By Morgan Lawrence
New Orleans welcomes millions of tourists from around the world to indulge in delicious food, round-the-clock bars and pure debauchery. Hundreds of film projects set the scene here as well. Girls Trip took their action to New Orleans during Essence Festival weekend 2016 where the film showed performances from P. Diddy, Mariah Carey, Maxwell and more.
The successful comedy, directed by Malcolm D. Lee (The Best Man, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins), stars Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and the hilarious scene-stealer, Tiffany Haddish. The film follows successful author, Ryan Pierce (Hall) on her press tour for her self-empowering book, You Can Have It All. Pierce shares the tour with her husband and business partner, Stewart Pierce, played by Mike Colter (Luke Cage). They embody the seemingly “perfect” image of a couple who have it all: career, love, passion and financial stability.
Essence Festival welcomes Pierce as a guest speaker for her press tour and she invites her three closest friends from college, Sasha (Latifah), Lisa (Pinkett Smith) and Dina (Haddish) to reunite their girl gang, the “Flossy Posse.”
After five years apart, the “Flossy Posse” savors the city’s food, hand grenades, euphoric French Quarter “potions” and handsome men. By the way, you’ll never look at a grapefruit the same way again.
This film captures the reality of balancing motherhood with a social life, bills piling up, and keeping your core group of friends in-tact despite of distance, business or time passing by.
With the star-studded cast, some suspected egos would cloud the production’s environment; which could not be further from the truth for Regina Hall. She stated in an interview with New York radio station, The Breakfast Club that “it’s still an ensemble and it’s still about the girls.”
Girls Trip showcased an ensemble cast with great chemistry on screen and after the credits rolled. This film revived the over-produced “adults acting wild” premise making $30 million opening weekend and counting. This proves that there’s an audience for a comedy starring four black women. Girls Trip is a great summer flick for women and men to enjoy the roller-coasters of love, marriage, sex, careers, motherhood, and friendship.
Ladies everywhere need a girls trip once in a while to rekindle their bond and rediscover their rowdy side by doing enough dancing, drinking, and shameless flirting to make the Big Easy proud.
