Ethan Coen’s Drive Away Dolls is Giving Zany Queer Road Trip Vibes

 

If it’s one thing audiences have come to expect from Coen is zany, wacky, quirky vibes with laced with a straight face sort of plots.  Why not?  It’s a formula that has worked well for Ethan Coen and his brother Joel for decades.  This time he teams up with wife Tricia Cooke for the zaniest ride of them all.

Drive Away Dolls is a comedic caper following Jamie (Margaret Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend (Beanie Feldstein), and her demure friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Intertwined with some psychedelic flashback transitions, star powered cameos from Oscar nominated Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon, this queer road trip gives vibes of if Pulp Fiction and Thelma and Louise had a dysfunctional baby.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should the audience.

Beanie Feldstein is pure hilarious as Suki where she embraces her comedic chops and physical prowess.  Loved the simple fact it proves curvy girls can kick butt just as well as the chicks seen time after time in a superhero action film who are rail thin in need of a sandwich.

Geraldine Viswanathan as Marian is very understated, but ramps up when she needs to providing a very stealth and supportive straight man for Margaret Qualley’s character.  Qualley goes full-throttle as Jaime to the point of borderline stereotype, but it works perfectly in the world of Drive Away Dolls.

Although this film has some pacing issues here and there, what Coen and Cooke have accomplished is creating a cinematic piece that will live in the queer zeitgeist that isn’t leaning into the tragic consequences of being queer.  More often than not, Hollywood is notorious for creating queer films where the characters are tragic [Blue is the Warmest Color] or emotionally disheveled [A Single Man], but Drive Aways is embracing queer sexuality as beautiful, normal interactions between humans that love each other for better or worse.  For that, 86 minutes is totally worth the ride, even if that road has some potholes along the way.