Drive-Away Dolls is a raunchy, ridiculous road trip movie from director Ethan Coen. The name Coen doesn’t always inspire me to want to watch something, but this pulpy masterpiece features women in the lead roles so I felt compelled to take a look.
Drive-Away Dolls joins a rash of absurd recent films including Poor Things and The Regime. Drive-Away Dolls is the most lightweight of the bunch. It doesn’t have much of an underlying message to offer. It’s heavy on the absurdity of life. It will gross out many viewers and definitely isn’t for everyone.
Jamie (Margaret Qualley) gets kicked out of her home and relationship with her girlfriend Susie (Beanie Feldstein). Jamie doesn’t know what to do with herself next. She decided to get out of town.
Straight-laced (but not straight) Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) just happens to be planning a trip to Tallahassee to visit her aunt.
Jamie and Marian agree to drive together in what the film calls a “drive-away” car. Meaning a car that needs to be delivered somewhere. The drive-away dude (Bill Camp) thinks they are the people he’s expecting for a car headed to Tallahassee and puts them in it. Off they went.
Jamie doesn’t intend to head the fastest way. She wants to stop in every lesbian bar and hangout on the way. There’s lots of sex in this. It’s clear it’s queer.
The car was loaded with something the Chief (Colman Domingo) and his two bickering goons (Joey Slotnick and C.J. Wilson) wanted. They were the ones meant to drive the car. They definitely intend to get the goods back from the car. They had guns and everything. Off they went in pursuit.
The two women dominated the action, but there were some lovely bit parts played by big names. Pedro Pascal as the collector and Matt Damon as the senator, for example. There were weird psychedelic interludes, lots of songs by Linda Ronstadt, Miley Cyrus humping, and apparently self-healing blown out tires.
The entire cast seemed to have an exceptionally good time.
Drive-Away Dolls was written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke with Ethan Coen directing. It’s streaming on Peacock for subscribers and can be rented in several other places. Honestly, I wouldn’t pay extra to see it, so Peacock was my streamer of choice.
Approach this one with caution.