DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS

Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) isn't feeling her life in Philadelphia anymore and decides to move to Tallahassee. Her friend Jamie (Margaret Qualley) now homeless after getting the boot from her ex, talks Marian into tagging along on the road trip in order for the both of them to figure their lives out. They take a drive-away car (a discounted rental type car they drive to where the owner needs it delivered) from Curlie (Bill Camp); however, Curlie unexpectedly mistakes the women for two criminals who have a sensitive package in the trunk needing to be delivered to Tallahassee. The criminals soon set off in search of the women and their goods. Honestly, the film being written and directed by Ethan Cohen and starring Qualley is what got me in the theaters but after watching it, felt it was a bait-and-switch. The trailer barely hints at the lesbian themes that are unavoidable to the viewer once the lights go out. It's very heavy-handed and while it wasn't so much of a put off for me in terms of the story, it's just so ingrained in the film and one dimensional for the story. It plays as an 84 minute advertisement/apology film for lesbians circa 1999, which is the time period of the story for some strange reason. Qualley is very over-the-top as Jamie and Viswanathan is the more well-spoken, closet for lack of a better term counterpart to her yang. The only redeeming feature of this film is Bill Camp's monotone delivering Curlie who sadly, isn't in the film nearly long enough to make this tolerable. A terrible film by a director who's seen so much success. 4/10