There’s more than a little promise in “Drive-Away Dolls.” But there’s also a lot of shock.
Director Ethan Coen (working without his brother Joel) drops in the kind of references that only Quentin Tarantino could appreciate and, frequently, leaves everyone else agape.
The film seems harmless – two friends decide to go on a road trip to Florida, then encounter gangsters, a severed head, various adult toys and a corrupt senator who had a rendezvous with someone who could derail his political career.
In that mix, we find Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Miley Cyrus and a lot of references to Y2K, which makes sense since it’s set in 1999.
Margaret Qualley, left, and Geraldine Viswanathan star in "Drive-Away Dolls."
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan are the film’s “Thelma and Louise,” willing to charge up a storm on a credit card and keep authorities at bay long enough to enjoy the spoils of a life they don’t have.
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Both are clueless about the car they’re driving (and its contents) until they happen to pop the trunk and discover something only Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta could fully appreciate.
Tossing in more than a little steamy lesbian sex, Coen keeps this out of the realm of most Coen Brothers films and into the frying pan of social discourse.
That Qualley sounds like Reba McEntire only serves to keep the story as canted as some of the scene edits.
Pedro Pascal plays the "collector" in "Drive-Away Dolls."
Viswanathan doesn’t stray too far from past roles but does get a chance to keep Qualley from lapsing into moments from “Raising Arizona.”
The real surprise is how Coen and co-writer Tricia Cooke manage to reference a host of pop culture landmarks and Henry James. “Drive-Away Dolls” is like a master’s thesis just waiting to emerge from a laptop.
While the severed head subplot smacks of ones in several other films, the briefcase contents is something only a music fan from the 1960s and ‘70s could fully appreciate.
It shocks – like many of the sex scenes – but it also gives Cyrus an opportunity to lay claim to playing Cynthia Plaster Caster in a more substantial film.
“Drive-Away Dolls” has its laughs and its street cred. It doesn’t, however, have a purpose beyond shock and awe.
It's a road trip for Geraldine Viswanathan, left, and Margaret Qualley in "Drive-Away Dolls."
Movies in a minute with film critic Bruce Miller
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Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal.
