‘Drive-Away Dolls’ trailer: Love is a sleigh ride to hell in Ethan Coen’s solo directorial effort [Watch]

Christopher Rosen
·5 min read
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Ethan Coen’s first narrative feature film as a solo director looks an awful lot like some of the beloved comedic collaborations Coen made with his brother, Joel Coen, during their decades-long career together – particularly “Raising Arizona” and “Fargo.” On Friday, Focus Features released the first trailer for “Drive-Away Dolls,” the new comedy thriller Ethan Coen directed by himself and also co-wrote and produced with his wife, Tricia Cooke. 

A sample of some of the comedy on display in the feature, which focuses on two young women (Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan) who run afoul of a bunch of inept criminals – including one shady figure played by Matt Damon:

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Damon’s character: “Who are you?”

Viswanathan’s Marian: “Democrats.”

It’s funnier in the trailer, watch it below.

According to Focus, “Drive-Away Dolls” is a “comedy caper” that “follows Jamie (Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.” Some of the criminals are played by Pedro Pascal and Colman Domingo. Joey Slotnick co-stars as a Steve Buscemi type, at least based on the preview. Other members of the cast include Bill Camp as a potentially doomed auto service worker and Beanie Feldstein as a no-nonsense cop. Qualley, it seems, is doing her best take on Holly Hunter. The whole thing looks like the kind of daffy delight that might have played in cinemas in the late 1990s.

Speaking on a podcast in 2021, the Coen brothers’ longtime collaborator composer Carter Burwell said Ethan Coen just got a little tired of the business and had decided to step away from filmmaking. “Ethan just didn’t want to make movies anymore. Ethan seems very happy doing what he’s doing, and I’m not sure what Joel will do after this,” Burwell said in an interview before the release of “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which was Joel Coen’s first effort as a solo director. “They also have a ton of scripts they’ve written together that are sitting on various shelves. I hope maybe they get back to those. I’ve read some of those, and they are great. We are all at an age where we just don’t know… we could all retire. It’s a wonderfully unpredictable business.”

Last year, however, Ethan Coen said there was “nothing dramatic” about his decision to stop making movies alongside his brother. “You start out when you’re a kid and you want to make a movie. Everything’s enthusiasm and gung-ho, let’s go make a movie. And the first movie is just loads of fun. And then the second movie is loads of fun, almost as much fun as the first. And after 30 years, not that it’s no fun, but it’s more of a job than it had been,” Ethan Coen said to the Associated Press. “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?”

After Cooke suggested the brothers had made “too many Westerns,” Ethan Coen added, “It was just getting a little old and difficult.”

In an interview with Collider published on Friday alongside the trailer’s debut, Ethan Coen and Cooke discussed the difference between this film and something the Coen brothers might have made together.

“The way that I describe it to everyone who’s asked is Ethan and Joel make highbrow movies and we make lowbrow movies,” Cooke said.

The couple described the new film as “filthy fun” with sex and violence liberally sprinkled throughout its brief 83-minute running time (with credits). 

Asked to compare “Drive-Away Dolls” to the Coen brothers’ vast array of acclaimed features, both Ethan Coen and Cooke provided different touchpoints.

“It’s such a weird way to think about it because you send the movie out there, and you let the chips fall where they may. You know what? Here’s an answer, since you’re writing about this movie, I would say to somebody reading this, ‘The Big Lebowski’ or ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’” Ethan Coen said.

“I would say ‘Raising Arizona.’ I would say [‘Drive-Away Dolls’] has more of a kind of wacky, absurd ‘Raising Arizona’ thing,” Cooke added.

“Although, that said, in their resemblance, me and Joel [Coen] couldn’t have made this movie. The main characters are two lesbians, and Trish is queer,” Ethan Coen continued. “It’s inconceivable that me and Joel could have made this movie. It’s whatever weird A/B combination of me and Trish, you know?”

“Drive-Away Dolls” is out in theaters on September 22, the same day Sony is set to release “Dumb Money.” A fall festival bow seems likely.

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