'Drive-Away Dolls' Keeps Dykes In the Sex Comedy Conversation
Also...Matt Damon wtf are you doing here?!
*all photos courtesy of Focus Features
I’ve never been on a road trip, but I have always wanted to go on one even before I finally got my license on the 3rd-4th try—my parents and I cannot agree on the number. The closest I’ve come is going to Cedar Pointe on a church trip where I am POSITIVE at least 2 other folks on that bus were in the closet right along with me. The trips to the Ohio theme park were not nearly as adventurous as the Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke road trip comedy, Drive Away Dolls formerly known as Drive Away Dykes.
The year is 1999 and Jamie (Margaret Qualley, Fosse/Verdon, Maid)—who has an incredibly thick southern accent and doesn’t believe in sleeves and buttons—is fresh off yet another breakup, this time with her cop ex Sukie (THEE Beanie Feldstein) who hates dogs and framed wall dildos. Her homie Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan, Blockers, Miracle Workers) hasn’t had sex with a woman in years, lives in business casual wear, and needs to simply loosen up.
Marian has a road trip planned to go to Tallahassee, Florida, and relax by looking at birds and visiting her aunt, and because Jamie is messy, horny, and kinda lonely—she invites herself along. She wants to turn it into a lesbian adventure where they stop at dyke bars and turn every girl in them into their personal slip and slides. Marian reluctantly agrees, they rent a drive-away car (where you pick up a car and drive it to its final destination) and set out on their way. BUT OF COURSE, SHENANIGANS ENSUE! Things take a wild turn when they mistakenly end up with a car meant for someone else, stumbling upon a mysterious steel briefcase during a tire change.
Then comes the zany moments. We follow the girls on their trip while they pick up girls in dyke bars, make out in basements with sporty lesbians, and also navigate their friendship as it evolves into something more. While we follow the girls, the rightful owners of the briefcase follow them. Colman Domingo plays The Chief and again, SHENANIGANS ENSUE.
The movie is—fine and fun. It is mostly just an homage to the lesbian culture of the '90s, I assume it was filled with road trips and a plethora of mullet-sporting white women. That is owed to one of its writers, Tricia Cooke, who has been Ethan Coen's partner for over two decades and identifies as queer. The film has been in development for a little over 15 years and takes inspiration from films in the queer cinematic canon like But I'm A Cheerleader and Go Fish.
Drive Away Dolls came to be because Coen and Cooke wanted to create something playful and sexual (“Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking”) and also as a way to stay connected. While making the film they also wondered if folks would take it seriously or even get it at all. Well I saw it, I got it, and I take it seriously in the sense that I love having another addition to the queer cinematic landscape, but also just embrace that it’s simply another raunchy sex comedy. It’s important to dissect the deeper meaning in and of queer films, yes, but it’s equally important to just enjoy them.
While there are two big dollops of diversity in the film, one in Viswanathan being a lead and the other in Colman Domingo’s presence, its overall caucacity is glaring. Given its Coen Brothers association, the lack of racial depth isn’t entirely surprising. It’s also not unexpected because I feel like most Gen X white lesbians (Cooke included) had very insular friendship circles during their adolescence and adulthood, and Blackness just wasn’t very present. This is actually reflected in the film, if you take a look at the sporty basement dykes, only one of them is Black. Here’s the thing, I’m fine with not having anyone Coen-related explore Blackness (not that they would anyway,) especially not Black queerness.
This movie is giving very “I’m gonna just stay in my lane” energy and I respect it. Just because a director or writer is a big name, does not mean that big name should be the one to explore communities outside their own in their films. Would it be nice if they opted to truly do the work—meaning creating a team that reflects those communities, doing their research intensely, taking into account the audience that will be attending said film—and so much more? Yeah. But not everyone is going to do that and even if so, they will never make everyone happy. It would be far better if Black queer folk were given Coen dollars to make movies on our own, but who is willing to do that? Perhaps it could be the Coens who go into their pockets to finance those stories but I’m not sure I see that happening in a large way anytime soon.
Drive Away Dolls has witty writing, is very gay, and a lot of leseabeands of a certain type will be drawn in simply because of Qualley’s dykey depiction. Especially because she looks like a Jodie Foster x Kristen Stewart combination plate—with an ice-cold Kate Moennig on the side. A big takeaway though is the sex scenes, they are just the right amount of vulgar, sweet, and weird. It’s fly to know that lesbians aren’t being left out of the sex comedy conversation anymore. The success of Bottoms is hopefully inspiring filmmakers and more to say goodbye to yearny handholding and hello to more fucking dildos on the wall.
Sans the unnecessary nod to racial profiling at the hands of the police, I dug the movie and I’m sure folks are going to as well. Dykes and Coen Bros are two very big audiences. Coen Bros will watch anything related to the brothers so they can look cool on Letterboxd, and dykes are still starving for representation. So putting those two audiences together, the chances for a box office hit are very high and the chances of Drive Away Dolls becoming a cult classic in about 20 years are even higher.
Extras:
Bring back makeout parties
Florida lesbians and I are largely not friends…specifically those who are in the Tampa Bay area
Mullets simply belong to white dykes, let them have their things
Go Fish was not a great movie. It was just made during a dyke film desert so y’all think it’s great. It is okay to look back at queer cinema and be grateful some films exist and still be able to critique them
Matt Damon holding a briefcase in a dyke bar means so much to me
The Nepo baby connections were fun to put together in this film
Qualley is the daughter of Andie MacDowell. Her first movie was Palo Alto which was written and directed by Gia Coppola, granddaughter of Francis Ford and step-daughter of Gordon Getty who is the son of J. Paul Getty.
The movie also starred Emma Roberts, niece of Julia. Jack Kilmer, son of Val. Nat Wolff, son of Michael, and Keegan Allen, son of Phillip.
Thank you so much for reading Hi Shelli! As always, all reviews are in front of the paywall but if you like what you read I hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber <3
Don't forget Nepo Baby Beanie Feldstein, whose father bought her a VERY poorly reviewed and shortlived Broadway role!