While there are a few Coen trademark touches that don’t land well in this solo outing by Ethan, two rising stars in Qualley and Viswanathan make a great duo and generate plenty of laughs in this short screwball travel story.
Drive Away Dolls
Directed by Ethan Coen
Starring Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Matt Damon
Runtime: 1 hour, 24 mins
Synopsis
It’s 1999, and two friends Jamie (Qualley) and Marian (Viswanathan) decide on an impromptu road trip down to Tallahassee to visit Marian’s aunt. They hope to escape their various life worries in Philadelphia only to end up taking a car belonging to criminals who desperately need it back.
Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke
I’ll admit that hearing Ethan Coen was directing something separate from his long time collaborating brother Joel makes you raise an eyebrow. Not that the resulting project will be bad per say, but sometimes those splits don’t always go well or result in a slam dunk project. However, writing this script with his wife Tricia Cooke, who’s been very open about being queer and has edited many Coen brother projects, was an intriguing prospect. While I think there are some rough edges to this film, I would be very interested in seeing both of them work closely on another project based on the promise shown in this film (or having Tricia Cooke write another screenplay, branching out on her own).
Buddy Comedy Simplicity
I love a good screwball comedy, especially if it takes place on the road, like a Dumb and Dumber (1994) for example. Even if the narrative decides to get complicated on certain elements, you have the core motivating factor of travel: we need to leave this place to get to this place, we need to be there by a certain time so we can hit this deadline, etc. These may seem arbitrary, but it’s a simple device that keep the story moving even when you take pitstops or detours to explore different issues with the characters.
Credit: Universal Pictures, Focus Features
Dolls uses this well to explore the … umm “friendship” … between Jamie (Qualley) and Marian (Viswanathan) as they are attempting to get to Tallahassee – with Jamie wanting detour after detour to get laid and explore what life gives them, whereas Marian plays the “straight” character that just wants a no nonsense trip, moving from point A to B as quickly as possible. Together, they represent the classic Bert and Ernie lesbian pairing, if you will. As they embark on different road detours, it gives each of them a chance to see what they are missing in each other and how they can be fulfilled by recognizing and appreciating those differences.
Qualley and Viswanathan display great chemistry throughout the whole film, hitting the right comedic beats between one another, interacting with their massive co-stars, and also finding some sweet moments together when the script calls for it. They are flanked by a great set of cameos, with Matt Damon’s senator character, Pedro Pascal in the opening hand-off scene, and Colman Domingo as the main boss trying to steal back the car from Jamie and Marian. They were utilized in the right doses – any more from these cameos and their scenes could have overshadowed the proceedings.
Credit: Universal Pictures, Focus Features
Joey Slotnick and C. J. Wilson are great as the classic bumbling henchmen, Arliss and Flint respectively. While they don’t end up interacting with the two leads that much, they have great conversations and hilarity within their own scenes as they attempt to catch up to Jamie and Marian. They have a great physical scene with Sukie (Feldstein) as they try to break into her house and are quickly dispatched like Kevin McCalister destroying a goon in Home Alone (1990); they both have a solid physical commitment which makes the outlandish comedy work.
The Flashbacks Are Hit Or Miss
I thought I was going to have only a minor gripe, but turns out the Coen elements wore thin for me as the film went on. There were flashbacks with Marian discovering her sexuality which I thought were really great, but were hampered by the other interludes occurring which don’t make any sense until the very end. With Marian’s flashbacks, we know why she’s thinking back to those moments as she’s wrestling with her feelings toward Jamie. However, the psychedelic flashbacks (which feature a great Miley Cyrus cameo) that relate to the later plot just seem like a major distraction. If they were shorter and made for quicker connections between scenes, that would be one thing. However, their frequent inclusion – especially in the middle act – felt unnecessary. You already have two great leads in Qualley and Viswanathan, let’s just focus on them instead of killing steam and momentum elsewhere.
Conclusion / Recommendation
With two strong leads in Qualley and Viswanathan, Dolls works best when it’s focused on them and letting their comedic chemistry shine. It only falters when we get away from them in attempts on expanding this story into other distracting areas. If you love classic Coen, Fargo-esque (1996) type of ridiculousness, then Drive-Away Dolls is going to fit that need.
If you want to support LGBTQIA+ comedies like Dolls, I highly recommend you check this out in theaters rather than waiting for streaming. Now that it’s been out for a week and Dune: Part Two is coming to town, should be rather easy to grab a seat and check it out.
Score: 7.6 out of 10
- Dynamic Leads- 9
- You probably didn’t walk into this film knowing Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan by name, but you should after this. Their chemistry and comedic timing is there and I enjoyed every minute they were on-screen.
- Main Plot Woes- 6
- The only thing holding this film back is how they handled the subplot that got Jamie and Marian in trouble in the first place. The scenes can feel jarring and there surely had to be another way to include that context without scene transitions that felt useless.
- Hilarious Sexuality- 8
- After the first scene where our … umm phallic … MacGuffin gets passed around, we’re introduced to a sex scene that sets the tone for the whole movie. It was hilarious, brash, in your face, and I loved it so much. Many of the jokes we got later stem from this tone and style, so it was very effective in communicating Tricia Cooke’s experience as a lesbian in the 90s.
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