--- ---  # Review: _Girls Trip_ Is the Funniest, Raunchiest Movie of the Summer  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jul 19, 2017 3:33 PM UTC  Girls Trip stars Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and the glorious Tiffany Haddish Girls Trip stars Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and the glorious Tiffany HaddishCarpool Karaoke—Apple Music  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jul 19, 2017 3:33 PM UTC In the past year or so, we’ve seen so many women-behaving-badly comedies—[_Rough Night_](http://time.com/4820456/rough-night-review/) and [_Snatched_](http://time.com/4604703/snatched-trailer/) are two of the most recent—that you’d think women had only just discovered the pleasures of heading out with friends, with hair teased high and necklines plunging low, for a debauched night on the town. But these movies have been disappointments, and their novelty has worn thin. Past a certain point, it’s no fun watching women drink to the limits of consciousness or puke their guts out. In trying to prove they can be as wild as the guys, the women in these movies mostly just settle into a tired pattern of self-humiliation. The alleged payoff of these pictures—generally telegraphed by the obligatory moment in which a bunch of girls link arms and stride into the club in a sassy slo-mo strut—is really just a cheap junk tiara. You could be forgiven for thinking [Malcolm D. Lee](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002700/)’s [_Girls Trip_](http://time.com/4764343/summer-movies-2017/item/girls-trip-july-21/) is just another entry in this exhausted genre. And no matter what, consider yourself forewarned that the movie’s gags, and its language, reach a sailors-on-leave level of crudeness. Yet _Girls Trip_ succeeds where the others have failed. It’s hard to say whether that’s thanks to Lee’s characteristically breezy, no-sweat direction (he’s the writer-­director behind the _Best Man_ comedies as well as the director of the jubilant blaxploitation parody [_Undercover Brother_](https://www.fandango.com/undercoverbrother%5F42163/moviephotosposters)) or to the movie’s buoyant and superbly matched cast. Most likely it’s a secret cocktail combo of both. _Girls Trip_ is just fun, a movie that—even within the context of its broad, exaggerated humor—never seems to be trying too hard. You’ve seen the setup before, probably only a few weeks ago if you’ve darkened the doors of a movie theater. Four best friends from college, now edging toward middle age, reunite after falling out of touch. [Regina Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina%5FHall)’s Ryan Pierce, a successful writer and aspiring heir-to-Oprah TV star, has been invited to work her magic at the [Essence Festival](http://www.essence.com/festival-2017) in New Orleans, and she decides that this might be a good time to get the old gang, known as the Flossy Posse, together. Sasha ([Queen Latifah](http://time.com/4828303/carpool-karaoke-queen-latifah-jada-smith/)), formerly a successful journalist, now runs a gossip site—work that doesn’t make her particularly happy. Lisa ([Jada Pinkett Smith](http://time.com/4633506/actors-musicians-crossover-bruce-willis/item/jada-pinkett-smith/)) is the divorced mom who lives for her children and has fallen into premature frumpiness. Dina (the [glorious Tiffany Haddish](http://www.essence.com/entertainment/tiffany-haddish-auntie-angel-grapefruit-pioneer)) marks time at an office job, but she really just lives to have a good time. Of the four she’s the one with the dirtiest mouth and the one most likely to take wild chances. Her wardrobe is a menagerie of neon animal prints, and she favors hoop earrings the size of cruise-ship portholes. Even though Ryan has a reputation to uphold, the women waste no time in getting up to no good, hitting the clubs in their tightest dresses and highest Loubs. (Timid Lisa is the one who needs the predictable makeover: her defense of her dowdy skirt, ostensibly hand-embroidered by Guatemalan artisans, is one of the movie’s funniest bits.) _Girls Trip_ contains the most outrageous depiction of public urination I’ve ever seen—but I mean that as a recommendation, not a deterrent. There’s the obligatory ridiculous white girl (played by [Kate Walsh](https://twitter.com/katewalsh?lang=en)). But face it—white girls are pretty funny. And yet, in the end, the movie is generous toward her, as it is to all its characters. These women learn life lessons, sure. One of them gives a loser guy the gate, and another scales a long-overdue career overhaul. Through it all, they laugh, scream and mime unbelievably dirty sex acts. But the overall mood is one of joy and catharsis rather than self-inflicted debasement. This is a girls’-night-out comedy that doesn’t leave you feeling depleted and insulted. _Girls Trip_ has tall shoes to fill, and it never stumbles. 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