Drive Away Dolls - Review: Lez Go on a Road Trip

 

Back in 2019, Joel Coen directed “The Tragedy of MacBeth,” a Shakespearean adaptation that also happened to be the first film Joel directed without his brother Ethan, collectively known as The Coen Brothers. Now, a few years later, Ethan Coen (“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski”) is doing the same, directing on his won from a script written by himself and his wife Tricia Cooke, the 90s set lesbian road trip comedic crime caper “Drive Away Dolls.” 

Set in 1999, the film follows Jamie, played by Margaret Qualley (“Maid,” “The Leftovers”), a spitfire lesbian with a southern drawl who wants to encourage her bookish, timid friend Marian, played by Geraldine Viswanathan (“Blockers,” “Miracle Workers”), to get out of her shell and get laid. The pair decide to travel to Tallahassee via a drive away service but end up mistakenly taking a car with mysterious cargo meant for the mob, resulting in a villainous mobster, played by Colman Domingo (“euphoria,” “Zola”), sending his goons after them, all while being hounded by Jamie’s ex-girlfriend Sukie, played by Beanie Feldstein (“Lady Bird,” “Booksmart”). 

At just under 90 minutes, the resulting film is quick, breezy, and clearly not meant to be taken seriously in the slightest. It’s the sort of escapade that reminds one of films like those of John Waters. At no point is this supposed to be anything but a vehicle for hijinks and outlandish situations, and Coen and Cooke’s script does have plenty of those that keep things moving briskly.

Qualley and Viswanathan make for a great pair, with the former’s thick southern accent and loose moral attitude playing fantastically against the latter’s bookish, uptight sensibilities. They do manage to naturally grow throughout the film and their friendship feels entirely authentic, even as the surrounding events become more absurd. Domingo on the other hand is playing into the events more, dialing up his barely controlled rage as everything surrounding begins to collapse, and Feldstein does much of the same, playing the closest thing the film has to a straight man in all the chaos. 

It’s a very old-fashioned feeling film, the kind from an era where a bunch of friends could get together and shoot something over a week or two. The breezy feeling extends to the comedy as well, approximating exactly what you’d think a Coen brothers movie would be if “the serious one” wasn’t involved in making it. Your mileage may vary (pun entirely intended) for a film as uncaringly silly as this, as well as the kind of comedy therein. It has an almost “late night on HBO” feel to it, loaded with swearing and sex of all kinds and phalluses, attached and detached, throughout. 

It ends up resulting in a film that definitely isn’t like anything out there right now, a knowingly campy adventure with two leads working with weaponized levels of charm. It’ll make you laugh throughout, roll your eyes even more, and sigh at the various innuendos. Unlike Joel’s first solo film, this one ain’t Shakespeare, but it's definitely a messy fun time that’ll take you for a sub-90-minute ride. 3.5/5

Argylle - Review: A Self-Satisfied Spy Slog

 

After directing various British crime films and low-budget superhero flicks, director Matthew Vaughn got to make the movie he’s clearly wanted to make his entire life, “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” Based on the comic book by Mark Miller, who’s work Vaughn previously adapted with the first “Kick-Ass” film, Vaughn’s career quickly became based around the flashy spy franchise, with his next two projects post the first film also being “Kingsman” ones. Now he’s attempting to create his own original series with yet another flashy, action heavy, sillier spin on the spy movie with “Argylle.”

The film stars Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World,” “Pete’s Dragon (2016)”) as Elly Conway, an author famous for writing a series of spy novels following the exploits of Agent Argylle, played by Henry Cavill (“Man of Steel,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)”). After being attacked by various spy organizations, she’s informed by rogue agent Aidan Wilde, played by Sam Rockwell (“Moon,” “Fosse/Verdon”), that her books have accidentally predicted the future and these agencies and their leaders, such as Director Ritter, played by Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad,” “Malcolm in the Middle”), want her to write the next chapter for themselves so they can use it to gain an upper hand.

Rounding out the supporting cast is the likes of Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story (2021),” “Wish (2023)”), John Cena (“Blockers,” “The Suicide Squad”), Catherine O’Hara (“Beetlejuice,” “Schitt’s Creek”), and previous Vaughn collaborators Samuel L. Jackson (“Pulp Fiction,” “The Avengers”) and Sofia Boutella (“Star Trek Beyond,” “Rebel Moon”). It's hard to say anyone really excels, as most of them just seem to be on autopilot for the majority of the film. Howard screams a lot as she’s put in danger, Rockwell quips and tries to protect her, Cavill smiles and winks a lot, Cranston grumbles and acts menacingly, etc. Etc.

It’s hard to blame them as the script, from Jason Fuchs (“Pan (2015),” “Wonder Woman (2017)”), acts like a mishmash of every spy cliche in the cinematic landscape with a layer of non-satirical satire lathered on top. There are some truly insane twists throughout and none of them work. When your twist serves to only instill confusion rather than intrigue, that’s when you know things have gone poorly. It isn’t just that some of the twists feel bizarre or nonsensical, but that some of them, like the origin of the name “Argylle”, are just plain stupid.

Visually, the film feels like a mess for a large part. While there are undeniably well choreographed stunts and well executed effects, there’s also so much that feels extremely and blatantly cartoony. A sequence towards the end involving ice skating and a colorful bonanza of violence and multi-colored smoke looks cool in theory, but the execution feels weightless. It has the style and colors of a cartoon but lacks any kind of grounding given the more “serious” nature of the events surrounding it.

That then leads to a film that feels like it has no stakes and therefore a film you cannot get invested in. If Elly and Aidan can dance around through rainbow smoke shooting everyone in sight while smiling like goofballs, why should we feel any weight later when one of their lives in actually in danger? It just ends up resulting in a frustrating film that’s hard to even enjoy in a guilty pleasure way.

It’s interesting to look back on that first “Kingsman” film with the release of “Argylle.” At the time, people heralded Vaughn’s effort as essentially “showing the old farts how the younger kids do spy movies.” With “Argylle,” Vaughn has essentially done a complete 180; the style is weightless and lacks stakes, with a cartoony vibe that clashes with the moments the film tries to be serious, packed full of actors trying their best with a shortchanged script loaded with twists that are either pointless or downright stupid. It feels like the kind of terrible blank check movie you only get to make when your previous films have been extremely successful. There’s never been a better example of the confusing confluences of this film than the fact that it was marketed as “From the Twisted Mind of Matthew Vaughn” and the resulting film is PG-13. 1.5/5

The Reel Life's Year in Film: Best of 2023

Join me in celebrating this year in film as I count down my top 10 films of 2023, as well as highlighting my most surprising, best actor, and best actress.