DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS, dir. Ethan Coen

Not to have multiple Coen threads at once, but I did see Drive-Away Dolls last night and enjoyed it more than I'd expected. In the way that The Holdovers is a 1971 movie as 1971 in the present (and using only camera techniques/etc from that time), this one is a 1999 movie all around, though it's more explicit now than it would have been then.

Felt like a more successful Bottoms in terms of young-queer-and-free women, more consistent in tone and just funnier. As with Bottoms, ideal probably to see it in a packed college auditorium.

I haven't seen it, but for some reason just the trailer brings to mind Soderbergh's "Logan Lucky," which I have also not seen. Just this kinda throwback slick indie vibe.

logan lucky is fantastic

I've set aside Monday afternoon for it. Margaret Qualley seems to really vary her roles.

i like her a lot in everything I've seen her in

Ditto, starting with The Leftovers and Tarantino's Manson film. She was even good in the nothing-special Salinger film from a couple of years ago.

shes also really good in the claire denis movie stars at noon

She was even good in the nothing-special Salinger film

I saw that. I agree on both counts.

She was good in the "Maid" series. Basically a cameo in "Poor Things," I had to double check it was her. She and Riley Keough are both strong up and comers.

^^^
Two of the younger actresses I look forward to seeing in things

In this one Qualley has to pull off a thick regional accent, not unlike Fargo and Raising Arizona, and does fine with it.

Beanie Feldstein is my favorite in the movie. Had only seen her in Booksmart (loved her in that).

I can't think of any young actors I like, but there are a ton of really talented actresses. Qualley, Keough, Pugh, Kaitlyn Dever, Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, and of course Julia Garner. Those are off the top of my head.

Lucas Hedges is 27, if that's young enough, but he seems to have receded the last couple of years (or he's making superhero movies outside my interests).

{I see he was in Let Them All Talk, which I haven't seen.)

Yeah, what happened to that guy?

Add Saoirse Ronan to my list, she's great in everything. Including a couple of movies with Lucas Hedges.

Hedges is in the upcoming Shirley Chisholm biopic.

I find MQ the least of this new generation tho i thought she was p good in OUATIH bc she just has to exist at that level where the viewer can project onto her. FP and SR seem to be undefeated in terms of their career choices. I am interested in this movie tho!

I did see Drive-Away Dolls last night and enjoyed it more than I'd expected.

Exactly where I'm at! And while I understand the Qualley praise (and agree, she's having a blast playing this character), Geraldine Viswanathan deserves some shine too playing the Felix to Qualley's Oscar, if you will. Perfect deadpan-without-the-character-realizing-it. Whole cast is pretty fun, really!

Felt like a more successful Bottoms in terms of young-queer-and-free women, more consistent in tone and just funnier.

Ah, I loved Bottoms for its chaos factor and on balance gave me more laughs than this but this gave me plenty. And I love the fact that both of them came in under an hour and a half.

Just bringing this over from the other thread:

Anyway, having seen Drive-Away Dolls, a fun fillip. (84 minutes! I was well inclined for that alone!) My sis and her crew of friends will absolutely love the shit out of it and I told her as much.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, February 24, 2024 5:27 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

(Whoops, didn't see that Ned posted here already! I would be a chaotic admin.)

would add kathryn newton to that list of actresses having seen lisa frankenstein

this movie was a riot btw

kinda hated this (and found margaret qualley nearly unbearable) but i think i’m kinda just over the whole coen aesthetic/approach to filmmaking generally

would add kathryn newton to that list of actresses having seen _lisa frankenstein_

The aesthetic/approach does cover a lot of ground, one of the interesting things in some reviews of this is people placing this and Joel Coen's Macbeth at opposite ends of their filmographies, cold analytical control vs something messier and "more interested in the characters" (not that this is either a good match for most of their films or a criticism I entirely care about, but it is undeniably a thing that people say about them)

on the "interesting actresses", up towards the Riley Keough end of things is Ritu Arya - but also this reminded me of the Trivia note on IMDb's entry for Solo: A Star Wars Story:

Dave Franco, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Miles Teller, Nick Robinson, Leo Howard, Tony Oller, Chandler Riggs, Hunter Parrish, Rami Malek, Landon Liboiron, Ed Westwick, Tom Felton, Ben Key, Eddy Westcott, Joshua Sasse, Logan Lerman, Ansel Elgort, Jack Reynor, Colton Haynes, Max Thieriot, Scott Eastwood, Chris Pratt, Emory Cohen, Alden Ehrenreich, Taron Egerton, Jack O'Connell, and Blake Jenner screentested for the young Han Solo.

Like, shit, maybe we did get the best one (whose big break was a Coen Brothers film!)

I loved this. Best cienematic use of Henry James.

kinda hated this (and found margaret qualley nearly unbearable) but i think i’m kinda just over the whole coen aesthetic/approach to filmmaking generally

Ditto, ditto, and I don't know if I am, because I'm not sure that this is an example of that. The humour in Fargo and No Country and Miller's Crossing is played off against something inexorably grim and tense. This felt more like one of those bad Tarantino imitations from the late '90s, with an update for 2024.

way more wit and visual imagination in this than in a ‘00s tarantino clone imo

i do not blame ppl for rejecting this tho bc it certainly is zany

also way more girls kissing to “blue bayou”

I laughed at the newspaper headline near the end ("I can explain..."). That was it. I was glad one of the two guys in pursuit was killed--I'd hate to think someone would get the bright idea to spin them off into their own film.

will anyone save curlie????

clemenza, this isn't anything tonally like recent Coen brothers. It's as if Ethan C. said, "What if I channeled Zola to make my own Thelma and Louise but only 84 minutes?"

oh wait you saw it never mind

This was alright.

I thought Qualley’s accent was ridiculous actually.

It sounds like gummy-yummy Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs.