Drive-Away Dolls will be divisive due to its sexually explicit nature, and people will have opinions over what’s being stored in that silver briefcase. It’s a victim of some odd editing and transitional choices that feel rather juvenile at times, but nothing that takes away from the overall enjoyment of the film. It has all the makings of a cult classic, and I, for one, will be watching it again. 

This review contains spoilers for the film Drive-Away Dolls.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A man walks into a bar. The man is timid and smartly dressed, and visibly nervous. He grasps a silver briefcase with both hands; hugging it tightly as if it were filled with solid gold. A menacing-looking waiter provides the ornery character (played by Pedro Pascal) with the check, but this character is far from home free. A gnarly alleyway fight involving corkscrews ensues, and poor, poor Pedro loses his head. Literally.

It’s not the start of some strange joke format – this happens in the first handful of minutes of Drive-Away Dolls. Before you come for me, these aren’t spoilers. Everything I just stated was revealed in previews for the film (which was initially slated for a September 2023 release but got pushed back due to the WGA/SAG strike.) As a die-hard Pascal fangirl his presence was enough to get me in the theater, but it was the charming two leads that kept me grinning in my seat.

Drive-Away Dolls is a solo effort by Ethan Coen (aka one half of the famous Coen Brothers) which packs a wild and raunchy punch in its short 84-minute runtime. The film stars Margaret Qualley (a nepo baby out for my own heart) and Geraldine Viswanathan, an Australian actress with whom I am mostly unfamiliar, but boy did I love her in this role. While admittedly no The Big Lebowski, the rough-around-the-edges road trip comedy has everything. Sex. Murder. Pedro Pascal’s severed head chilling on ice. And in case you haven’t heard by now – lots and lots of dildos.

Allow me to set the stage: It’s 1999, and two gal pals named Jamie and Marian are taking an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee. The friends couldn’t be more different from one another; Marian being a quiet, conservatively dressed office worker and Jamie a hypersexual loudmouth with a questionably strong southern accent. The girls rent a car, rather, a drive-away (which I learned from this movie is a rental car you only drive one-way) and a disagreeable salesman named Curlie hands over the keys. After providing Curlie with a reference (Jamie’s mad-as-hell ex-girlfriend who just caught Jamie cheating, played by a criminally underused Beanie Feldstein) the pair hit the road.  

Along the multi-state trek the two women make several stops along the way, with Jamie collecting hookups at every turn and Marian burying her nose in a book. There’s a lot of girl-on-girl hook-ups, something which made my LGBTQ-ally happy. But as over-the-top sexual as it is, the short runtime makes it more palatable than if it were a James Cameron-length epic undertaking.  

What would be a run-of-the-mill road trip comedy has a criminal twist, because the girls unknowingly have a target on their backs. In the trunk of their beat-up rental is that same silver briefcase we saw in Pascal’s clutches in the opening scene, along with an insanely realistic model of his head stored neatly in a hat box – a plot point which was, weirdly enough, also revealed in trailers.

While rude and raunchy, (and boy, is it ever) the budding relationship between the two leads is incredibly sweet, and their on-screen chemistry electric. Maybe I went into the movie wearing rose-colored glasses, but not even Qualley’s odd, over-the-top southern accent was a bother to me. Rather, I thought it fit her cartoonish character and helped highlight the difference between her character and bookish Marian.

For her part, Viswanathan more than holds her own, and her deadpan delivery and stone-faced reactions to Qualley’s absurdities had me quietly giggling. She’s a huge talent, and I cannot wait to see more of her. Setting the film in 1999 seemed arbitrary, at first – but upon further reflection modern technologies such smartphones would have negated the core conflicts of the movie: those centering around the girls having no idea that they’re the subject of a manhunt by two shady dudes. It was easy to hop in a car in 1999 and stay under the radar and blissfully unaware. Now, not so much.

Drive-Away Dolls will be divisive due to its sexually explicit nature, and people will have opinions over what’s being stored in that silver briefcase. It’s a victim of some odd editing and transitional choices that feel rather juvenile at times, but nothing that takes away from the overall enjoyment of the film. It has all the makings of a cult classic, and I, for one, will be watching it again. 

Grade: B

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Where to Watch: In Theaters

Cassie Hager
she/her @TheMovieMermaid
Fur mom and future MILF with a pop culture addiction. Highly addicted to coffee, yoga, and taking trips to the U.K.
Favorite Film: Jurassic Park
Sign: Gemini