368: Drive-Away Dolls

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Henry with the Film Buds Podcast. Please make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show.

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[00:00:11] 76. Let's get to Drive Away Dolls, which is now on demand.

[00:00:18] It's directed and co-written by Ethan Cohen.

[00:00:23] It stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Joey Slotnick, CJ Wilson, Coleman Domingo, and a few others.

[00:00:35] And the synopsis is

[00:00:53] So I am, like many, a huge Cohen Brothers fan. I think they are some of the best filmmakers of all time, easily.

[00:01:03] And they have many masterpieces under their belt and the variety of their storytelling as well speaks to that too.

[00:01:11] And I know that I don't know all the details but I think after Hail Caesar they stopped working together, at least in some ways.

[00:01:19] And there's been the tragedy of Macbeth done, and then this one, maybe another one. I could be wrong but this was Ethan Cohen's return.

[00:01:29] I had heard fairly mixed things about it so I didn't know much about the story at all. I was like, okay cool, it's another movie by at least one of the Cohen Brothers.

[00:01:38] I'm there for sure. And I hate to say it, I think this is probably of the 15-ish movies or so that I've seen, new films I've seen this year, I think this is my least favorite.

[00:01:52] It had all the elements of a good Cohen Brothers movie but it felt really like someone trying to do an impersonation or a copycat of a Cohen Brothers film.

[00:02:06] It did not feel like Ethan Cohen being at the helm. I felt the tone was so off note, and not in a good way.

[00:02:16] I understand that this movie is meant to be sort of an 80s, 90s B-movie sort of film. I'm all for that sort of film. I don't mind that at all.

[00:02:26] I like self-aware, goofy, weird, abstract films. So I'm absolutely not a hater of this style but it felt so lazy.

[00:02:39] Again the tone all over the place, it was not funny. The comedy was flat, I think about 99% of the time.

[00:02:47] Margot Equality, I think she's a great character actor. I love her in pretty much everything and I like her performance in this.

[00:02:53] But whether or not it was the point of how they wanted her to be, it felt like she was in a different movie and everybody else wasn't.

[00:03:02] Her accent, her southern accent is very over the top. That's fine, I don't care. But it seemed like the movie around her failed her performance.

[00:03:11] And so it always took me out of it. I never felt them as real people. I liked the relationship between the two girls.

[00:03:18] I thought that was strong and I liked the other girl too. I don't think I've seen her in anything. But the story was really bland.

[00:03:25] The visual style, even the direction, really sloppy I think. And I get that they want this to feel more B-movie as I said.

[00:03:35] But I think there's a big difference between an amateur filmmaker setting out to make a B-movie and not having the chops to really elevate it.

[00:03:44] And then an A-list filmmaker like the Coen Brothers who have done films in this vein but made it feel much, much higher quality.

[00:03:54] And for some reason, for whatever god knows reason, it felt like this was a director's first film or two.

[00:04:03] And maybe that's because they've worked together in a variety of ways for so long that he just feels incomplete I guess or he's rough around the edges.

[00:04:13] But I thought the movie really flat out was terrible. I thought for being only 80 minutes long it felt like two, two and a half.

[00:04:23] And at least reading on letterbox, I know some people are saying, oh I loved how crazy the plot was. The twists were insane.

[00:04:29] I'm like, I don't think it really was. I mean that's just my opinion. I thought that the twists and the turns felt sort of tired and uninspired.

[00:04:39] It really didn't go anywhere. I don't mind a movie not having a lot of plot. It just being meandering, that's fine.

[00:04:45] But I was never really engaged. I just did not care about what was going on for the most part.

[00:04:50] And to go back to it for a sec, the elements that make a Coen Brothers movie work, there are so many things that across their whole filmography I'm thinking, how did this actually work?

[00:05:02] This movie is so weird. There's so many different sorts of styles, of genres, of weird performances, of strange writing.

[00:05:10] And somehow when they're working together, they make it work 99% of the time.

[00:05:15] I'm like, God that was so great and that was so unique. And in this, what is most frustrating and what makes it I think the worst movie that I've seen in the last couple of months is

[00:05:27] I see all those elements, performance, writing, editing, direction, music, story, that would work. But everything feels off and not in a good way at all.

[00:05:40] So I thought the movie really was a big, big disappointment. I'm hoping that they, Joel and Ethan, come back together and work again because I think when they're on their own, they're missing something big.

[00:05:53] Whether one of them does the dramatic story stuff and another one does the comedy and direction whatever, they're missing something when they're by themselves.

[00:06:02] Nine times out of ten. And this is the best example of geez, there is a big drop off when they're by themselves.

[00:06:09] And so it's one that I don't think I'll ever feel the need to re-watch. I would not recommend it. Probably my least favorite Coen Brothers movie to date across both brothers.

[00:06:19] I wish Margaret Qualley had been given more justice, you know a better movie because I did really enjoy her. And it's one that she's really reaching a lot more than she does I think in terms of her accent and mannerisms and all that.

[00:06:32] She was very good but everything around her really not so much. I did like Matt Damon at the end but he's barely in it. I don't think that's a spoiler.

[00:06:41] The weird cameo, I don't know if that's a spoiler, the weird cameo at the beginning and then something that shows up later feels random and totally unnecessary.

[00:06:50] And I think one thing also that I'll shut up, the Coen Brothers have a pretty signature element where a lot of their films are very circular.

[00:07:00] They'll end up right where they started or nothing will actually be accomplished in a variety of ways.

[00:07:07] And in this it sort of has that but again that element does not work so the movie feels so lifeless, so inert, so unimportant and without anything else backing it up.

[00:07:20] So yeah I would avoid whether you're a Coen Brothers movie fan or not.

[00:07:26] And if you don't know anything about the Coen Brothers you might like it more than I did. I don't know but I think if you are a Coen fan you'll know when you see this what I mean.

[00:07:36] Well that one is a 2 light 2 out of 5.