‘Drive-Away Dolls’ Review: Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan Hit the Road in Ethan Coen’s Raunchy and Rowdy B-Movie

When two acclaimed artists in a partnership split creatively, their first solo projects are often indicative of their individual input in their prior collaborations as a pair. After Joel and Ethan Coen announced they were going their separate ways as filmmakers, the two brothers leaned hard into their respective sides of the Coen coin. Joel seemed interested in going back to the very dawn of the noir with The Tragedy of Macbeth, a Shakespearean adaptation complete with German Expressionist influences and a stunning chiaroscuro world for his actors (his other life partner Frances McDormand among them) to play within. But while Joel dug into the darker side of the noir influence on their prior work, Ethan pursued a completely different path in his first solo directorial venture, Drive-Away Dolls. It’s a rowdy lesbian sex comedy that recalls the B-movie influence found in the funniest works in the duo’s filmography while showing the younger Coen’s penchant for sharp and raunchy comedy in a pulpy shell. 

Drive-Away Dolls begins on a rainy night in Philadelphia in 1999. Santos (Pedro Pascal) sits nervously in a dimly lit, somewhat dodgy restaurant called Cicero’s, clinging to a silver briefcase. His evening is cut short, though (Game of Thrones fans, you’re in for a treat here), and the two men he’s been hiding from run off with the briefcase down a dark alleyway. It’s a comic, violent opening scene fitting for a Coen-led picture and immediately establishes the film’s tone as that of a B-movie comedy caper. Coen and cinematographer Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog, ZOLA) first create this specific feel with canted angles and blocking that riffs on the danger in existing restaurant scenes in popular culture, namely The Godfather and the series finale of The Sopranos, with a playful twist. The vibrant hues work perfectly alongside crash zooms and creative transitions that continue throughout the film, establishing a distinct comedic visual language. 

The movie opens on a handful of nefarious characters, but Coen and co-writer (and wife) Tricia Cooke quickly shift the focus of Drive-Away Dolls to the two women at the center of the story, Marion (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Jamie (Margaret Qualley). Coen and Cooke introduce us to the straight-laced Marion at her soul-sucking office job when her very straight coworker invites her to a Phish concert. We first see a glimmer of Viswanathan’s comedic brilliance here with her hilarious deadpan delivery, showing that she couldn’t be less interested in this man or his invitation. While Marion hasn’t gotten laid in three years (and with a Ralph Nader staffer, of all people), we meet Jamie as she’s going down on a woman and Marion’s voicemail invitation to the lesbian bar, Sugar n’ Spice, plays in the background. Once Marion and Jamie meet up at the bar, they both decide to get out of town. Marion wants to visit her Aunt Ellis to go birding, and Jamie is feeling a bit listless after getting kicked out by her ex-girlfriend Sukie (a hilarious Beanie Feldstein), so the two friends set out on a road trip to Tallahassee. With her thick Texas accent and high-waisted light-wash jeans, it’s easy to see Qualley’s Jamie as a new version of Susan Sarandon in the queer-coded road trip classic, Thelma & Louise. The comparisons to other characters don’t stop there, though, as the performance and the accent specifically make Jamie feel like the second coming of George Clooney’s Ulysses Everett McGill in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

To get to Tallahassee, Marion and Jamie stop at Curlie’s, a “drive-away” where they can rent a one-way car to a specified location. Before their arrival, Curlie (a perfectly dry Bill Camp) gets a call that a Dodge Aries needs to be driven to Tallahassee by the next day and that a few people would come to collect the car to make the trip. Naturally, when Jamie and Marion request a car to Tallahassee, Curlie gives them the Dodge Aries, and they set out on their adventure with a mysterious briefcase in tow. A comedy of errors follows as Chief (Colman Domingo) and his two henchmen, Arliss (Joey Slotnick) and Flint (C.J. Wilson), arrive at Curlie’s to collect the car. When they realize that the car (and, more importantly, that briefcase) accidentally wound up with the two girls, Chief, Arliss, and Flint set off on a wild goose chase to try to find it. The film’s set up and Coen and Cooke’s characters recall road trip-set, exploitation films of the 1970s while also reminding the audience of one of the greatest films in the Coen Brothers’ filmography, Fargo. As Chief, Arliss, and Flint attempt to find the drivers of the Dodge Aries, they are, like many men in the Coen oeuvre, completely inept.

While Marion is intent on following the straight and narrow to Tallahassee, the sex-positive, free-spirit Jamie has a more important goal in mind: to get Marion laid. They have no clue that Chief is tailing them with his pair of misfits, so Jamie makes sure that they take a few detours along the way that may aid in her quest. It’s here that Coen and Cooke’s unapologetically queer comedic moments begin to shine. They fill this strange and clever script with jokes about turn-of-the-century political anxieties, sexual awakenings, and dildos, all reflective of the tone of the film’s intended title, Drive-Away Dykes. It’s also refreshing that the scenes highlighting Jamie and Marion’s sexual exploration are actually funny and not in service of a more significant, dramatic point. A scene where Jamie wants to crash a basement makeout party with a women’s soccer team as Linda Ronstadt plays is a particular highlight. While specific moments in the film are hilarious, it can sometimes feel a bit disjointed and unfocused in its more dramatic sections. The film can also feel overstuffed with creative flourishes, but they do work in favor of giving it a ‘70s, psychedelic, postmodern feel.

Not unlike No Country for Old Men’s Llewelyn Moss, Jamie and Marion find themselves in danger as the film’s villains get closer, but they discover that the contents of their briefcase are a little bit more complicated than just cash. Driving through Marietta, Georgia, they notice a billboard to re-elect Republican candidate Gary Channel (Matt Damon) that looks like a Fox News viewer’s white dream. On the precipice of the new millennium and the 2000 elections, Coen and Cooke crank up the political humor in completely unexpected, ridiculous ways. What the women are transporting in the briefcase is too good to spoil here, but it hilariously connects the two core themes of the film’s humor: sex and politics. It’s also even more evident after viewing Drive-Away Dolls that Ethan was probably the Coen Brother behind the dick jokes in films like The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading. 

What made the films of the Coen Brothers special was that perfect blend of their dramatic and comedic influences, with a biting tone that felt all their own. Drive-Away Dolls works because of its comedic confidence and the ease between Qualley and Viswanathan, but it still feels a bit incomplete. Perhaps that feeling simply comes from knowing what the Coens’ work can feel like when collaborating as a pair. Now that they’ve both separately tackled the darkness (The Tragedy of Macbeth) and the light (Drive-Away Dolls), I can only hope they work together again soon to craft another film with the right balance. 

Grade: B

Focus Features will release Drive-Away Dolls only in theaters on February 23.