'Drive-Away Dolls' Review: A Tender Sapphic Love Story Buried in Nonsense
For more than thirty years, the Coen brothers have provided some of the most memorable films of their era, and a few others in between which fell horribly flat. In recent years, the brothers have done the unthinkable and gone their separate ways. Now, Ethan Coen has presented his first solo directorial feature to the world. Drive-Away Dolls is a passion project for Coen, co-written with his longtime partner, Tricia Cooke, some twenty years before, and nurtured all that time until they managed to get it greenlit.
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan star as Jamie and Marian, respectively. They’re two lesbian friends who live wildly different lifestyles. Jamie is a loose cannon who blazes her way through life with heedless abandon. Marian is a deeply repressed neurotic who is terrified of her own feelings. When Marian plans to visit her aunt in Florida, Jamie eagerly tags along to get past her most recent breakup. Aside from the usual clash of personalities leading them astray, they also stumble into a wild conspiracy which involves two packages in the trunk of their car. Chasing these packages are a trio of goons who work for a mysterious man desperate to have the packages returned.
Aside from Qualley and Viswanathan, the film boasts a star-studded supporting cast. Beanie Feldstein appears as Jamie’s volatile and temperamental ex-girlfriend Suki. Colman Domingo is a put-upon man known as the Chief, floundering between his clueless goons (Joey Slotnik and C.J. Wilson), a demanding boss, and his plans being shredded into chaos. Bill Camp takes what could have been a throwaway character and provides some of the film’s funnier line deliveries. Matt Damon briefly appears in arguably his best cameo role since The Zero Theorem. We also get Pedro Pascal for a hot second, evoking one of his more famous characters (no, not that one). There’s also an uncredited surprise cameo, parodying a real-life person to whom the end credits pay tribute.
Like many of Coen’s past work, Drive-Away Dolls has a loosey-goosey approach to its plot, for lack of a better word. The dialogue is very stylized, especially Jamie’s. There are scenes which will doubtless remind viewers of previous Coen movies. Take, for example, the two goons who spend most of their screen time aimlessly chasing the protagonists. One is a brute who relies on force to get what he wants. The other is talker who prides himself on getting information through charm and persuasion. The way he admonishes his more violent partner evokes the Steve Buscemi character in Fargo if you squint hard enough. There’s also a dreamlike yet ramshackle tone to this film which may remind viewers of The Big Lebowski.
If there is anything to praise about this movie, however, it is the performances of the two stars. Not only do Qualley and Viswanathan elevate their characters from cliches into individuals, they also share an incredible amount of chemistry with each other. The layers of their complex relationship are handled with an astonishing amount of nuance. As a double act, they also handle comedy with gusto. Both of them are given the chance to react with hyperbolic horror, and the actresses manage it while also staying in character. Qualley has a field day sporting a southern accent while cheerfully chewing the scenery. Viswanathan, meanwhile, maintains a poised veneer which always threatens to crack and reveal the depth of Marian’s inner turmoil. The emotional journey that these two go on together feels genuine and earnest every step of the way.
Sadly, I for one was sorely disappointed with the physical journey that they embark upon. Despite the occasional flash of brilliance, most of the supporting actors are wasted in characters who are underused and get abruptly drop-kicked out of the movie. Moreover, the plot is so sloppy that it falls apart with even a minute’s thought. One can certainly see why one of the packages is valuable and worth pursuing (also a genuinely funny idea which has a great payoff at the end), but the second package and its contents don’t seem to have a reason to exist beyond shock value. Why was that second package even there? Why was it necessary to the bad guy’s plan? And when it comes time to explain what’s going on, the film heaves this exposition at the audience in a clunky way which doesn’t make any sense within the context of the story. When a character gives this explanation to the two leads, it makes zero sense as to why he would confess all this highly sensitive information.
The bottom line is that Drive-Away Dolls is, if nothing else, a mindless B movie through and through. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but it will sharply polarize audiences, as indeed it already has. Considering that the film was made in the 2020s, is set in the 90s, and boasts a style which evokes the 70s, it achieves a level of kitsch that is rarely reached. Cooke has gone on record saying she was inspired by the films of John Waters, as well as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and But I’m a Cheerleader! Knowing that, the film definitely feels like a witches’ brew featuring elements from those other flicks. If that was her goal, then she certainly succeeded. Fans of this style will embrace it wholeheartedly, but the rest of us can only lament what might have been. Ultimately, one has to be able to relax and let loose, just like Marian, in order to properly appreciate the zaniness unfolding.