‘Drive-Away Dolls’ Movie Review: Coen Brother And Wife’s Screwball Caper Is A Slight Goof
Photo from Focus Features
From Jeremy Kibler
Drive-Away Dolls is a very Coen brother-y movie with only one brother attached. Ethan Coen, the other Coen who didn’t make The Tragedy of Macbeth, goes solo this time with queer wife, co-writer, and editor Tricia Cooke in what is their lesbian road movie. From screwball comedy to crime-caper thriller, Drive-Away Dolls swerves between genres in lively fashion, and it’s a slight but zippy, bawdy, and chaotically silly goof.
Set in pre-Y2K 1999, the film begins with an “important” briefcase that will eventually get into the wrong hands. From there, we meet two Philadelphia friends who are lesbians but platonic: the uptight pencil-pusher Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) and coarse thrill-seeker Jamie (Margaret Qualley). After Jamie cheats on her angry cop girlfriend Sukie (a fiercely funny Beanie Feldstein), she decides to get out of town, and Marian is going with her. En route to Tallahassee, they purchase a drive-away car, but wouldn’t you know it, that special case is in the trunk of this Dodge Aries and some bad men want it back. Even if the goons don’t find the goods from these broads, at least Jamie and Marian have explored every dyke bar along the way.
A shaggy-dog yarn with an offbeat, absurdist energy and brevity on its side, Drive-Away Dolls may not mean much in the morning, but it’s a helluva lot of fun—and often very funny—while it’s happening. Coen’s solo direction is exuberant with groovy, unpredictable scene transitions (wipes, dissolves, you name it) and psychedelic flourishes (some involving Miley Cyrus) with a payoff that just needs to be discovered.
How wonderful that we finally live in a world where Margaret Qualley leads a major film release. Compared to her other performances (particularly her tremendous TV work in The Leftovers and Maid), this is a broad comic performance, albeit controlled with sharp timing, and Qualley is fully committed to let the character of Jamie just be Jamie. Pairing Qualley with the expertly deadpan Geraldine Viswanathan turns out to be a real treat. Everyone is game, including an unimpeachable supporting cast (Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon, Colman Domingo, and Bill Camp) with varying degrees of screen time.
One shouldn’t even compare Drive-Away Dolls to any of the Coens’ earlier work, or they’ll be setting themselves up for disappointment. There’s still a specific, rat-a-tat rhythm to the dialogue; a lot of snappy verbal jousting; and a cluelessness to certain colorful characters, but the tone is far sillier. Even the opening scene where a character is stabbed twice for good measure in an alleyway includes the foley effect of a cat meowing. Come to think of it, this film reminds most of Burn After Reading (to the extent that there’s a surprise involving sex toys).
Kind of like what ends up being the package—and if you think you know, guess again—there isn’t much under the hood. That MacGuffin is the MacGuffin to end all MacGuffins, and maybe it really is all about the journey rather than the destination. As a lark or an exercise in great style, one thing is for sure: Drive-Away Dolls is on its own fresh wavelength.
Rating: 3.5/5
Drive-Away Dolls hits theaters on February 23, 2024.
