Lo and behold, there’s a new Coen Brothers movie sweeping into town. Well, half a Coen Brothers movie, because Ethan Coen is going solo. Now, I knew nothing about this movie ahead of time – I avoided the trailer, like I do, and as you will come to find out, that means that everything hit me on the lips like a first-time smacker!
Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) are two feisty lesbians that need to get out of town. They rent a drive-away, and plot a course to Tallahassee, where Marian will lodge with her aunt. Marian is fastidious, and Jamie’s goal throughout the trip is to get her some tang, in the hopes it’ll loosen her up, and make her lively like she. But all the while, little do the girls know that the car they’re travelling in, has stowed away an extremely vital briefcase, and organised mobster, Chief (Colman Domingo), and hired goons, Arliss (Joey Slotnick) and Flint (C.J. Wilson), are on their tail. These antagonists will track them down, but what exactly is inside that briefcase? You bet we’ll find out!
Holy mother of pearl, women’s lib is hitting the cinemas with full force! I’m seeing this after Kinds of Kindness, mind you, but let me just start by saying that this movie’s opener is how you stick a hilarious sex scene, featuring Margaret Qualley 😄 The first third of Drive-Away Dolls sets us up for one of the best comedies in years. The dialogue drips of that quick wit that the Coens are praised for, with the quotable potential coming thick and fast, as if Drive-Away Girls were Heathers – and that’s high praise; perhaps even the highest a movie can get. It’s the type of dialogue were you cannot crunch your snacks because you don’t want to miss a single word, for you might rob yourself some levity 😶 The scene transitions are… well, some of the most deliberately tacky transitions you’ll ever see; ones that haven’t been cool since the nineties. Wait, were they even cool in the nineties? 🤔 There’s dream sequences, and a spinning pizza, that look like some discarded computer clip-arts from 3rd Rock From the Sun, only adding to this extremely bizarre, chancy, ovaries-to-the-wall road movie. And of course, of course, Margaret Qualley should be obviously perfect to inhabit a zany character that the Cohens create, but seeing it in person is quite another thing. Is she like a Nic Cage, perhaps from Raising Arizona, or a Frances McDormand incarnate? Drive-Away Dolls dares us to compare it to Fargo, with its seedy and foolish goons overshadowing one half of the movie, while some kind-hearted people make the sun shine in opposing scenes, just trying to get by in their humdrum lives. But this is a modern updated version, where women’s sexuality is righteousness, in lieu of the alternative’s dear Margie’s quaint family values. Drive-Away Dolls views homosexuality living on the fringes of the nineties, and says, “well THAT passed!”
But unfortunately, the middle of this movie sags like something shocking! It’s a true shame. But I’m sure it’s hard to sustain such a high level of comedy across a 90 minute runtime, which is why the best comedies of the world get replayed over and over again. It’s really like Drive-Away Dolls is 20 minutes short, as if we’ve missed vital stops along the couple’s journey, that would inform us of the girl’s goals outside of their sex lives, and potentially helped further their bond. Because, if the pair aren’t hooking up, or talking about hooking up, then there’s not much else going on, and it’s really sad that I cannot leave this movie feeling like I truly understand who these ladies are. On top of that, Arliss and Flint aren’t a shadow of a senator’s ding-dong compared to that of Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare, playing similar characters in Fargo as well. I also don’t appreciate moments were the movie gets socially active – they’re few, but enough to mention, and I sound like a broken record by now when I say, a movie is so much more engaging when it is empowered by its own direction without needing to shoot down the opposition. Here, there’s men being dismissive of women, where the movie gets to pat itself on the back by showing them get their comeuppance; and characters scowl at family lifestyles, in moments that don’t completely eclipse satire, and are therefore tiresome. The only metacommentary I did enjoy, involved the Senator (Matt Damon) whining about his body being commodified, and isn’t the shoe on the other foot there, with how women are usually treated, huh? The irony is delicious 😋
I was also pleased to see a woman’s name in the credits, as co-writer and leading producer, because through the movie’s rampant lesbianism and female perspective in every frame, Drive-Away Dolls was seeming more and more a movie that needed a woman’s tick of approval for me to consider it polite surrealism. I do have lesbian friends out there, and I would love to hear their thoughts! 📣 But for me, whilst I can’t really pinpoint where my enthusiasm for Drive-Away Dolls started to wane, I do recall when it started to pick back up, and that was at the elegant dinner scene, where Jamie makes her loving compromise to Marian, and the couple’s relationship begins to bloom. Yet in the end, for all its wins and losses, I’d probably suggest Drive-Away Dolls populates a territory somewhere between the Coen Brothers’ best, and Dude, Where’s My Car? – elevated by one comparison while equally anchored down by the other 😬 Perhaps Drive-Away Dolls is somewhat hoisted by its own petard, since it reaches dazzling brimming heights in the first act, and I was settled in for those riches to continue. But unlike Curlie (Bill Camp), I might know a bucket of wet cement when I see it, and I know I’d be more impressed by a complete structure. It’s genuinely sad, because I really want to love this movie; but you know what they say – “Love is a sleigh ride to hell!” 😍😏
Beanie Feldstein is wickedly captivating in this movie, as one of Jamie’s jaded lovers. She might be the best things about Drive-Away Dolls in that she is consistently fantastic. And I love Bill Camp – I always love Bill Camp. His scenes are short but hit the spot, and just who WILL save Curlie? 😮 Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, as Jamie and Marian, are brilliant too; I just wish they were in a slightly better movie. I really love how their relationship ultimately plays out. And I really love how Viswanathan isn’t simply playing the “straight-man’ (in acting terms, because she’s clearly the gay-woman), and Marian probably ends up contributing more shading than her counterpart. Actually, no, that’s not fair, because by the end, Jamie is transformed as well, becoming a gentler partner. Viswanathan is another lass I’ve come across before, and really warm to – I think Blockers is probably the best movie I know her for; another surprisingly rad comedy. Last year, we also had Bottoms that existed in this same queer and free space, and although I thought it was a worthwhile flick, I certainly couldn’t say I love the gay duo of Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as much as Qualley and Viswanathan – these two here have earth-shattering chemistry, and I could see them working together again easily. Sort’ve like a Richard Prior and Gene Wilder situation, they could have going on here 🙌 But that Qualley, man – it seems like she can have great chemistry with anybody! Though her recent movies, it’s evident that she’s not afraid to embarrass herself, and through that confidence, she generates a terrifically raw authenticity. Gosh, I think she’s a star. And not like a traditional star, with grace and poise; she’s an alluring daredevil clown.
3.0
P.S. Oh yeah, I failed to mention how Miley Cyrus shows up on two occasions – what the booming heck was that about? This movie might have cult classic written all over it, and I can only hope to grow to love it more over the coming years. Because I really want to.
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