Drive-Away Dolls is a zany, fun, crime comedy that doesn't quite connect

Editor's note: this review contains spoilers for Drive-Away Dolls.

Like most road trips, Drive-Away Dolls has its ups and downs.

Geraldine Viswanathan shines as Marian, the straight laced and tightly wound lesbian bestie of the scrappy, sexy, and outgoing Jamie (Margaret Qualley) in this crime comedy about a pair of lesbians who decide to go on a road trip only to end up with a mysterious suitcase and a group of zany and off-kilter criminals on their trail.

After she sluts it up onstage at a local gay bar, Jamie’s cop girlfriend Sukie (a hilariously ferocious Beanie Feldstein) breaks up with her, leading Jamie and Marian to realize that they don’t really have much going on in their hometown. So, they decide to take a road trip to Tallahassee.

The two women head to a local drive-away dealer where they can pick up a car that needs to be driven to a destination. Unfortunately, this specific dealer was supposed to be waiting for two criminals to come pick up a car headed to Tallahassee, and gives the car to the two girls instead, leading to a multi-state chase and game of cat and mouse.

Drive-Away Dolls also stars Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, and Colman Domingo in very fun smaller roles, and was directed by Ethan Coen and written by Coen and his wife, Tricia Cooke.

Cooke, who has identified as queer throughout her marriage to Coen (she even told him she was a lesbian when he first asked her out), and has a separate partner (as does he), started writing the screenplay with Coen and originally named it Drive-Away Dykes, an even more fitting name for the modern day farce that the movie is.

Focus Features

You can really see Cooke’s love for queer women and queer community throughout the film. Jamie and Marian really care about each other and want to help each other achieve their best lesbian life throughout all of their adventures. Even Cooke's love of lesbian cinema shines through. In many ways, Drive-Away Dolls is like Bound by way of But I'm a Cheerleader.

The movie is also an unapologetic love letter to lesbian bars, with the friends stopping at bars with names like the She Shed along their way to Tallahassee.

These sapphic pit stops never stop shoving the films’ queerness in our faces in the best way possible. In one town, they even meet up with a women’s soccer team for a makeout party. It’s terrific.

The humor throughout the film is plentiful and quirky, rarely going where you’d expect it. Over the top characters and campy sense of humor lighten the film’s violence, and what could be a very dark story, bringing a perfect balance to the movie.

Unfortunately, all the sapphic fun is dragged down a little bit by the lack of chemistry between best friends Jamie and Marian. By the end of the film, we’re supposed to be rooting for them as a newfound couple, but I never really bought that they were more than friends.

Part of the problem is Qualley’s over-the-top southern accent, which often sounds like she’s doing an impression of a Coen brothers’ character, rather than an original character in a movie by one of them.

Drive-Away Dolls is zany and off kilter in the proud queer tradition of But I’m a Cheerleader and the films of John Waters, but doesn’t quite achieve those heights. Still, Drive-Away Dolls is fun, weird, and exactly the kind of queer movie we need more of.

Drive-Away Dolls is now playing in theaters.