands of Hollywood and The Carmichael Show), you may recognize Haddish from last year’s Key and Peele feature film, Keanu. If she’s not on your radar yet, she will be; all the press touting this as a “breakout performance” are not wrong, and I can only hope Hollywood will continue to do right by her.
With Girls Trip, Haddish shares the bill with perennial favorites Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, and Jada Pinkett Smith, the four of whom make up a quartet of BFFs who call themselves the Flossy Posse. Since college, they’ve stuck together through marriage, divorce, fame, and failure, though not always without tension. When media self-help guru Ryan (Hall) is invited to keynote at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, she invites journalist-turned-gossip-blogger Sasha (Latifah), uptight single mom Lisa (Smith), and all-around loose cannon Dina (Haddish) to come along for a titular girls’ trip.
Ryan has built her career on “having it all” and telling other women that they can too. Her image and her marriage to ex-NFL regulation hottie Stewart (Luke Cage’s Mike Colter) seem too perfect to be real — which, of course, they are. The real fun starts when the rest of the posse learn, thanks to Sasha’s paparazzi connections, that Stewart has been cheating on Ryan with an Instagram model who is also at Essence Fest and will not be ignored. Will Sasha break the story to boost her failing blog? Will Ryan manage to hide the crack in her veneer from her adoring fans? Can Dina be restrained from kicking the ass of the adulterous duo? And, unrelated but important, will harried mom Lisa finally be able to break her drought from the D? Add in some absinthe, a dance battle, and a little advice from Auntie Angel, and you’ve got a recipe for, well, the smash hit of the summer.
Because, friends, Girls Trip is hilarious. Laugh out loud, Alamo rowdy screening, can’t hear the dialogue because the theater is roaring hilarious. Haddish is a revelation, and she steals the show. Don’t miss your chance to see this one on the big screen with your own crew — girls AND guys. It’s fun for the whole (R-rated adult) family.
