Drive-Away Dolls Trailer: Ethan Coen's New Solo Film Is A Wacky Screwball Crime Comedy
Killer ensemble cast? Check. Elaborate plot involving a misunderstanding, a road trip, and some inept criminals? Check, check, and check. "Drive-Away Dolls" may be a sole venture for director Ethan Coen, but the first trailer indicates that it has plenty of the hallmarks of a classic Coen brothers movie.
Joel Coen made his solo directing debut with the somber, black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation "The Tragedy of Macbeth," while Ethan first struck out on his own with the A24 documentary feature "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind." The latter Coen brother is now back with "Drive-Away Dolls," which stars Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley as two friends who plan a drive to Tallahassee, but they end up accidentally taking the wrong rental car and finding a mysterious briefcase in the trunk (cue the "Pulp Fiction" homage).
Viswanathan's breakout role was in the 2018 sex comedy "Blockers," while Qualley has been steadily rising through smaller roles in movies like "The Nice Guys" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and is also set to appear in Yorgos Lanthimos' next darkly comic surrealist film, "Poor Things." The cast of "Drive-Away Dolls" also includes dad-across-the-multiverse Pedro Pascal, serial scene-stealer Colman Domingo, beloved character actor Bill Camp, "Booksmart" comic actress Beanie Feldstein, and some guy named Matt Damon. Check out the trailer below.
Watch the Drive-Away Dolls trailer
There are definite shades of "The Big Lebowski" and "Burn After Reading" in this screwball comedy story of ordinary people getting entangled in criminal activity. "Drive-Away Dolls" was co-written, co-edited, and co-produced by Ethan Coen with his wife, Tricia Cooke, who first worked with the brothers on "Miller's Crossing" and has since co-edited several of their movies, including "Big Lebowski" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
With a wide theatrical release set for the fall, "Drive-Away Dolls" is a welcome dose of original storytelling amid the usual sequel/franchise-dominated slate. It's also Ethan Coen's directorial debut in the realm of narrative fiction, so it will be interesting to see how his style differs from the Coen brothers' collaborative works. Footage from "Drive-Away Dolls" that screened at CinemaCon earlier this year looked promising, and so does this trailer. We can probably expect it to hit a few film festivals before making its way to general audiences, so look out for the first reviews later this summer.
"Drive-Away Dolls" releases in U.S. theaters on September 22, 2023.