Drive-Away Dolls (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – Jamie regrets her breakup with her girlfriend, while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start, they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals.

My Take – With films like Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), No Country for Old Men (2007), True Grit (2010) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) in their kitty, the Coen brothers (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) long withheld the status of duo that made some of the best features out there.

A creative fusion that lasted due to the level of intellectual and creative chemistry they both brought to their films, resulting in essential, vibrant, funny, and dark works that spanned across many genres and styles.

But following the Netflix western comedy, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), the pair parted ways. While Joel Coen went on to direct a well-received but drab adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), Ethan though initially stated that he was retired, made a comeback with the documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022).

And now with Tricia Cooke, his longtime partner and co-writer, Ethan Coen has returned to feature film making in the form of this raunchy, adventurous lesbian comedy-drama road trip comedy that feels more like a 70s B-film double feature. With so much going for it creatively, the resulting film is unsurprisingly a fun but disappointing venture.

Despite beginning as an amusing lustful escapade, replete with cheesy transitions, awkward close-ups, obnoxious neon, and vintage Coen accents, halfway in the splits turns into a frenetic, over busy slog fest mixed with indulgent violence and half-baked characterizations.

It has some funny bits, but it’s simply just ridiculous and not as hilarious as it thinks it is. Mostly, it lacks a steady directorial hand and ends up just coming off as a bunch of raunchy lesbian jokes and political jabs in search of a Coen Brothers comedy. Proving that Joel and Ethan Coen are better together, as even a fan like myself can’t defend this one as much as I’d like to.

Set in 1999 Philadelphia, the story follows Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), two friends who also happen to be lesbians. While Jamie is a wild-child from Texas, all one-night stands and hedonistic, Marian is buttoned-up and hasn’t had a lover in 3 years or more.

Now since, Jamie has been dumped by Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), the girlfriend she’s been cheating on with blithe, pillow-biting regularity, she joins Marian on a trip to Tallahassee, Florida to meet her aunt. Opting for a cheap drive-away rental car, the two are accidentally given a vehicle with a secret stash in the trunk, sparking a chase across state lines.

What ensues is, at least on paper, a zany tour of the South’s finest lesbian bars and basement parties, with Jamie and Marian managing to unknowingly thwart or outsmart their pursuers at every turn. But what ensues revolves mostly around the icky sexual shenanigans of the two girls, the endless and pointless arguments between the two goons and the eventual discovery of what was in the trunk of the car that the ladies aren’t supposed to know about.

From the jump, we feel that the friendship of Jamie and Marian has the potential to blossom into something more. Their inherent differences add to the spirit of wackiness the story expresses. As their circumstances evolve into more of what Jamie is okay with and what Marian isn’t, their realizations of who they really are and what they really want becomes the film. At the end of the day, it’s a lesbian love story at the center of a sexually charged road trip, intruded upon by an insanely obscure dildo conspiracy.

However, it is tough to criticize or praise too fervently because it’s a film of halves. The first half is tonally breezy and characterizations are striking but not overbearing. In the second, the tone and treatment of protagonists gets eye-rolling.

In the first half, the stakes are high, the style is laid back, and the journey is leisurely. In the second, the stakes are obliterated, the style is forced, and the journey feels like a forced means to an end.

That shouldn’t be the case when the film itself is only 84 minutes long. Director Ethan Cohen’s humor definitely speaks through the film, with some quirky characters, dialog and the 1999 setting bizarrely adds humor with a touch of satire to give it some edge.

The film is riddled with sexual humor and inclusive lingo throughout the entire runtime, which was all good, it’s just that the film didn’t have anything else to say aside from that. And without Joel to rein him in, he seems to have gone full crazy. From the abstract transitions, cutaways and shot compositions to the tonal decisions and Jamie’s accent, everything is just over the top.

Performances wise, Margaret Qualley brings a great sense of charm to her role. She and Geraldine Viswanathan are a great, believable duo that are able to carry the picture through even its most outlandish moments. Viswanathan is incredibly endearing, and I was utterly invested in Marian from her first scene.

Joey Slotnick and C.J. Wilson weren’t adequate for the role, but it would have been more fun to see two known actors in those roles having fun with it. Bill Camp is hilarious as Curlie, the owner of the drive-away.

Colman Domingo, Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon and Miley Cyrus appear in cameo, adding only little value to the film. On the whole, ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ is a trashy yet exceedingly disposable fun comedy which simply could and should have been better.