| Drive-Away Dolls | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ethan Coen |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ari Wegner |
| Edited by | Tricia Cooke |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production company | |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 84 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $7.9 million[3][4] |
Drive-Away Dolls (titled onscreen asHenry James' Drive-Away Dykes[5]) is a 2024 Americancrime comedyroad film directed byEthan Coen from a screenplay he co-wrote with his wifeTricia Cooke, who was also the film's editor; the two also produced the film with Robert Graf andWorking Title'sTim Bevan andEric Fellner; it is Coen's first narrative film without his brotherJoel, and his second sole directorial work after the documentaryJerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022). The film is followed by a continuation filmHoney Don't!
Set in 1999, the film starsMargaret Qualley andGeraldine Viswanathan as two lesbian best friends on aroad trip who become involved in a criminal scheme. It co-starsBeanie Feldstein,Colman Domingo,Pedro Pascal,Bill Camp andMatt Damon.Drive-Away Dolls was released in Australia on February 22, 2024, and in the United States byFocus Features the following day. It received mixed reviews from critics.
At a bar inPhiladelphia in 1999, a man named Santos sits in a booth, nervously clutching a briefcase. He exits in a hurry and is followed by the bartender, who murders anddecapitates him in an alley.
Elsewhere in Philadelphia, Jamie and Sukie are lovers whose relationship falls apart due to Jamie's infidelity. After Sukie kicks her out of their apartment, Jamie learns that her friend Marian is planning a trip toTallahassee, Florida, and decides to tag along. They head into a drive-away car service, where someone can transport a car one-way for another client. Due to a misunderstanding, they are given a car that someone else has already booked for a trip to Tallahassee.
Moments later, a trio of criminals—Arliss, Flint, and Chief—come to the shop to pick up the car headed to Tallahassee. They find that Jamie and Marian have taken it by accident, along with unspecified cargo that is part of their illegal dealings.
While Marian wants to go straight to Tallahassee, Jamie constantly tries to convince Marian to loosen up by taking detours and trying to havecasual sex atlesbian bars along the way. Marian prefers to readHenry James'The Europeans but slowly comes out of her shell due to Jamie's prodding.
When the pair finally enter Florida, their car gets aflat tire. They open the trunk and find the briefcase Santos was holding and a basket containing Santos' preserved head.
Jamie and Marian are followed by Arliss and Flint, who are led on awild goose chase by asoccer team who had invited Jamie and Marian to a party. When Jamie and Marian check into a hotel using Jamie's credit card, the mob is tipped off to their location. Jamie convinces Marian that she needs to have a positive sexual experience to enjoy life more, and they have sex.
The next morning, Arliss, Flint, and Chief arrive in Tallahassee, while Jamie decides to use the contents of Santos' briefcase: a collection ofdildos that were created from plaster casts of men's erect penises. Marian is shocked, but Jamie insists that she just wants the sexual release that Marian had the night before.
Immediately after Jamieclimaxes, Arliss and Flint burst into their room, retrieve Santos' head and the briefcase, and abduct the women at gunpoint. The women are tied to chairs in the backroom at adog racing track. Chief arrives to meet them all and explains that the sex toys are based on the genitals of powerful public figures, including one that was molded from Senator Channel's penis.
Channel is fearful that his reputation will be ruined if anyone learns of the dildo, which Jamie had used and left behind in the hotel room. After the gangsters have an argument that leads to Flint shooting the other two dead and running away, Jamie and Marian escape. They decide toblackmail Channel.
Sukie has also been en route to Tallahassee in her capacity as a police officer after Jamie tipped her off. Jamie and Marian meet Channel at a lesbian bar and give him the dildo in exchange for one million dollars. Sukie intercepts them as they exit, and Channel turns back around to try and kill the women. Sukie shoots him. Channel survives, but his reputation is ruined when newspapers begin publishing articles about his criminal connections and the dildo collection.
The next day, Jamie and Marian meet with Marian's aunt at their hotel. Jamie casually mentions that she and Marian plan to go toMassachusetts, as same-sex marriage is legal there. As the trio drive away, abellhop races to give them a bag that they have left behind, which contains two plaster casts Jamie had made of the dildo modeled after Channel's penis.
Ethan Coen and his wife,Tricia Cooke, first pitched the idea for the film to their friendAllison Anders during a Christmas vacation in San Francisco in the early 2000s. The film was announced in January 2007 under the titleDrive-Away Dykes, with Anders attached to direct.Selma Blair,Holly Hunter,Christina Applegate, andChloë Sevigny were among those attached to star at various points during pre-production.[7] In April 2022, reports said Coen would be directing the film, which was now being described as an untitled "lesbian road trip project".[8] It was produced by Coen, Cooke, Robert Graf, andWorking Title principalsTim Bevan andEric Fellner.[9] In August 2022,Margaret Qualley andGeraldine Viswanathan joined the cast.[10] In September,Beanie Feldstein was added to the cast.[11] In April 2023, the title was revealed to beDrive-Away Dolls, withPedro Pascal,Colman Domingo,Bill Camp andMatt Damon added to the cast.[12] The film had anegative pickup cost of $20 million.[13]
Drive-Away Dolls is the debut of Coen as a solo director (excluding the 2022 documentaryJerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind), without the collaboration of his brother,Joel. It is also his first narrative film sinceThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018). Coen took a break from film-making in 2018 because he had grown bored with the process of creating a film. He explained this decision to theAssociated Press by saying:
After 30 years, not that it's no fun, but it's more of a job than it had been. Joel kind of felt the same way but not to the extent that I did. It's an inevitable by-product of aging. And the last two movies we made, me and Joel together, were really difficult in terms of production. I mean, really difficult. So if you don't have to do it, you go at a certain point: Why am I doing this?[14]
Coen and Cooke decided to makeDrive-Away Dolls because theCOVID-19 pandemic gave them the time to work on it.[14] Coen has described Cooke as "in every way except name the co-director of the movie".[15] He has stated that the only reason why Cooke is not credited as a co-director is because she is not a member of theDirectors Guild of America.[16]
Since the project's initial announcement, Coen has described the tone ofDrive-Away Dolls as being similar to the early 1970sexploitation romance films he saw as a teenager.[7] Cooke has citedFaster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,Bad Girls Go to Hell,Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,Go Fish,But I'm a Cheerleader, and the works ofJohn Waters as reference points for the film.[15][17]
Tiffany Plastercaster,Miley Cyrus's character, was based on the real-life artistCynthia Plaster Caster.[6]
Principal photography began by August 2022 inPittsburgh,[18] withAri Wegner serving as cinematographer.[19] Production took place inHopewell Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania and in Lawrence,Washington County, Pennsylvania, in October 2022.[20]
Drive-Away Dolls was originally scheduled to be released on September 22, 2023,[1] but was delayed due to the2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[21]
The film was released in Australia on February 22, 2024,[22] followed by a release in the United States byFocus Features the next day.[21] It was released in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2024.[23]
In the United States and Canada,Drive-Away Dolls was released alongsideDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Hashira Training andOrdinary Angels, and was projected to gross around $4 million from 2,261 theaters in its opening weekend.[24] It ended up debuting to $2.4 million, finishing in eighth.[25][26]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 63% of 247 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "The appealing odd-couple chemistry between Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan helpsDrive-Away Dolls power past its overly familiar screenplay and erratic execution."[27]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[28] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled byPostTrak gave it a 66% overall positive score.[25]
In a negative review, Barry Hertz ofThe Globe and Mail wrote, "There is a fine line between endearing, breezy silliness and second-hand embarrassment, a border that the undercooked film crosses back and forth over and over again until there's no space left for your eyes to roll."[29]
Tomris Laffly ofRogerEbert.com gave the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote, "Sometimes, there is the slightest air of obviousness inDrive-Away Dolls, which can't avoid inevitable comparisons to older (and better) idiosyncratic crime capers, many of them by the Coens themselves. But that doesn't lessen the nostalgic bliss the film stirs in one with all its foul-mouthed, naughty glory; not when the fun had by everyone involved in the project is so palpable on the screen. In that, there is a disarmingwhat the hell, why not quality to Cooke and Coen's writing, with the carefree words and actions of Jamie and Marian jovially bouncing off the page and landing on the viewers' eyes and ears with the same jubilant vigor."[30]
