Tiffany Haddish

This movie's premise basically sounds like The Hangover with added black girl power. But it's actually a lot more than that, with themes and ideas that emerge across the board. Although what audiences will remember are the more raucous comedic moments, which gleefully dive headlong into full-on vulgarity to keep the audience laughing all the way through to the big finale. And this will also be forever remembered as the movie that made The Carmichael Show's Tiffany Haddish a star.

She plays Dina, the sassy, hard-partying member of the Flossy Posse, a group of four friends from university 25 years ago. The others are superstar self-help guru Ryan (Regina Hall), notorious gossip blogger Sasha (Queen Latifah) and workaholic single mother Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith). Worrying that their friendship is fading away with time, Ryan proposes a reunion to travel to EssenceFest in New Orleans, where she's giving the keynote speech. So off they go to let their hair down and escape their responsible lives. But Sasha has just received a paparazzi photo of Ryan's football-star husband Stewart (Mike Colter) snuggling up with an Instagram model, and Dina immediately wants revenge. On the other hand, Ryan is concerned about maintaining her public image.

There are two big themes here that fit in rather nicely with the crazed antics that pepper the movie with rude flashes of riotous hilarity. First of course is the importance of sometimes setting your chores aside and just having fun with your friends. But the deeper message is about the importance of living honestly instead of just pretending that everything is great. Ryan, Sasha and Lisa have to face these issues and deal deeply with how they live their lives. Meanwhile, Dina just keeps partying. But then, she's the film's relentless scene-stealer, and the audience wouldn't have it any other way.

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