Film Review: ‘Girls Trip’

Rap star Remy Ma hosted a special private screening of Universal Picture’s upcoming film “Girls Trip” on Wednesday (July 19th) at The Whitby Hotel in New York City.

Remy Ma introduced the film to guests in attendance sharing her excitement to host the screening and why women supporting women is so important as well as sharing her story about meeting and connecting with the film’s four lead actresses. Other guests include Maino (rapper), AZ (rapper), Lenny S (Roc Nation), and more!

The minds behind Think Like a Man, The Best Man and Black-ish have created a piece of work together with their film Girls Trip which celebrates friendship amongst women and balancing career and professional lives creating something of a modern-day Waiting to Exhale with an overlaying comedic element. The film stars Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith (reuniting on screen for the first time since 1996’s Set It Off) and Tiffany Haddish, as four college friends who reunite in New Orleans for The Essence Music Festival and rediscover the bond that they once had before their personal and professional lives took them on different paths.

The women each represent characters that embody someone that either viewers know in their personal lives such as Pinkett’s single mom nurse character Lisa and Haddish’s character Dina the loud, overly sexual friend or someone that viewers have read about like Hall’s celebrity status author character Ryan or Latifah’s blogger character Sasha. New Orleans and the Essence Music Festival serve as more than just settings, but as a supporting character alongside the female leads.

The men behind the film, Lee and Packer do a great job of blending the story with the festival and the city having the characters interact with performers on stage while not letting the movie become solely about the festival keeping a careful hold to keep the focus on the characters’ stories and friendships.

While it may have been a lot of pressure acting alongside veterans Latifah, Smith and Hall, Haddish holds her own and outshines the trio of veteran actresses in her role with her no holds barred sexually raunchy humor and spontaneous actions. Pinkett and Hall’s characters seem to serve as the calm balance to Haddish’s wild Dina character, while Latifah’s character seems in a way a throwback to her Living Single character Khadijah (who was a magazine editor on the show), and what that character may have become in modern times with the popularity of online blogging vs working in print media. Amongst the four actresses in the film Hall and Latifah’s character’s one on one scenes together have the most dramatic tension until the end , while Latifah’s scenes with Pinkett-Smith really captures the pairs nearly thirty year friendship and helps viewers see them in a different kind of friendship compared to the one Cleo and Stony had in Set It Off.

Despite having the appearance of a “chick flick”, the film doesn’t alienate male viewers. Male viewers will be able to watch the film and laugh at the jokes and find the humor without being offended or feeling bashed. Also, male characters like Larenz Tate’s character Julian serves as the down to earth male who male watchers would feel the most relatable to, compared to Mike Colter’s character Stewart who in his own right will also connect with male viewers who have been in the character’s shoes a time or two.
Some scenes in the movie have a Think Like a Man or The Best Man vibe in the way they are filmed and presented, which shows Lee and Packer remaining true to their previous work and history. Overall Girls Trip will have you laughing to the end as well as helping you to appreciate your friendships more or try and reach out and rekindle old ones.

Girls Trip opens in theaters nationwide on July 21st.