Drive-Away Dolls

One of my favorite filmmakers is that of the Coen Brothers. They've written and directed so many amazing films: "Raising Arizona", "Fargo", "Burn After Reading", "The Big Lebowski" to mention a handful. The trailer of "Drive-Away Dolls" didn't really intrigue me, but since I realized that Ethan coen directed and co-wrote it, I assumed that was a for sure deal. Wow, was I way off.

This comedy caper follows Jamie (Margaret Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, Sukie (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. How possibly could these two women be able to break away from the clutches of these criminals?

Others to round out the cast are Joey Slotwick 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 Senator Gary Channel, Connie Jackson as Aunt Ellis, Gordon MacDonald as Cicero's waiter, Sam Vartholomeos as Bart and John Menchion old man at Slappy's.

This was directed with the caliber we would expect from either Coen Brother, this being Ethan ("Blood Simple" '84, "Raising Arizona" '87, "Miller's Crossing" '90, "Barton Fink" '91, "The Hudsucker Proxy" '94, "Fargo" '96, "The Big Lebowski" '98, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" 2000, "Intolerable Cruelty" '03, "The Ladykillers" '04, "Paris, I Love You" '06, "No Country for Old Men" '07, "Burn After Reading" '08, "A Serious Man" '09, "True Grit" '10, "Inside Llewynn Davis" '13, "Hail, Caesar" '16, "The Ballard of Buster Scruggs" '18, "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind" '22) plus shorts and a video. It is amazing how this filmmaker can extract certain emotions, albeit it in bizarre situations and the actor comes across as seemingly normal. It definitively makes any particular scene normal and easy to watch even if the character is falling apart. Ethan and his brother, Joel are consummate pros when implementing this format. Where this film starts falling apart is in the writing by Ethan Coen ("Crimewave" '85, "The Naked Man" '99, "The Man Who Wasn't There" '01, "Gambit" '12, "Unbroken" '14, "Bridge of Spies" '15, "Suburbicon" '17) plus many others, TV, shorts and a video, and Tricia Cooke (a short). Normally Ethan Coen is a well-rounded, well thought out writer, however with this film, there were too many places of choppiness, continuity issues that were fairly obvious and gratuitous everything. Look, I knew that the two main characters were lesbian--just friends, one of them would have sex with a post if need be, but certainly any woman walking down the road and we have to be made witnesses of it. Then, there couldn't just have been a handful of expletives--there were a plethora of them. Even the violence was a bit over-the-top, but nothing like the prior two aspects--this is a Coen film after all. Even though Tricia Cooke's experience is very limited, it was incredibly difficult to pin any flaws in this on her considering Coen's vast experience. I'm not sure what happened to Coen--a bad day at the laptop? Not sure, but suffice it to say, this is definitely not one of his better efforts. Maybe next time. 

Certainly if you're a true Coen aficionado, you'll probably respect this.I surely do like the Coen Brothers work, however this just didn't cut it for me. The best aspect of this is the short running time. If one has to see this, I recommend Netflix, so if it isn't to your liking, there's not a good amount of waste.

Out of 4 Stars: 1                                     Rated: R                                            87mins.