After decades of making movie magic with each other, the Coen Brothers went their separate ways, stepping back from the spotlight to relax and focus on personal passion projects. In 2021, Joel delivered the haunting ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth.’ Now, it's Ethan’s turn to make his solo directing debut, and he’s hit the road with his wife, editor Tricia Cooke, to deliver ‘Drive-Away Dolls,’ a raunchy lesbian road comedy to cement his status as “the funny one.”
Set in 1999, we meet the titular dolls trudging through life in Philadelphia. Lesbian best friends Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) are looking for a fresh start. Impulsive, philandering Jamie’s been kicked out of her ex’s apartment, while uptight Marian is stuck with an uneventful single existence at a bland job. Looking to cut loose, Jamie hijacks Marian’s road trip to her aunt in Tallahassee, unaware they’ve been mistakenly loaned a car with a trunk full of scandalous secrets. In true Coen fashion - hijinks ensue.
With its snappy dialogue, well-curated soundtrack, goofy henchmen and bizarre twists, the film harkens back to the golden standards of the Brothers’ best known comedic works. But not to get too caught up in Coen nostalgia, it would be a crime to overlook the immediately evident influence of Tricia Cooke on this particular story. After editing many of her husband and brother-in-law’s movies over the years, this is her first time in the writing chair. Cooke’s unique perspective and voice crafts a one-of-a-kind approach to 'Dolls,' framing it through a raunchy, brazen, queer lens that sets up the familiar characters and story elements as a wholly different kind of beast entirely.
Jamie and Marian are exactly the sort of best friends you’d want to book a backseat ticket to tag along with on an adventure; the classical wild card paired against the straight arrow (although in their case, there isn’t much straightness to go around). They sell the tried-and-true comedy of mismatched friends with an authentic chemistry that carries even the slowest scenes with the snappy pace the script demands.
In an apt comparison I sadly can’t lay claim to, I saw a comment online that Qualley’s performance had captured the spirit of a young Nicolas Cage, and I was delighted to see that prove true. Her Jamie is very much traveling the same highway as Cage’s H.I. McDonnough in the Coens’ 1987 kidnapping farce ‘Raising Arizona.’ Somehow simultaneously manic and doe-eyed, Jamie barrels through life with reckless abandon, generating a gravitational pull that draws people into her wake and along for the ride. It isn’t a false, performative charisma, but rather an intense sincerity to pursue all things without thinking long enough to get bogged down. Qualley fully embraces this, pouring boundless personality into the character mold and shining through.
Viswanathan, meanwhile, embodies Marian’s repression and awkward anxiety in a natural and endearing way that never becomes grating, even as she is frequently called upon to play the wet blanket. Despite being the quieter role, she infuses Marian with loaded silent expressions and dry line readings that more than keep pace with the manic energy she’s up against. Like with Jamie, her introversion never feels performative, but rather a grounded, authentic personality with its own sets of quirks and eccentricities, making the evolution out of her shell all the more exciting to watch as their journey unfolds.
At only 84 minutes long, the caper flies by, which is great for a movie like this. But while a fast pace can be a strength, it can also be a weakness, and for ‘Dolls,’ it’s moving so fast that some key narrative depth disappears in a blur. This is especially evident in the subplot following Jamie’s jilted partner, Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), who goes from angrily handing over info on our heroes to turning up just in time to save them, with most of the motivation to take her from Point A to Point B happening off screen.
The movie is just speeding along too quickly to give added depth to these moments, and the result is a somewhat disjointed narrative. This makes it hard to review, as I certainly wanted to love it even more than I do. But as its leads learn, it’s not enough to just hit all of the scheduled stops on the map. The detours are what really build character. And so ‘Dolls’ feels incomplete. It covers all its bases, reaching its destination in record time. But it bypasses opportunities to delve deeper and flesh out the layers beneath the surface.
As someone who probably spends too much time talking about movies online, the complaint that “movies are too long” is omnipresent. But, as Ebert said, "No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough." Here we see the potholes that can develop in a story without the supposedly 'unnecessary' extra scenes that TikTok critics so frequently lament. A Wikipedia plot summary can tell you what happens over the course of a narrative. But the hallmark of great story-telling comes in the small, tangential moments that reveal why it happened. ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ wraps up the plot in a neat bow, but leaves too many emotional questions hanging.
In the end, it's still well worth the trip. The cast is a blast to spend time with, their characters memorable and their lines effortlessly funny. I sat down in the theater wanting to be entertained, and that I was, strapped into a speeding rental car straight down the interstate to Tallahassee, and I had a terrific time. I hope whatever crazy idea Coen and Cooke dream up next is allowed more time to breathe, but for ‘Dolls,’ it’s a bold, colorful and unashamed vision that makes a great time at the movies.
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