Since the split-up of the Coen brothers, it was hard to guess what they would get up to on their own. If you had guessed that Ethan Coen was going to become a hilarious vulgarian, I’m impressed, but I still don’t think you’d guess he would ever write and direct a film like Drive-Away Dolls.
When the libertine Jamie (Margaret Qualley) is booted out of her apartment, she offers her reserved, romantically frustrated friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) a road trip to Tallahassee in a drive-away rental car. When they discover what’s in the boot of the car, they have to race to get away from goons in pursuit of their lost goods. And Jamie has to show the glum Marian a good time, too.
Drive-Away Dolls (originally titled “Drive-Away Dykes”) is part of what seems to be a new wave of raunchy lesbian films that get their laughs from grotesquely parodying the worst behaviour of the horny teenage boys in ’80s films like Porky’s. In this case, depending on what you find funny, it works. It’s not quite as funny as its recent contemporary Bottoms, but it can’t be faulted in terms of going for broke for a dirty laugh. The script is so ribald that it actually feels like it’s the product of a pair of comedian friends trying to top each other by telling sex jokes. This is not a film for all audiences, to say the very least. Any movie that starts with a couple fighting over who owns the wall-mounted dildo is likely to chase a certain portion of the audience out of the cinema. There were certainly some audible gasps at the showing we attended.
Qualley delivers a motor-mouthed, deep-fried southern performance very much of a piece with early Coen favourite Holly Hunter. It almost seems as though it’s going to be a chore, but Jamie is such an absolute alleycat that it actually works. Viswanathan is almost too subdued to register against Qualley’s manic chattering, but actually works very well as the film’s straight man (despite being neither straight nor a man).
If you have a filthy sense of humour and aren’t easily offended, Drive-Away Dolls‘ transgressive humour might work for you. It really feels like the product of an earlier, less cautious era, but if you think we’ve been making progress as films have become more prudish then this film is not for you.
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