Drive-Away Dykes was the original name of Drive-Away Dolls, and it was a lot funnier, more accurate, and better-sounding moniker than the more commercially acceptable one that was eventually chosen. Dolls wears its sapphic colors loud and proud, from the comedy-cunnilingus found in the opening five minutes to the “very committed lesbians” of a college soccer team. (That original title is even cheekily acknowledged in the closing credits.) Because this film is, to use the technical term, hella lesbian.
Considering that this is a single Coen brother film, that is noteworthy. Unless you count his 2022 documentary about Jerry Lee Lewis, this is the first film that director Ethan Coen directed without his older brother Joel. Co-written by Coen and his queer wife Tricia Cooke, it has a distinct vitality that is absent from all 18 of the siblings’ other movies. It feels new in its subject matter and historical time, and it’s one of the few works in the Coen canon that focuses on female, lesbian characters.
This movie almost seems to be trying too hard to just have fun.
That’s not to say it doesn’t feel very Coen Brothers-esque. As the quirky, endearing Jamie, Margaret Qualley uses traditional Southern expressions like “Honey darlin’!Channeling Nicolas Cage’s character H.I. ‘Hello,’ McDunnough from Arizona raised. Marian, played by Geraldine Viswanathan, is a socially awkward and bookish character who resembles a friendlier Barton Fink. Slotnick Joey and C. J. Wilson portrays hired goons who hunt down our protagonists with a carelessness that makes one think of Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi in the movie Fargo. The entire tone is upbeat and sour, reminiscent of the breezy Coen crime comedy. Just picture Burn After Reading and The Big Lebowski having a lesbian child, and you get the idea.
This is a movie that, like American Pie, is almost entirely focused on having fun, and Qualley’s Jamie personifies this ethos. Jamie’s main goal in life is to get banged. Two threads run throughout: a screwball crime conspiracy that bubbles beneath the surface, and a friendship (or more?) between Jamie and Marian, both of which explode into complete lunacy in the film’s last act. These strands are expertly portrayed by the two stars. You have to see the movie for yourself to fully appreciate the climactic reveal, which is just one giant dick joke.
Cooke and Coen are pleading with you not to get too attached to it. The characters in Dolls are untidy, imperfect, and preoccupied with sex. There are ridiculous scene changes that resemble sitcoms. By the end, nobody actually learns anything. While some viewers may want for a little more substance, this movie definitely lacks it in many ways. In the end, it’s a narrative about shagging—a shaggy dog story.