Movie Review: Drive-Away Dolls

While director Ethan Coen’s new film – Drive-Away Dolls – may be less like his previous endeavors with his brother and more of a singular filmic vision, it still proves to be quite entertaining and satisfying work that should not disappoint fans of his filmography.

The story follows friends Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) as they hit the road to Tallahassee. But things quickly go awry – as they typically do during a cinematic road trip (especially one directed by Ethan Coen) – and the two girls get caught up in a game of cat and mouse with a pair of seemingly inept criminals who are dead set on getting their hands on a mysterious briefcase the girls have come into possession of. This briefcase previously belonged to a character referred to only as the Collector (Pedro Pascal), whose disappearance has set the whole of the film in motion. Once the contents of the briefcase are revealed, the plot takes a turn involving a few more characters – including a conservative Senator named Gary Channell (Matt Damon), who is worried that those contents will derail his political ambitions – and the girls find themselves in dire straits and vying for their lives.

Working from a script written along with Tricia Cooke, director Ethan Coen, imbues the film with the off-kilter sensibility he and his brother (Joel) have been executing exquisitely for years. Here, however, the humor is delivered less like in Coen’s past work and with a more forward approach. There seems to be less meandering here – at least in terms of dialogue – than in previous films written alongside his brother. Surprisingly, that doesn’t work against the film in any way and the story finds its own groove and sticks to it with surprising ease.

Most of the film’s success is due in large part to the performances of Qualley and Viswanathan as Jamie and Marian. They end up being a sort-of whacked-out version of Thelma and Louise for the twenty-first century. Their chemistry together sets the tone from the start, and it continues to build until the final frames of the film.

Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley in “Drive-Away Dolls.” © 2023 Focus Features. LLC.

Co-screenwriter Cooke also served as the editor on the film, and that seems to have allowed many cuts and scenes changes to serve as more organic shifts of tone and story than they may have been in another editor’s hands – that is, one without stakes in the script. Overall, the film has the feel of a traditional Coen Brothers production, but there is more straight-forward caper feel that runs throughout, held together by the relationship between the two leads, that gives the film its own distinct identity.

Even though Drive-Away Dolls may not reach the creative heights of previous films from the Coen Brothers, it is an extremely entertaining and rewarding piece from a filmmaker not afraid to tell any story that interests him in any way that he sees fit.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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