Drive-Away Dolls: Drive Far Away From this One Coen Mess.

Written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, this comedy caper follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian 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. Directed by Ethan Coen.

REVIEW:

Two Coens together are brilliant directors, separate they just can’t seem to find the right spark. Drive-Away Dolls, Ethan Coen’s first directing stint without his brother, Joel is a pretty leaden attempt at outdoing the vulgar excesses of old school 1980/1980’s exploitation movies. The flesh and carnage has no sizzle or even taboo breaking discomfort. It’s pretty tame, almost staid.

The frame for this failed lesbian adventure involves two friends, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), on a roadtrip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee who come into possession of a briefcase wanted by some very bad dudes. Cue the blood, inept staging, the lame jokes and overblown performances, highlighted by Qualley’s annoying accent and affected body language.

Ethan keeps the brothers playful spoofing of story forms. However, Dolls was written with collaboration with his wife, Patricia Cooke and who Ethan semi credits as a co-director. Cooke, apparently has not studied the brothers films. There is no real style. No zing. This is a neutered and gutted Ethan, being a dutiful husband, even if it means destroying the brothers’ legacy.

Dolls is a mismatch of high and low styles. There is no sense of the doubling between the spiritual and material, the populist and rarefied that gave the Coen’s films depth, layered references that skillfully congealed together. There’s just dissonance and static.

This roadtrip racks up a lot of miles but constantly spins its wheels. That’s tough to do when the plot combines the sapphic and phallic. There are a case of dildos modeled from actual erect penises, one of them Matt Damon’s who plays a corrupt senator. There are a lot of other free floating associations that end up meaningless because they’re never connected to anything longstanding or real. Only the frequent cameos from Colman Domingo, Pedro Pasal and Miley Cyrus in addition to the supposedly well-endowed Damon give the movie a promise of a better film that could have been.