From Ethan Coen, half of one of cinema's most heralded directing siblings, comes his solo directorial debut, Drive-Away Dolls. A crime-caper not too dissimilar to the films that propped up the Brothers filmography from the 80s through to the 2010s, Ethan employs the rising talents of Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan and Beanie Feldstein in the first of what Coen and co-writer Tricia Cooke describe as a "lesbian B-movie trilogy".
When a road trip turns into a game of cat-and-mouse for the sexually-liberated, free-spirited Jamie and her demure friend Marian, their drive to Tallahassee, Florida brings them face-to-face with an inept criminal gang, a political scandal and a life-ruining suitcase.
A lean, mean and pretty damn funny picture that wears its queer heart on its sleeve, Drive Away Dolls is a wonderful slice of familiar but no less enjoyable entertainment. A film that thrives both in its silliness and its refusal to be anything but unapologetically queer, Coen whisks us away on a spritely adventure that never wastes a minute of its 84 minute runtime.
There's a lovingly B-movie quality to Drive Away Dolls' production which actually operates in its favour for the most part, bringing a greater sense of authenticity to the overall film. With every zany scene transition and interesting camera angle comes the impression it is not ripping off the films it feels reminiscent of, but instead paying tribute to them within the confines of a smaller budget. It is tempting to condemn a film with a larger budget for not reinventing the wheel but here, contending with a changing theatrical cinema landscape which has undergone, for better or worse, a considerable transformation since even Coen's previous 2018 venture, Netflix's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Drive Away Dolls becomes lovingly and longingly nostalgic.
So much of Drive Away Dolls' success though should be attributed to its leads, in particular Margaret Qualley, whose audacious performance is as fantastically funny as it is wonderfully committed. Loose enough an actor to be clearly willing to riff and experiment, Drive Away Dolls strikes you as the first opportunity the talented actress has had to tap into her potential, to really enjoyable effect. Alongside Geraldine Viswanathan, who plays it straighter by design but taps into a surprising heart that enriches their dynamic and relationship, the chemistry really elevates the film, steering it to success. Calling Beanie Feldstein under-utilised only goes to demonstrate how terrific she is in her handful of scenes, while Bill Camp is as stellar as ever in a strictly supporting capacity.
Populated with juicy one-liners and a cast more than willing to engage in the quirky if narratively well-worn material on hand, Drive Away Dolls is the type of nostalgic B-movie glory our cinema landscape rarely sees nowadays. With gay abandon, and some borrowed-from-elsewhere baggage, Drive-Away Dolls cruises through its sapphic tale with a scrappy energy you cannot help but appreciate, ultimately resulting in a ridiculously fun and economic effort that makes the road ahead for Coen and Cooke's lesbian B-movie trilogy a promising one.