Drive-Away Dolls delivers a fun lesbian road trip and not much more

The Coen brothers’ filmography is tragically straight. Acclaimed for his or her stylistic breadth and wit, their movies are wealthy and keen to play with gender roles in ways in which welcome queer readings — the screwball hijinks of The Hudsucker Proxy and the winking choreography behind Channing Tatum’s dance numbers in Hail, Caesar! are among the many many playful prospers the place the area between quirk and intent are as huge because the viewer desires it to be.

Outright tales for and about theys and gays, although? Not their sturdy go well with. But in Drive-Away Dolls, Ethan Coen peels away from his sibling to make his first solo characteristic a grand ol’ lesbian romp, making an attempt to cram a few many years of misplaced time into one outrageous comedy. It doesn’t absolutely cohere, nevertheless it certain is a social gathering.

Directed by Ethan Coen and co-written by Coen and his spouse, Tricia Cooke, Drive-Away Dolls is a long-gestating ardour venture of Cooke’s, a love letter to the (now dwindling) lesbian bar scene of her youth, set on the finish of the millennium. The movie follows two buddies, the unflappably relentless Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and the uptight Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), on a road trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee, Florida, stopping at splendidly named queer haunts alongside the best way. (Think “She Shed” or “The Butter Churn.”) But Jamie and Marian don’t understand they rented a automobile meant for another person, carrying cargo that somebody essential desires.

Jamie and Marian clutch a briefcase close in a bar full of bisexual lighting in a scene from Drive-Away Dolls

That final bit is the acquainted streak working by way of Drive-Away Dolls, the crime caper these accustomed to the Coen brothers’ work may be anticipating. But on this case, the caper is ensconced in one thing Cooke describes as “trashier” than Ethan’s collaborations with Joel. Another great way of describing it could be “more reckless.” There’s a thrilling abandon to Drive-Away Dolls that runs counter to the attribute management the siblings are identified for. The jokes are broad, the intercourse is lewd, the scene transitions are loony, and psychedelic interstitial footage drips in and out for nearly no purpose in any respect, till the ultimate one reveals a punchline the viewers may do not know they’re being arrange for.

All this extra is super fun, and watching beloved actors like Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, and Beanie Feldstein crash into Jamie and Marian’s roadtrip is endlessly pleasant. As a entire, nonetheless, Drive-Away Dolls feels a bit slight. The movie doesn’t make super use of its interval setting — principally, the yr (1999) is plot gas, with the shortage of smartphones serving as a persistent, believable purpose for the misunderstandings and misdirections behind the movie’s caper antics.

Drive-Away Dolls might have simply made more hay out of its interval setting, if solely to flesh out its two heroes. Qualley and Viswanathan are splendidly forged as Jamie and Marian, however their dynamic is overly acquainted: Free-spirited buddy desires to assist a prissy pal open up and possibly hook up with a woman for the primary time in three years. Also, possibly they’d be happier collectively? Just kidding! (Unless…)

Marian clutches her drink with both hands and looks on nervously in a lesbian bar scene from Drive-Away Dolls

Drive-Away Dolls’ well-worn beats are buttressed by super type, a deep care taken with the movie’s manufacturing and costume design. All that spotlight to the period that isn’t absolutely current within the script comes out within the visuals as an alternative. There isn’t much narrative texture to Marian and Jamie’s numerous stopovers — specifically, there isn’t much for Jamie or Marian to attach with. While the pair have frequent and humorous interactions on their trip, the individuals they meet are more or much less cartoon characters establishing a gag.

Similarly, it isn’t notably clear how Jamie even is aware of concerning the bars she desires to cease at. The alternatives for Jamie and Marian to type some sort of reference to the individuals within the locations they go, to let the movie reside within the actuality of how queer individuals discovered neighborhood within the pre-social-networking period, are scant. This lacking texture makes the film a sugary cocktail with Pop Rocks on the rim, overwhelming taste with arguably superfluous crackle that’s sort of laborious to be mad at. Look for one thing deeper, and you begin to really feel like Chief (Colman Domingo), the fixer for the movie’s sorta-villain (performed by somebody who’s more fun to find for your self), who’s chasing after the briefcase Jamie and Marian unwittingly wound up with.

Colman Domingo as The Chief and his two henchmen stand in an auto garage in a scene from Drive-Away Dolls.

Yet this lack of substance nags at Drive-Away Dolls, as a result of the movie does intersect with the political actuality of its period, rooting its antagonists in turn-of-the-century “family values” politics and how queer existence is labeled vulgar. In repeat viewings, it’s potential that this nagging reveals itself to be a void, because the thinness of its characters is simply meant to facilitate gags, and the jokes don’t much construct out its characters or the world they inhabit.

Coen and Cooke don’t appear all that bothered by that, although, having crafted a movie the place being outrageous, homosexual, and outrageously homosexual is assertion sufficient. This might be the filmmakers’ most cogent argument for Drive-Away Dolls, one made textual as the top credit start to blow up onto the display preceded by the movie’s authentic, much less well mannered title: Drive-Away Dykes.

Drive-Away Dolls is in theaters now.

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