Girls Trip (top) versus Rough Night (bottom). 
Guess who wins boob exposure contest?
GIRLS TRIP Versus ROUGH NIGHT
Film Review by Marlene Ardoin
I thought it might be interesting to compare the black and white versions of college girl reunions in “Girls Trip” with “Rough Night.”
I was struck by how much more conservative “Girls Trip” was in comparison.
The black girls, Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish and Jada Pinkett Smith talk about showing some skin, but they only show so much at their ten year reunion in New Orleans.
Even the bad girl, Deborah Ayorinde as Simone, seems tame compared to the white girls in “Rough Night.”
The black girls want a proposal, not a boyfriend in “Girls Trip.”
The white girls in “Rough Night,” Jess (Scarlett Johansson), Alice (Jillian Bell), Frankie (Ilana Glazer), and Blair (Zoë Kravitz), don’t seem to care about that marriage proposal. They are more up for male castration, bisexuality, male strippers, and vibrators at their ten year reunion in Miami.
Demi Moore is very daring as a female sex addict in “Rough Night.”
The black girls in “Girls Trip” are still looking for a man to provide protection, partnership and motherhood. But, somehow, betrayal is what they get from their men, who walk all over them.
There is one male in “Girls Trip,” Larenz Tate as Julian, a musician, who gives up his apartment for the women and who makes sure that they are safe, is appreciated, but does not appear to be a serious relationship option. He does not have the financial resources or the macho image.
What occurs in both films is the dynamic of women being pitted against each other.
In “Rough Night,” the school teacher, who does not have a mate, is placed at the bottom of pecking order, being replaced and left out of invites. She is seriously pitied, but if you wait to the end of the credits at the end of the film, she does get her revenge.
And, in “Girls Trip,” all the women at one point turn on each other, but at the last minute, realize that they are the ones who can be counted on to accept each other unconditionally.
The white girls in “Girls Trip” are not let into the black circle, but are allowed to be helpful in promoting their careers. They are not seen as the competition.
Each film has so-called successful females. In “Girls Trip,” Regina Hall as Ryan Pierce, is a successful self-help writer and lecturer. And in “Rough Night,” Scarlett Johansson as Jessica “Jess” Thayer, is running for political office.
Ryan’s male partner is cheating on her, and Jessica looks like she may lose the election, because she does not look like she will put out. The male factor sabotages their efforts.
What about money? The white girls in “Rough Night” clearly have no worries financially, but the black girls in “Girls Trip” do not have such financial privilege.
I know that this is a comedy, and things are taken to the extreme, but it does expose our culture for what it is. Americans are seriously messed up when it comes to male/female relationships, marriage, career, money, identity and sex.
Ideally, men should be able to be men and women should be able to be women, no matter what color their skin is. Just because you are smart does not mean you have to be a cad, unless, of course, you are exploiting someone else. That goes for both men and women, black or white.
These days, gender identity is an added factor, which is slightly mentioned in “Girls Trip,” but it is front and center in “Rough Night.”
So, it appears that each person is an individual with an individual identity. Maybe Americans are starting to get something right, after all. We are starting to see the individual, rather than just their color, gender or wallet.
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8/4/2017 # Girls Trip/ Rough Night