Drive-Away Dolls

With the riotous Drive-Away Dolls, co-writer/director Ethan Coen firmly establishes himself as the quirkier sibling.

While brother Joel’s first solo directorial effort was the superb but somber The Tragedy of Macbeth, Ethan follows up the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind with this hilarious, raunchy, yet ultimately touching 1999-set lesbian road-trip comedy, whose particular sensibilities suggest he also steered the comparably silly tone of Burn After Reading and Hail, Caesar!

Penned with his wife Tricia Cooke — a Coen Brother collaborator in the editing department, dating back to The Big Lebowski — this inspired case of mistaken identity finds free-spirited Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and her tightly-wound friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan, Bad Education) en route from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in a car with something that, well, doesn’t belong to them.

Pursued by mismatched goons Arliss (Joey Slotnick, Twister) and Flint (C.J. Wilson, Manchester by the Sea), who consistently disappoint their boss The Chief (a hilariously exasperated Colman Domingo), the young women come of age on the Dixie highways as Jamie’s motor-mouthed, libido-centric ways land them in one kooky situation after another, amplified by Qualley doing something close to an exaggerated, Texas-infused riff on her mom Andie MacDowell’s Southern accent.

As Jamie’s buttoned-up foil, Viswanathan’s grounded yet sheltered Marian keeps Drive-Away Dolls from completely flying off the rails, and flashbacks to her sexual awakening as a tween form the backbone of the film’s heartfelt ambitions. Other, far trippier (and downright Lebowski-esque) tangents featuring an uncredited Miley Cyrus further amplify the film’s intrigue and build to a satisfying, classic Coen payoff.

Earning quality laughs from wall-mounted dildos to the simple charms of a women’s soccer team making out to the tune of Linda Ronstadt, the film excels with the chemistry-rich Qualley and Viswanathan at the wheel and gets significant mileage from a rich supporting cast that includes Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Beanie Feldstein, and the Cameo King himself, Matt Damon.

Nearly as strong apart as they are together, Joel and Ethan have proven more than capable of seeing their individual visions through and it’s a pleasure to experience their distinct cinematic visions. While the Coens are allegedly reuniting, purportedly for a horror film, the team of Ethan and Cooke have referred to Drive-Away Dolls as the first installment in a trilogy of queer B-movies — and those remaining two features can’t arrive soon enough.

Grade: A-minus. Rated R. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre.

(Photo: Wilson Webb / Working Title / Focus Features)