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(Image credit: Focus Features)
Fasten your seatbelts: Ethan Coen, one half of the Oscar-laden Coen brothers is in the director’s chair for the first time without his brother Joel.Drive-Away Dollssees him team up with his wife, long-time Coen brothers editor, Tricia Cooke, to write the script, but while his brother Joel opted for a black and white Shakespeare adaptation for his first solo directing endeavor (2021’s The Tragedy of Macbeth), Ethan opted for a raunchy lesbian road movie, featuring both cunnilingus and decapitation.
Drive-Away Dolls harkens back to the midnight movies of decades past, with Windows Movie Maker-esque screen wipes and scene transitions. The film wears its trashiness on its sleeve as zany plot threads converge with steamy sex scenes and silly jokes, channeling the vibrant production design and camp melodrama of Jamie Babbit’s ’90s technicolor conversion camp comedy But I’m A Cheerleader.
Pedal to the metal
(Image credit: Focus Features)
After a bad break-up, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) invites herself along on pal Marian’s (Geraldine Viswanathan) road trip from Philadelphia to Florida to visit her aunt. While Marian would have been happy to spend her pit stops reading a Henry James novel, however, the outgoing, seductive Jamie makes sure they’re checking in at every lesbian bar on the way in an attempt to get her guarded, more serious friend laid. What they don’t realize, though, is that their hire car was meant to be assigned to another, much more dangerous client, and they’re now inadvertently carrying a mysterious and valuable briefcase in their trunk all the way to Tallahassee.
Big Screen SpotlightShining a light on the under-the-radar theatrical releases that you need to know about, with a new article every Friday
Big Screen Spotlight
Shining a light on the under-the-radar theatrical releases that you need to know about, with a new article every Friday
Shining a light on the under-the-radar theatrical releases that you need to know about, with a new article every Friday
For anyone going into this movie expecting a healthy dose of criminal intrigue attached to a Coen directing credit, think again; this movie takes the sillier elements of the Coens' work and dials it up to 11. The film’s goon subplot, which sees the intended driver of the girls' hire car send a double act of useless henchman in hot pursuit, is flimsy and absurd in equal measure, with the criminals taking on the provocative and two-dimensional caricatures often assigned to women and queer people in mainstream comedy.
The movie shares a cinematographer (Ari Wegner) and a cast member (Colman Domingo) with Zola, another bombastic road movie, but another recent release would make a more fitting double bill:Emma Seligman’s 2023 release Bottoms, another silly, rowdy, violent lesbian comedy. Both feature two friends with mismatched personalities – ringleader PJ (Rachel Sennott) and socially awkward Josie (Ayo Edebiri) in Bottoms – and outlandish plots (PJ and Josie fabricate a criminal past and start an extracurricular fight club at their school to impress the girls they fancy). Both films also delve into the messy, sometimes gross, sometimes cringe realities of being a young woman grappling with matters of the heart (and, uh, genitals) in a way that’s often not very sympathetic but always entertaining.
“Trashy, stupid gay stories”
(Image credit: Focus Features)
Goofy, raunchy comedy has historically been a very male-heavy class of movie – think Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, and Will Ferrell’s respective ’00s filmographies – but films like Drive-Away Dolls and Bottoms are paving the way for a queer, female take on the genre. The irony is that Drive-Away Dolls is not a “new” movie – the 1999 setting was contemporary when Coen and Cooke first conceived of the film, but it’s taken 20 years to reach the big screen. “At that time, it was possible for the industry to conceive of serious gay stories, but not trashy, stupid gay stories. It just didn’t compute,” Coen toldMovieMaker Magazineearlier this year.
Big Screen Spotlight(Image credit: Picturehouse Entertainment)A new Japanese thriller with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score is a quietly searing depiction of childhood
Big Screen Spotlight
(Image credit: Picturehouse Entertainment)A new Japanese thriller with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score is a quietly searing depiction of childhood
(Image credit: Picturehouse Entertainment)
A new Japanese thriller with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score is a quietly searing depiction of childhood
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Drive-Away Dolls is the first in Coen and Cooke’s proposed “lesbian B-movie trilogy” with Qualley also set to star in the second installment, titled Honey Don’t!, alongside Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans. Filming is currently underway on the film, which follows a private investigator and a cult leader, and a third film, titled Go Beavers, is also in development.
Drive-Away Dolls is out now in cinemas. For more on what else you should be watching at the cinema, be sure to check out the rest of ourBig Screen Spotlight series.
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Marvel’s Paul Rudd and Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega fight off a murderous unicorn in zany first trailer for new A24 horror comedy
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
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1
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”