One of the great pleasures of watching movies is seeing an actor seize their opportunity at stardom. I mean really sink their teeth into a role. Recently, Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids springs to mind. So does Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover (maybe not the sequels, though).
And now you can add Tiffany Haddish to the list. You may not have heard of her before now, but after catching the gleefully rude and riotous comedy Girls Trip you're unlikely to forget her. It's the epitome of a breakout performance - completely uninhibited and hilariously funny.
What's terrific about Girls Trip, though, is that Haddish's three co-stars throw themselves into the mix with just as much enthusiasm, giving this story of four longtime friends reuniting for the wildest of weekends in New Orleans a winning chemistry and boisterous energy.
There's no denying it has a couple of flaws, mainly that when it decides to get a little sappy and sentimental it gets a lot sappy and sentimental. But, the bumpy bits at the beginning and end of Girls Trip are brief and easily endured, and what remains is a great time in great company.
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The four members of the 'Flossy Posse' - Ryan (Regina Hall), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), Sasha (Queen Latifah) and Dina (Haddish) - were inseparable in college. However, life has taken them in separate directions in the subsequent years. But, Ryan's success as an Oprah-esque self-help guru has earned her the guest of honour spot at the Essence Festival, an annual celebration of African-American culture (which also doubles as a hell of a party weekend), and she's pulled a few strings to get her old friends along for the ride.
She needs them for moral support - it turns out there are a few faults in Ryan's picture-perfect marriage to Stewart (Mike Colter) - but the other members of the Posse are doing it a little tough too. Stressed single mother Lisa is getting more and more uptight all the time. Gossip blogger Sasha is close to broke. And Dina…? Well, Dina isn't doing it all that tough, actually. She's so self-confident she brushes off being fired from her office job by announcing she'll be back at work Tuesday because she'll be too hungover to show up Monday.
What follows is a chaotic cavalcade of sex tips (you'll never look at a grapefruit the same way again), dance-offs and drug-induced hallucinations, not to mention some fiery, furious confrontations that re-open some old wounds but may settle some old scores as well.
Director Malcolm D. Lee (who has previously helmed similarly fun get-together movies like The Best Man and The Best Man Holiday) handles the light and heavy sequences with equal skill and flair, and so do the actors. Hall and Latifah make the most of their characters' deep shared history, culminating in a wrenching scene that has the ring of truth, and it's a kick to see Pinkett Smith cut loose and get silly after a run of more intense roles.
