Review: Despite Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls feeling like “lesser Coen brothers” at times, there are still some great lines and hilarious set pieces to make the movie worthwhile. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan shine, and the noir elements hint at a style that the Coens have only ventured into a few times with their earlier films.
Drive-Away Dolls Review
Drive-Away Dolls carries that same sense of tongue-in-cheek fun against a government conspiratorial backdrop as Burn After Reading, a divisive Coen brothers cult classic that I enjoy quite a bit and that completely understands its own absurdity. And like Burn After Reading, I can understand the same polarizing, divisive readings on Drive-Away Dolls from both sides of the aisle for this 2024 noir-comedy.
And I can see the singular vision from Ethan Coen sans his bother Joel, who took a much different approach to his own solo directorial effort The Tragedy of Macbeth – which would make perhaps the most nonsensical double feature on a weekend night if the two brothers hadn’t happened to make some of the best films of the last 30 years together.
Not only are Drive-Away Dolls and The Tragedy of Macbeth totally different in about every possible way, but it’s also actually quite odd to envision how those two styles clashed over the course of the 18 films prior. Where The Tragedy of Macbeth is restrained and calculated with every frame, Drive-Away Dolls is vulgar and outrageous, unpredictable and vibrant.
And there are moments in Drive-Away Dolls where this style works perfectly, and there are some where it ventures into being a bit too cooky to take seriously at all. The movie starts off in the latter territory with transition shots and an edit that makes you feel like you’re watching a straight-to-video spoof or late-night television series.
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan hold the movie together in separate ways. It’s easier to gravitate towards Qualley’s cartoonish accent and delivery as Jamie, with a physicality that overwhelms the screen when she appears, but Viswanathan’s calmer demeanor and tempered approach to Marian is equally interesting. She’s able to lock-in to the campy tone of Drive-Away Dolls, while still feeling like the emotional core of a tried-and-true Coen brothers romp – think Frances McDormand in Fargo or a young Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit.
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The movie isn’t quite as polished as many of the Coen brothers’ best films, and there is a sense that Ethan is just on autopilot for much of its brisk 84 minute runtime. Before you realize it, the movie builds to its culminating moments, where Jamie and Marian’s complicated relationship intersects with an audacious cat-and-mouse chase with a few inept criminals. These are all tropes that have been developed and tried in many of the Coen brothers movies before (and many times, better), but it’s still exciting and interesting to see burgeoning, starry actresses take on the material.
So despite Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls feeling like “lesser Coen brothers” at times, there are still some great lines and hilarious set pieces to make it worthwhile. Qualley and Viswanathan shine, and the noir elements hint at a style that the Coens have only ventured into a few times with their earlier efforts.
Score: 6/10
Watch Drive-Away Dolls (2024) on Peacock and VOD
Drive-Away Dolls Cast and Credits
Cast
Margaret Qualley as Jamie
Geraldine Viswanathan as Marian
Beanie Feldstein as Sukie
Joey Slotnick as The Goon
C.J. Wilson as The Goon
Colman Domingo as The Chief
Pedro Pascal as The Collector
Bill Camp as Curlie
Matt Damon as The Senator
Crew
Director: Ethan Coen
Writers: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Cinematography: Ari Wegner
Editor: Tricia Cooke
Composer: Carter Burwell
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