Drive-Away Dolls (15)

Lesbian friends Jamie and Marian hit the road to Florida to escape their woes. The pair pick up a drive-away car - a free rental on the promise that they will deliver it to its intended destination which, conveniently, is Tallahassee. Alas, the car was intended to be picked up by a criminal gang who had stowed some precious cargo in the trunk. With goons on their tail, the girls' road trip changes to the most bizarre journey of their lives.

LondonNet Film Review

Drive-Away Dolls (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls is a road-trip romp like no other, packed full of queer joy, genitalia jokes and hilarious twists and turns. Dripping with classic Coen comedy, the film follows lesbian friends Jamie and Marian (played by Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan respectively) as they hit the road to Florida to escape their woes. Jamie’s a free-spirit, not least when it comes to fidelity – much to the chagrin of her girlfriend Sukie, played by Beanie Feldstein – while Marian is uptight and sexually restrained, having not been with anyone since her last relationship, years ago…

Caught cheating and kicked to the curb by Sukie, Jamie’s looking for an escape. Discovering Marian is driving to Florida to visit her aunt, she decides to come along for the ride, wanting to visit as many lesbian bars and bizarre roadside attractions along the way as she can. The pair pick up a drive-away car – a free rental on the promise that they deliver it to its intended destination which, conveniently, is Tallahassee – and away they go. But, of course, it’s not that simple: the car was intended to be picked up by a criminal gang who had stowed some precious cargo in the trunk.

With goons on their tail, the girls’ road trip changes from a tour of the Eastern Seaboard’s lesbian scene to the most bizarre journey of their lives, as they discover the secret briefcase contains something beyond their wildest imaginations. The comedy is filthy, the characters hilarious caricatures of themselves, and it’s impossible not to fall a little bit in love with Qualley’s Jamie with her southern drawl and devil-may-care attitude.

However, watching Drive-Away Dolls feels a bit like being inside a pinball machine, bouncing around surrounded by flashing lights and zingy colours, which makes it hard to get fully invested. It’s interesting to watch films made by the individual Coen brothers, because you see why the directing duo works so well as a pair. Even their most raucous of comedies manage to achieve some gravitas that keeps you hooked, but sadly that dramatic draw is missing from Drive-Away Dolls.

There are hints of Burn After Reading and The Big Lebowski in its eccentricity and capers, but it’s missing a bit of weight to keep it grounded. That said, the queer joy is palpable – the screenplay was created by Ethan and his wife Tricia Cooke, who identifies as queer and drew from her own experiences of the 90s lesbian scene – and it marks an exciting development in LGBTQ+ cinema as a film rich in fun, dirty silliness. It might lack some substance, but Drive-Away Dolls is a fun joyride nonetheless.

– Rachael Davis