Drive-Away Dolls
A sometimes droll, mostly dull, lesbian noir from a Joel-less Ethan Coen.
Pandora’s box: Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley
Image courtesy of Focus Features
An opening sequence full of strong movements and camera angles establishes a Dick Tracy-style cartoon crime underworld with Pedro Pascal on the run and a mysterious briefcase in tow. It’s a setup for something far more interesting than what follows and once the sequence reaches its climax, that stylistic flair seems to die a little death. It’s a prologue deserving of a much better film. Cut to a foul-mouthed Margaret Qualley, as Jamie, whose relationship with her police officer girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) has fallen apart because of her own flagrant infidelity. When Jamie learns that her flight attendant friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) has decided to skip town, the two take off on a rowdy roadtrip to Tallahassee, Florida, unaware that the drive-away car service has inadvertently given them a vehicle containing the much-sought briefcase.
A wild tribute to bombastic B movies, Russ Meyer, and zany road trips, Drive-Away Dolls is a fast-paced madcap LGBTQ+ comedy that quickly spins out, leaving a wake of narrative destruction in its path. Once the head-scratching contents of the case are revealed, everything falls a little limp. The plot is inspired by real life visual artist Cynthia Albritton, aka Cynthia Plaster Caster, who gained fame for creating plaster casts of celebrities' erect members. Among the film’s many glorified cameos are psychedelic interludes with a gyrating Miley Cyrus as Tiffany Plastercaster. The abrupt sequences only succeed in suggesting that a movie following Cynthia’s misadventures could have been far more titillating. Here, the plot doesn’t really make any sense, given that there are zero narrative stakes in reclaiming the contents of the briefcase. There is presumably no way of tracing who the case’s contents belong to, making the fear of it falling into the wrong hands completely unwarranted. There are good movies to be made about Queer centric road trips and political sex scandals, but this isn’t it.
In a film continually teetering on complete caricature, Qualley (as large as she often is here) and Viswanathan are the only presences grounded enough to keep it all going. It’s important to note that this was not a film made for me, yet the characters come across as such strong stereotypes that it hardly feels like the kind of representation the LGBTQ+ community deserves to see on screen (though its light-hearted tone is worth celebrating.) Released just two weeks later in the US, Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding – another unabashedly Queer story about two lesbian characters inadvertently pulled into a crime underworld – is the far better film. A little online digging reveals that Drive-Away Dolls was penned in 2002 and nearly produced two decades ago as Drive-Away Dykes. Despite putting underrepresented perspectives in leading roles, it still somehow manages to feel decades old – not to mention that it makes a complete waste of a wonderful cast that includes Colman Domingo and Matt Damon.
One half of the duo does not a Coen brothers movie make. Big, broad comedy only works when there’s something to ground it in reality, or at least in the own reality of the world being established. If you manage to make it to the end credits, you’ll find a dedication to Cynthia Plaster Caster: “1947-2022. We remember!” Dolls is meant to mark the first in a trilogy of lesbian B-movies, with Coen and Cooke already at work on Honey Don't!, which is set to star Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, and Margaret Qualley. The much lamented split of Joel and Ethan is thankfully turning out to be a short-lived tragedy, with the brothers reuniting to write and direct an undisclosed upcoming horror film.
CHAD KENNERK
Cast: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Joey Slotnick, C.J. Wilson, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Matt Damon, and Connie Jackson.
Dir Ethan Coen, Pro Tim Bevan, Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke, Eric Fellner, Robert Graf, Screenplay Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke, Ph Ari Wegner, Pro Des Yong Ok Lee, Ed Tricia Cooke, Music Carter Burwell, Costumes Peggy Schnitzer, Sound Paul Urmson.
Focus Features/Working Title Films-Universal Pictures.
84 mins. 2024. USA. US Rel: 23 Feb 2024. UK Rel: 15 March 2024. Cert. 15.
