Drive-Away Dolls

To say the Coens are a legendary directing duo is an understatement. Blood Simple turns forty this year, their films have a combined thirty-nine Academy Award nominations (and six wins), and their impact on culture is impossible to quantify or overstate: they were the 90s and 00s for many people. From the beginning, they’ve been a duo: they don’t even have separate Wikipedia pages! But that all ended with 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Not due to a falling out or drop in cache or anything (at least not publicly), just diverging interests. Differences which have immediately played out on screen with their first solo features. Joel dove straight into an intense and dour and gorgeous adaptation of Shakespeare (specifically The Tragedy of MacBeth), which received widespread acclaim and awards consideration. Ethan’s return to the silver screen is a lesbian riff on Fargo that leans into a 60s inspired psychedelia, released at the tail end of Dumpuary and more likely to end up a cult classic than a critical or financial success.

That isn’t to say one approach is better than the other. But the two films feel like they provide unique insight into who brought what to the table in their partnership. Without Ethan, Joel made a very serious, very severe, and incredibly dramatic work, with precise technical skill on display from every department of the production. Without Joel, Ethan leaned hard into comedy, keeping everything light and fun and frothy, even when the literal events on screen take a turn towards violence.

That tone largely comes from the pairing of Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), lesbian roommates (but not lovers) who could not be more different. If you’ve ever seen a movie with mismatched partners before, you already know their general dynamic: Marian is an uptight and proper goody-goody, Jamie is a relaxed partier who’s always thinking about (or having) sex. So when Marian decides to take a road trip to visit her Aunt Ellis (Connie Jackson) for some birding, Jamie invites herself along, seizing on what she sees as an excellent opportunity to loosen Marian up by getting her laid.

Of course, what they don’t know is that drive-away car was intended for Chief (Coleman Domingo) and his goons, Arliss and Flint (Joey Slotnick and C.J. Wilson, respectively), as it contains a very special parcel. Cue the movie cutting between our girls on a road trip, and some nefarious yet quirky dudes trying to hunt them down for a “chat”.

Much of the humor emanates from Jamie and her charming, crass, fast talking ways, emphasized further by an absolutely ridiculous “Southern” drawl which I don’t recommend calling “Texan” unless you want to be punched in the mouth. Well, that and her insatiable sex drive, which leads them to seedy lesbian bars and the basement of a women’s college soccer team. This is equal parts a dark comedy and a sex comedy, frequently combining both in the same scene.

Which points towards the movie’s organizing principle: all we do, we do for sex. Love, bars, talking, dining, etc, it’s all with sex as the end goal. Despite that, we also do whatever we can to hide our proclivities from others, as demonstrated by a subplot/flashback involving Tiffany Plastercaster (Miley Cyrus). So it should come as no surprise that Jamie’s sexual escapades tend to move various elements of the plot forward. From Jamie’s ex Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) showing up in Talahassee with Jamie’s dog, to Arliss and Flint discovering their location, to Jamie’s biggest reason for wanting to leave town in the first place. The movie opens with Jamie performing cunnilingus on Carla (Annie Gonzalez). This is a world orchestrated by sex and desire in ways that are not even apparent from the outset.

The problem with calling back to a movie as revered and monumental as Fargo is that it can’t hope to hold its own. The humor of Drive-Away Dolls is scattershot and unrefined, landing often as trying too hard to riff in real-time, leading to awkward jokes which are more likely to evoke a “hmm” of recognition than a guffaw of enjoyment. It takes big swings to try to get you with outlandish lines or strange situations, usually aiming to put you in Marian’s position of feeling terminally awkward. There are some legitimately clever lines and wordplay, but in many cases you feel the screenplay straining to find the best form of the joke, and settling for the third or fourth. It’s a script that does not feel effortless, revealing its seams in ways that aren’t always obvious, but manage to detract from the experience subconsciously.

The plot manages to stay on the right side of convoluted, despite more and more pieces getting added to the board as we go. Screenwriters Ethan and Tricia Cooke are smart enough to see that line approaching and give it a healthy distance. Even so, I do wonder if we could do with a few less complications, even if the streamlining means axing some of the more delightful cameos (which I’ve deliberately left for you to experience yourself).

It would be absurd to label this movie anything other than successful. It might not be your cup of tea, fair enough. But it never loses sight of exactly what it is, what it’s going for. Its tone is constant throughout, the camerawork exuberantly reinforces its gonzo aesthetic, and the characters feel pitched perfectly to the world they inhabit.

However, I can’t help but feel this is Ethan playing it safe. He’s operating in a mode undeniably akin to that which has defined his whole career. Not a bad template to draw from, of course. However, if he wishes to take his art to new heights, to really wow us, and to fully move out of the shadow that he and his brother created, he’ll have to take bigger chances, to risk true failure. I’m hopeful this movie will do well, and give him the confidence he needs. Both Coens operating independently at the height of their powers would truly be a thing to behold.