Drive-Away Dolls (2024)
Directed by Ethan Coen
Co-written by Coen and Tricia Cooke
In this road movie comedy, two young women take off from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in a drive-away car. Not knowing they’re pursued by mobsters who are after the MacGuffin in the car’s trunk, they embark on sexy adventures. Once the gangsters sort of outsmart (or out-dumb) themselves, the women take control of the situation, leading to a satisfying if simplistic conclusion.
If you’ve seen the trailer for “Drive-Away Dolls,” you already know most of that, and you’ve probably said to yourself “Huh, that looks like fun.” And you’d be right. This little comedy is exactly what it purports to be, and it delivers loveable, quirky characters as befits a Coen movie.
In fact, being by only one of the Coens, Ethan (and co-written by the director’s spouse and producer), it has about half of the quirkiness, and little of the darkness, that usually accompanied the brothers’ productions. It’s also shorter by about the same amount, as if cutting out much of the sheer weirdness simply reduced its length by fifteen or twenty minutes. Built as a modern version of a sexploitation movie — the title alone is worthy of Russ Meyer — this is framed as a B picture, and in terms of the Coen brothers’ careers, it’s a B-side.
That’s not to diminish the quality of the writing or filmmaking, or the enjoyment for viewers. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan play opposites. Qualley’s Jamie is sexually rambunctious, Viswanathan’s Marian is dressed for success in the nerdiest way possible. Jamie wants the theme of their road trip to be getting Marian laid; Marian, while relatively inexperienced and much more of an introvert, is only sort of on-board with the idea. And about the time that goal is accomplished, the gangsters close in on them and the movie turns zany.
Among the film’s pleasures, aside from the sex scenes… Well, about the sex scenes. First of all, they are not explicit in a pornographic way, though viewers will have little difficulty figuring out just what is going on. At one point we see Jamie practically gyrating, under a blanket, as she has a violent orgasm while using a dildo; since the dildo has been making prominent appearances in previous scenes, there’s no doubt about what is happening. All of the sex scenes are like this, and if it wasn’t clear from the context and the visuals, the characters (especially Jamie) speak freely about sex acts. I saw a reviewer describe the movie as “very horny” and that’s true.
Anyway, as I was saying, aside from the sex scenes, the action is very smoothly choreographed and shot. In a movie this quick, there are few scenes that take time to do something flashy, but Ethan Coen seems to have a thing about unusual angles, especially when filming something straight down from a crane. There’s one funny bit where the women have a flat tire while driving down the interstate, and for the next 20 seconds the characters scream and panic, with the camera and angles done as if the car were about to roll over ten times. Then they pull to the side of the road, perfectly under control, and reassure each other that they’re OK. Because it’s full of action and excitement, this little scene, while indulgent, doesn’t slow the movie down one bit; in fact, the flat tire is necessary to the plot, because now they have to open the trunk and see what’s in there.
Matt Damon plays a family-values senator who is behind the pursuit of the MacGuffin — I won’t spoil things by telling you what it is; Pedro Pascal has the opening scene; Beanie Feldstein plays a hilariously jilted lover (of all the performances, hers is the most over-the-top); and there’s a heck of a cameo by Miley Cyrus. If that’s not enough star power in supporting roles, Viswanathan was everywhere in 2023, starring in the TBS series “Miracle Workers” as well as the films “The Beanie Bubble” and “Cat Person;” and Qualley is the daughter of indie queen Andie MacDowell.
But most of the time we’re enjoying the comedic and/or sexy turns by Qualley and Viswanathan. Qualley’s character is outgoing and drives the action; Viswanathan is the comic foil. You enjoy the latter’s funny expressions as much as Qualley’s character’s assertive sexiness. As a date movie, it’s a natural for queer women.
Even though there are politics implicit in the women’s disdain for the family values politician played by Damon, the film contains no critique of heterosexuality or the patriarchy. (The only overt political remark is contained in the trailer: A cornered Damon asks Jamie and Marian “Who are you people?!” and Marian replies, “Democrats.”) Unless they’re squeamish about lesbians in general, there’s really nothing to make straight people uncomfortable, and I would expect there will be plenty of straight couples attending, with the guy afterwards asking his girlfriend about a threesome. And needless to say, Ethan Coen and his producer/co-writer spouse Tricia Cooke are not queer. So if you require movies about queer people, friendly as their cishet filmmakers may want to be, to be by and for queer people, you might be offended.
But then you’d miss the fun. This movie is not remotely serious. It’s more of a bauble. If you were a filmmaker, and you had, say, a niece who was a dyke, or bi, or maybe just offically questioning her sexuality while still having relationships exclusively with women, etc. — and you wanted to give her a birthday present that would affirm her choices and made being a lesbian seem really cool and fun — and had a few million dollars to spend on a present — this is what you’d make for her.