Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian 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.
Drive-Away Dolls is a breezy, deliberately campy Coen-adjacent road comedy from Ethan Coen's solo debut. The plot is thin and formulaic — a MacGuffin-driven screwball chase that never builds much tension or surprise — and the ending resolves too neatly to be satisfying. The acting is energetic, with Margaret Qualley throwing herself into the role with gusto, though the ensemble is uneven. Cinematography captures a stylized late-90s aesthetic with some flair but doesn't transcend its B-movie ambitions. Novelty is moderate: the queer female road-trip-meets-crime-comedy combination and its audacious, exuberant tone give it some distinctiveness, but the overall execution feels like a lighter, less disciplined riff on familiar Coen Brothers territory rather than something truly singular.