Review: Drive Away Dolls

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

Ethan Coen's first solo outing - following his brother Joel's first solo film three years ago, "The Tragedy of Macbeth" - is a raunchy road comedy that, perhaps, sheds some light on which Coen brother brings which sensibility to the duo's oeuvre. Based on what we've seen in the past few years, it stands to reason that Joel brings the brooding dark qualities, while Ethan is seemingly responsible for the kookier elements.

This is evidenced in "Drive Away Dolls," a film that follows two lesbian best pals, Jaime (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who decide to rent a "drive-away" vehicle - in other words, one that you rent with the purpose of driving it to the location where the car rental business needs it to be delivered - to get to Tallahassee, where Marian aims to meet up with a relative for some birdwatching. Jaime is in the process of breaking up with her cop lover Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), so she decides to tag along.

However, before we meet the two young women, we see a man (Pedro Pascal) carrying a briefcase - which has contents that are kept secret for some time in the vein of "Pulp Fiction" and "Kiss Me Deadly," until they finalize emerge in one of the film's nuttier twists - who is caught in an alleyway and dispatched in a gruesome fashion.

The car that Jaime and Marian end up renting, unbeknownst to them, has this man's head in a cooler in the trunk along with the mysterious suitcase. As they make their way to Tallahassee, whose very existence appears to be the butt of a running joke in the film, a group of sinister men led by a character played by Colman Domingo are on their tail.

Without giving too much away, the contents of the suitcase are linked back to a conservative politician played by Matt Damon, whose character's ultimate fate - spelled out in a newspaper headline - makes for the film's best gag. Some of the film's other gags - a running joke involving numerous characters reading Henry James - are less successful.

In terms of tone, "Drive Away Dolls" is more in line with the Coens' wackier output, namely "Raising Arizona" or "Burn After Reading," although in terms of quality it's more on the level of "The Ladykillers" or "Intolerable Cruelty." In other words, it's a lesser Coen Brother(s) joint. But while it doesn't rank highly in the overall incredible body of work from the Coens - and Joel's "Macbeth" adaptation was easily the superior solo project - it's not without its pleasures.

"Drive Away Dolls" is good for some laughs, and Qualley and Viswanathan make for a likable leading pair. Qualley is the more abrasive and outrageous character, while Viswanathan is the more buttoned-up one. It's a tried-and-true formula for a buddy comedy, but that element works well enough. As opposed to some of the Coens' best work - "Fargo," "No Country for Old Men," or "A Serious Man," for example - this breezy 84-minute movie is skin deep in comparison. But overall, it's an amusing - and bawdy - trifle.