“Drive-Away Dolls” (2024)
Say it ain’t so, Joe. Say it ain’t so.
The above sub-title has been appropriated from an apocryphal story (which I rather hope is as true as I’ve always believed it to be) and which is used so brilliantly in the 1998 film “Eight Men Out” (directed by John Sayles) and a young boy’s appeal to “Shoeless” Joe Jackson as he left court, and that he hadn’t conspired with his Chicago White Sox teammates to “throw” or deliberately lose the 1919 World Series.
“Say it ain’t so, Joe”.
Even a cursory glance at the opus blog article linked immediately at the end of this paragraph will almost certainly lead you to believe that I’m rather obsessed with the films of the Coen Brothers and whilst this isn’t strictly a film from the brothers plural, I’m still exceedingly disappointed in the lesbian road trip and carefree life exploration on the cusp of the Millennium directed here by Ethan Coen. Luckily for all concerned my disappointment matters not a jot in this hill of cinematic beans and I guess I wasn’t the demographic audience for the film either but a film I wanted to like and love as I excitedly settled down to watch recently, but which I enjoyed yet tired of way before its short 84 minute running time. I laughed once (and a huge snorting laugh it was too) but I soon tired once more of the lame running gag that dragged this initial laugh out of me and with the combination of sliding screens, the beautiful use of “Blue Bayou” and the numerous trippy, acid-like interludes acting as segues between scenes, there’s a film here leaning on cinematic nods and themes of a revered past and packaged together in a very real cinematic “style”. I just can’t define exactly what these are or why, and found the entire film a disappointing mess.
"The World according to the Coen Brothers"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" Vol.1
If you were to cast another cursory glance and this time at any of my 300+ articles containing well over 600 individual spoiler free film reviews published here, you’d struggle to find a scathing review of a bad film.
So here are your stars of the show instead:
With the Millennium year of 2000 on the horizon, “Marian” (Geraldine Viswanathan) is a caged bird in a world of freedom all around her. Uptight and unsure of herself she’s joined on a “drive away” trip across America with her polar societal opposite in “Jamie” (Margaret Qualley) and rather than taking a straight shot on their road trip to Tallahassee Jamie suggests the two friends take a more circuitous route in search of love and sex and all aboard a “sleigh ride to hell”. Marian is escaping the stifled walled confinement of the office. Jamie is running away from a lover she cheated on and from a wall mounted dildo.
But what’s in the boot of the car?
There’s something else besides the “Fargo” briefcase in the back of the car, and a car destined originally for two hoodlums eerily reminiscent of the characters inhabited by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare in the 1996 Coen Brothers classic. I’d argue the owner of the drive-away car hire operation “Curlie” (Bill Camp) becomes embroiled in this upside down story in much the same way as the Gas Station Owner does in the brothers 2007 masterpiece “No Country For Old Men”. No coin toss this time, but someone has someone else’s briefcase again.
And they want it back.
There’s an interesting short film here. I just tired of the longer version presented.
Obviously, Ethan needs Joel....