Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, two young women get into trouble on a journey. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
We are firmly in the era of solo Coen movies now, with Joel having gone doomy and monochrome for The Tragedy Of Macbeth, and now Ethan keeping things lighter with his crime caper Drive-Away Dolls. Though there is encouraging chatter about the siblings teaming back up again, there’s something to be said for having the Coen brothers divide and conquer.
Drive-Away Dolls (written by Ethan alongside his wife/editor Tricia Cooke) feels more like a Coens movie (they can’t truly be pigeonholed, but they have made a lot of quirky comedy drama thrillers about oddball criminals), since it features some of their hallmarks –– fascinating faces, accomplished character actors and a story that switches tones liberally.
Margaret Qualley, sporting a southern-fried accent and uninhibited attitude, is Jamie, bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend. Then there’s her demurer 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.
This is primarily Qualley and Viswanathan’s film, and they’re both excellent, charismatic in their own way: Qualley is introduced in a bout of passion with someone who definitely isn’t her girlfriend, while Viswanathan has a cracking, first scene where she awkwardly turns down a male co-worker’s attempts to ask her on date that descends into exceedingly funny wordplay and more uses of the word “engagement” than your average Jane Austen tome.
Around them is a gaggle of weirdoes and criminal types, though a highlight is Jamie’s bitter ex Sukie (Beanie Feldstein, brilliant as always), who sets off in pursuit, if only to return the loud chihuahua that was one of the few things Jamie left behind.
Among the other pleasures of the film? Pedro Pascal in a brief early cameo, suffering a similar fate to one that befell him on TV. Colman Domingo as a snappily dressed crime lord known only as The Chief (who has a thing for Henry James books), Bill Camp as Curlie, the grumpy, ill-fated owner of the drive-away business where Jamie and Marian get the car that leads them into so much trouble, and Matt Damon as a senator who is after a very particular, very personal item.
It's all screwball fun with patches of rat-a-tat dialogue, and while you could quibble that the transitions between scenes are overdone and the movie is both too short yet still takes a couple of unnecessary detours, Drive-Away Dolls remains proof that double the Coen output is something to be celebrated.
Drive-Away Dolls is in US cinemas now and arrives in the UK on 15 March.