Directed by Ethan Coen (of the Coen brothers fame) and co-written and co-produced by his wife Tricia Cooke, Drive-Away Dolls stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as two lesbians in 1999 who, facing a crossroads in their lives, decide to take a trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee, making a bit of extra money as well by driving someone else’s car from and to those cities. Little do they know the car is supplied with a briefcase of mystery and a hatbox of horror as mobsters who own the car, chase after the pair when they do not arrive at their agreed-upon time.
Joel and Ethan Coen have by all accounts taken a break from their directorial partnership, much in the same way that other director pairs like the Hughes and Safdie brothers have done. In their temporary split since The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Coen made 2021’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, a terrific yet oppressively bleak take on the Shakespeare text that took equal cinematic cues from 1948’s version with Orson Welles and Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.
It seems only fitting that Ethan Coen’s feature debut as director would be the complete opposite, representing the more absurd side of the pair’s films, like Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading. Drive-Away Dolls is a road trip movie featuring an odd couple who about make it work in the end, the film is laced with whacked-out visuals transitioning one scene to the next, the bad guys of the piece are bumbling nincompoops, and the revelation of just what on earth is going on is an absolute delight pushing boundaries of taste while being consistently funny. All in under 90 minutes.
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan are two shining examples of uncompromising actresses, each one with a wealth of unique roles under their belts and most of the time outshining some heavy hitting A-listers they share the screen with. Having both actresses take the lead here is an inspired choice, Qualley playing the Texan free spirit up for anything at all and Viswanathan playing the buttoned-up bookworm, fully embracing odd couple stereotypes with a subversive lesbian edge. Joel Coen and Tricia Cooke’s screenplay allows both parties to exist as real people by the end, even with ridiculous shenanigans following their every move, and the performances from both bring these fascinating characters to full crowd-pleasing life.
To boot, Drive-Away Dolls is peppered with excellent character actors like Bill Camp, Joey Slotnick, and C.J. Wilson, dashed further with one-or-two scene roles from Colman Domingo, Matt Damon, and Pedro Pascal, and one major cameo from an A-list musician that took my screening audience by total surprise. It is an enjoyable and mostly laugh-out-loud romp that doesn’t stop throwing curveballs and does exactly what it needs to in the thankfully brisk runtime.
One may not need this movie to ever slow down and really “get into it” with character motivations, those mostly developing with quick action or cheeky flashbacks, but the much looser direction can feel at odds with the tighter screenplay. Coen and Cooke’s writing is note-perfect, but Joel as a solo director seems too preoccupied with funky visual quirks that don’t benefit the narrative.
Ari Wegner’s scene-to-scene camerawork and lighting is quite good, with a midpoint sex scene shot and directed with restraint and purpose, but the frame will still get thrown around like a ragdoll between scenes or the whole image will morph into extraneous psychedelic montages of pizza, telephones, and dildos. It’s quirky for sure, but doesn’t feel all that necessary compared to the razor-sharp dialogue and action beats.
Drive-Away Dolls can feel like a bit of a throwaway at 84 minutes, but as a throwback to a forgotten type of exploitation comedy or the works of John Waters, and especially as a queer comedy following on from last year’s brilliant Bottoms, it works. The leads are spectacular choices, the humour is consistently balanced between wit and lowbrow, and the final frame is a perfect cherry on top for the specific tone than Joel Coen and Tricia Cooke craft. Drive-Away Dolls is a fun time at the movies that doesn’t overstay its welcome and that is perfect to have in these times of 2+ hour movies dominating multiplexes.
