Drive-Away Dolls (2024) Film Review

Drive-Away Dolls is directed by Ethan Coen which by himself and not with his brother Joel Coen he previously directed the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind (2022). 

Drive-Away Dolls is a very bizarre one, it has a lot of what make the Coen brothers films so great but also feels like it’s in it’s own world. I can easily see why this one is quite divisive however I came out of this one quite liking it, but will say there are parts of it that didn’t quite work for me.

The best part of the film hands down is the cast, everyone here turns in absolutely bizarre and quite energetic performances that I can’t help but love. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan have this natural chemistry almost immediately at the film’s beginning moments, the comedic timing between the two is excellent, they bounce off of each other incredibly well and their overall performances range from being goofy (in a good way) to being highly energetic and genuinely hilarious. The rest of the cast like I said earlier are just as great, Colman Domingo in particular who although doesn’t get a lot of screentime is still quite solid and actually delivers quite a few laughs throughout the film. 

Drive-Away Dolls goes for this bizarre and energetic feel which for the most part works quite well, it’s a very fast paced film that’s only 84 minutes long and manages to wrap the story up in a fair amount of time. That being said I do think choices such as the screen transitions that look like something out of Microsoft Word are a bit too much. I get that the joke is that it’s supposed to be bad and you can absolutely make the argument that it fits the film, however I do think the joke runs dry after the first time or two it’s used. Granted this isn’t really something that completely ruins the film (far from it) as the strong performances and solid humor overshadow it, it’s just something worth pointing out. 

The character’s personalities are quite entertaining, you have a lot of characters who are so out there and can go completely insane in a matter of minutes that it actually fits the world Ethan Coen and Tricia Coen wrote and want the viewer to explore. Granted outside of Jamie (played by Margaret Qualley) and Marian (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) we don’t get the most character writing however I do think the fact the viewer doesn’t know too much about the other characters outside of the leads actually benefits the film’s whole bizarre nature.

Overall Drive-Away Dolls is bizarre and quite a lot of fun, as I said before it’s definitely not for everyone. But I think it really works as a breezy and entertaining comedy.

Drive-Away Dolls is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+