Drive-Away Dolls
Love is a sleigh ride to hell and a briefcase of clandestine pleasures in Drive-Away Dolls, the new film from Ethan ‘The Younger’ Coen and Tricia Cooke, his lesbian wife/editor of two decades. While I haven’t quite wrapped my head around that last bit of information, it certainly lends a unique perspective to this sapphic buddy caper about an allegedly platonic duo who discover that intimacy and emotional connection are the friends we make on the way to Tallahassee.
Australia’s Geraldine Viswanathan is Marian, the ‘straight’ one in the sense that she reads and goes to lady bars not to drink but out of social obligation. Bookish, stand-offish and familiar with Phish, Marian enjoys rebuffing the affections of men at the office with the inarguable excuse of “I have an engagement’. Margaret Qualley is Jamie, her horny Southern friend who likes being the centre of feminine attention. After Jamie cheats on her cop girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) and is promptly kicked out of the apartment they share, Marian suggests she joins her on a trip to Tallahassee to visit her aunt. But a clerical error at the driveaway car service they engage sees them take a Dodge Aries with a boot of illicit cargo. Naturally, the car’s rightful couriers turn up a moment later to claim it. A chase, as it so often does, ensues.
Drive-Away Dolls is classic Coen schtick; there are narrative coincidences, lovable goons and hilariously written exchanges between every character we meet. It takes the good nature of Raising Arizona, the comedic darkness of Fargo, the whimsy of The Big Lebowski and the looming outside threat of Blood Simple and mixes it into 84 tight minutes of a slightly familiar but nevertheless enjoyable odyssey. Initial reviews posit that Drive-Away Dolls draws too much from its predecessors (Coen-made or otherwise) and has little substance for a feature set on the precipice of Y2K. These are fair points but I can’t say they were able to detract from my overall enjoyment.
I’m not someone who cares if a film wears its inspiration on its sleeves and spends its time pursuing small revelations instead of something to say. To me, this is a film about Marian’s self-sabotaging heartbreak over a failed past relationship and perhaps her own discomfort with her sexual identity. And it’s about Jamie’s flagrant disregard for those things being the key to unlocking something meaningful in the pair’s relationship. Drive-Away Dolls is a compact comedy that also happens to contain a surprising amount of sweetness. It’s a love story that takes that tender platonic kiss from the last 10 seconds of Thelma & Louise and moves it to the shower instead, with the sense of intimacy that only those who’ve burst into giggles during sex will be able to truly appreciate.
The reason the film works for me is in no small part down to the performances of Viswanathan and Qualley. Despite some heightened linguistic mannerisms on Qualley’s behalf the banter feels natural and the pair’s chemistry evolves at the perfect pace. While we’re not privy to Jamie’s past - perhaps because she’s already comfortable in her sexuality - we do get some lovely flashbacks to Marian’s childhood sexual awakening involving a trampoline, a DIY peephole and a female neighbour who thinks sunbathing in her backyard is clothing-optional. These sequences convey curiosity, longing and disappointment without a single word and do more for Marian’s characterisation than a witty conversation ever could.
Originally titled Drive-Away Dykes (Coen blames “the squares at the studio” for the change) the film is an homage to many B-movies I’ve never seen but one that I have (note to self: revisit Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill.) Coen and Cooke make stylistic choices like wipe transitions and silly psychedelic sequences that may not gel with viewers used to the slickness of earlier Coen films. To invoke the spirit of Marge Simpson, I just think they’re neat. Cooke claims that while Coen Bros Inc. make high brow movies, there is little chance that audiences would (nor should) take this film seriously. Armed with this disclaimer, viewers should enter Drive-Away Dolls with the full knowledge that the ticket price includes a healthy amount of schlock…and schlong.
Verdict
☆☆☆☆
Drive-Away Dolls is in cinemas now. BYO dildo.
