Drive-Away Dolls (2024) | Review

Synopsis: Friends on a road trip to Tallahasse mistakenly obtain a briefcase being pursued by bumbling criminals.

Director: Ethan Coen
Cast: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo

Drive-Away Dolls is rough around the edges and drifts into amateurishness at times, but still packs tremendous laughs into a madcap crime story from the sillier side of the Coen catalogue.

It's a world we've seen numerous times from the Coen brothers alone – innocent people stumbling into a criminal underbelly – but with Ethan and his wife Tricia Cooke at the reigns, Drive-Away Dolls this time roots us in the gay scene of late 90s America. 'Odd couple' friends are quickly established as sexually-liberal Jamie (Margaret Qualley) receives bothersome phone calls from office tightwad Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan). There are some obvious tensions between the two and a few of the jokes are predictable, but Jamie's foul mouth and peculiar turns of phrase prevent any boredom from setting in. Both actors dial up their characters and their ensuing road trip thankfully has enough serious story beats for their characters and joint relationship to grow. They were always going to meet in the middle, but that doesn't mean it isn't an enjoyable ride.

And what a final destination there is for the stock crime setup you're presented with:

• Two women hire a car for a road trip to Florida and find a mysterious briefcase in the trunk.
• Two henchmen hired to transport the briefcase, upon learning their intended car has accidentally been given to the women, set off to intercept them and reobtain their precious cargo.

Standard. But the contents of the briefcase and driving force behind these criminals is so incredibly silly I was in stitches. This is a loud, silly, rude, and sometimes quite trashy movie, but it also has its story rooted in the political minefield of public figures trying to keep their salad days under wraps.

This is a movie to be enjoyed by slackers and party animals making grooves in beanbags rather than theatre seats. I have a lot of time for it, which is ironic due to its lightning quick runtime. It isn't all roses and I have to report some appalling choices for scene transitions and sound effects. No movie from here until the end of time will ever need another dog-humping gag and psychedelic interludes are distractingly drip-fed to you ahead of their payoff. Still, this is low-risk and high-reward sex farce I would happily watch again thanks to two great central performances and smatterings of fun bit players.