The Reel Review
A couple of lesbian friends traveling from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in the year 1999 find themselves pursued by a group of inept criminals after they make a discovery in the trunk of the car that they had agreed to drive to Tallahassee as part of a drive-away car delivery service. Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley star in this absurdist comedy/thriller from director Ethan Coen (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Raising Arizona).
Qualley and Viswanathan (Blockers) have terrific onscreen chemistry as the unlikely odd couple – the first an uninhibited free spirit, the other very uptight. And Coen assembles an impressive supporting cast, among them – Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart) as a former ex-girlfriend/cop, Colman Domingo as the ringleader of the criminal buffoons, and Matt Damon as a right-wing U.S. Senator who is at the heart of the potentially politically ruinous crime caper. Miley Cyrus even appears a couple of times as the infamous Cynthia Plaster Caster.
Coen leans heavily into trippy, visual imagery and crude, sexual humor, some of which lands, some of which doesn’t, but the sight gags – in particular, the names of the lesbian bars and the newspaper front page in the finale – are where he gets his biggest laughs from the screenplay he wrote with his wife. And with a runtime of just under an hour and a half, Drive Away Dolls doesn’t overstay its welcome as a funny enough, brainless good time.
REEL FACTS
• Drive-Away Dolls is the first feature film Ethan Coen has directed without his brother Joel.
• Margaret Qualley is the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell.
• During the closing credits, the film is dedicated to Cynthia Plaster Caster (1947-2022). Caster (Cynthia Albritton) gained fame for creating casts of dozens of erect celebrity penises, including Jimi Hendrix, Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, and The Who drummer Keith Moon.
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