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