Director Ethan Coen – collaborating with wife Tricia Cooke instead of brother Joel – delivers a disposable but not entirely unentertaining lesbian-centered crime caper comedy in Drive-Away Dolls.
With its raunchy sex and vivid violence, the film is more an affectionate tribute to hard R drive-in B movies that more resembles something from the mind of Russ Meyer than anything resembling smart, Oscar-y movies like the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men, Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Fargo, Blood Simple etc.
Drive-Away Dolls definitely retains the quirkiness of the Coen brand, but key inspirations this time were Meyers’ Motorpsycho, Bad Girls Go To Hell and even something really good like ’50s noir Kiss Me Deadly, with which it shares some plot details.
But “plot” doesn’t really matter much here. Coen and Cooke throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. If it makes narrative sense, it likely is an accident.
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