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User Reviews for: Drive-Away Dolls

ben.teves
4/10  2 months ago
There are a lot of surprises packed into Drive-Away Dolls. An 80-minute runtime is one of the first (and one of the only welcome), and in that brevity comes a dense slew of inexplicable choices in direction, writing, and casting.

After a pseudo-noir opening sequence involving a botched handoff and a beat up old brown car, we meet Jamie and Marian: two lesbians in 1999 Philadelphia. Jamie (a raunchy party gal played by Margaret Qualley) and Marian (uptight and repressed, played by Geraldine Viswanathan) have been friends for years. When they both come to the conclusion that their lives are not satisfactory, a roadtrip to Tallahassee, Florida becomes their solution. They pick up a drive-away car to use for the trip (a vehicle that someone needs transported, which you can drive for free if you happen to also be heading in the same direction); of course, it’s the same beat up old brown car we saw in the opening, containing some contraband goods. The girls, oblivious to their cargo and the nefarious men pursuing them, drive towards Florida and towards personal and sexual reckoning.

If that sounds generic on paper, it’s because it reads as generic on screen. The queer aspect of this movie is doing so much of the heavy lifting that someone should be spotting it. Without that overlay, it’s a typical raunchy rom-com, with a dash of crime and some light political commentary (which is really too afraid to say much of anything). What’s bizarre is the tendency to seem shy about the sexuality. This movie is raunchy, make no mistake — but in many cutaways (amid other wildly off-the-mark scene transitions) there is a sense of embarrassment about showing or doing too much.

Broadly speaking, that comment can apply to most aspects of the film. With a script that wants to be bonkers, the direction and pacing are oddly laid-back; the presentation of the material is at odds with the material itself. For each moment that reaches an effectively high level of hilarious camp — and there are a few, I give credit where it is due — there’s a strange tangent into reflective dreamlike reveries or completely inexplicable and drawn-out transition sequences heaping on 70’s drug trip pastiche (an odd choice for a film taking place in 1999).

For a movie that feels like it was made for a streaming debut (and one without much fanfare, at that) there are a surprising number of recognizable faces. Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo, Matt Damon, and even Miley Cyrus appear here — and all are wasted with either little screen time or pointless, constrained material. Beanie Feldstein, as an angry ex, makes a meal out of every scene she gets, chewing up both the scenery and her scene partners. Unfortunately for the entire production, our two leading ladies (Qualley and Viswanathan) have virtually no chemistry. Qualley is a cute little sex-pistol doing her best with a committed southern drawl, while Viswanathan, on the other hand, presents an obstinate performance that refuses to either let the audience in or bring much out. The combination of the two results in a fizzle rather than a bang, and when they inevitably end up beneath the sheets, the character swings to get them there are enormous.

There’s no rush to catch these drive-aways. They’ll pull into a streaming service soon; and even then, you may want to give them a parking violation.
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JHenryS
7/10  3 months ago
Performances: :star::star::star::star::star:
Cinematography: :star::star::star:1/2
Script: :star::star::star:
Music: :star::star:
Editing: :star:1/2

Not bad for the lesser Coen's (sorry Ethan) first solo outing. It's easy to see, looking back, which elements of the '04-'18 Coen era were more distinctly Ethan's, or at least, less distinctly Joel's. It's therefore difficult to discern whether Dolls is set in the late 90's on accident, or because that aesthetic makes up 100% of Ethan's comfort zone. I only wish it were a little longer; it felt like the entire third act got dropped on the cutting room floor by a particularly clumsy intern. It did set me on a path researching the real-life Cynthia Plaster Caster, though

I only ranked the music so low because Carter Burwell is credited as writing the score (his unique musical style shines through during the opening scene), but most of the soundtrack is licensed music. In a vacuum, there's nothing wrong with licensed music, BUT YOU'VE GOT CARTER MOTHERF**KING BURWELL SITTING IN THE CORNER WITH HIS THUMB UP HIS @$$, PUT HIS OSCAR-NOMINATED TALENTS TO USE FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!

P.S. Moments before I bought my tickets to see this, my co-worker told me they had walked out on the film the night before. I thought they were trying to tell me it was a bad movie. They weren't, and it isn't. I can only attempt to glean that they walked out for the same reason certain folks might have walked out of Poor Things. And trust me, if you made it through Poor Things, you can definitely make it though this. iykyk
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RG9400
4/10  3 months ago
It pains me to give this movie a negative review, but ultimately, Drive Away Dolls feels like a very disposable movie that isn't even aiming to be more than a bit of fluff. In doing so, it wastes some excellent talent and potential. The movie's storyline, at a high level, follows an odd pair buddy road trip style movie, and both Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan are solid in their roles. The problem is that the movie is trying to be very lowbrow, and a lot of the jokes end up feeling extremely juvenile to a degree where the movie hardly elicited any laughs at all in my full theater. It's as if they get the setup teed up perfectly, but completely fall flat when it comes to the punch lines. You get some of the zany and whimsical characters you'd expect from a Coen movie, and the two men chasing the main characters were a particular highlight. Colman Domingo and Beanie Feldstein are completely wasted. The movie utilizes some transitions that I found fairly clever, and also some transitions that annoyed me a ton. There are some cool ways the movie stitches together movement from one frame to the next. It also devolves into some extremely unnecessary psychedelic sequences at times which didn't make any sense to me as the movie isn't revolving around drugs in any way. These sequences can last for a decent chunk of time which adds up, and for a movie that is only 80 minutes long, that completely superfluous padding feels even more out of place. Maybe this movie was made for some people who just wanted to get high and waste 80 minutes, but then it should have been more upfront about that in its marketing and skipped the theatrical release. Regardless, I feel like had Ethan Coen actually tried to finish this movie properly, he could have made something far better than this half-baked juvenile attempt that wasted such good talent.
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r96sk
/10  2 months ago
'Drive-Away Dolls' is a fairly fun time.

It's a pretty straightforward movie, one that moves along at a decent pace and tells its story well enough. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan give good performances, Qualley overacts a bit sometimes but as the film progressed I enjoyed her more and more. The editing is something I feel similarly about, some bits aren't the best imo.

All in all, it works. The relatively short run time is a big help, admittedly.
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CinemaSerf
/10  2 months ago
"Jamie" (Margaret Qualley) embarks on a road trip with her rather het-up friend "Marian" (Geraldine Viswanathan) to Tallahassee. A roadside puncture causes them to explore the boot for the spare tyre and let's just say what they find isn't quite the same thing - though maybe just as rubbery. Meantime, Colman Domingo and his two henchmen are quickly hot on their trail seeking that very thing. A few vaguely comedic escapades now ensue as the two women start to realise their relationship could be more than that of just friends and that there could well be an opportunity to make a few quid from their newly found treasure. Joey Slotnick and CJ Wilson try their best as the goons but otherwise this is a thinly stretched comedy that relies far too much on the supposed shocks or comedy from it's lesbian theme and nowhere near enough on any degree of originality with the script. It vacillates between the dull and crass, and neither Domingo nor Matt Damon make anything like enough of a contribution to make much difference to the well travelled path the story takes. If you're at all discerning about what makes you laugh then this won't be for you, sorry.
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