Drive-Away Dolls (Collector’s Edition) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Ethan Coen

Cast: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein

Release Date: April 23, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 6/10
Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

Written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, this comedy caper follows Jamie (Margaret Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way. Directed by Ethan Coen.

Please Note: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

THE MOVIE – REVIEW:

‘Drive-Away Dolls’ accompanies friends Jamie and Marian after Jamie’s break-up with her girlfriend results in her wanting a change of scenery after being caught cheating, while Marian simply wants to get away. Planning to randomly head to Tallahassee, the pair accidently receive a car from a drive-away company as a result of bad timing and coincidence which just happens to belong to a questionable group of individuals and has some troubling items already packed within. Trying to live it up, the two women ignore the required delivery date of the vehicle in favor of detouring and partying which soon causes the criminals to send a pair of men after them which is only the beginning of the unexpected chaos and dangerous chain of events that await them on their impromptu road trip.

Directed by Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis, Fargo) from a screenplay written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, Coen does a solid job at the helm of ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ directing solo this time around and guiding along the off-beat road trip comedy with a fitting sense of colorful strangeness and heart. The film’s cast includes Margaret Qualley (Poor Things), Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers), Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart), Colman Domingo (TV’s Fear the Walking Dead), Pedro Pascal (TV’s The Mandalorian), Bill Camp (News of the World), and Matt Damon (Oppenheimer) with most contributing decent or at the very least fitting performances in each of their respective roles that keep this one fairly entertaining and intriguing.

‘Drive-Away Dolls’ takes viewers on a darkly amusing road trip with two friends that ends up being far more than they bargained for as their simple getaway promptly turns into a cat and mouse game with some hired thugs trying to track them down after the car they take on their trip ends up being packed with some crucial and questionable items that the shady individuals in pursuit aren’t going to give up on getting back. It’s a somewhat odd and curious tale with an off-beat style that shouldn’t be too strange for Coen fans but occasionally struggles in order to find something memorable or worthwhile to do with the characters and the tale. It frequently ends up forgoing any attempt at originality in favor of largely generic vulgar comedy and goofy scenarios; all balanced by a handful of drug-infused psychedelic interludes that will have you trying to figure out the reasoning behind them until it’s finally explained down the road. Even so, the film shouldn’t have a great deal of trouble holding your attention throughout.

The film is capably guided along by director Ethan Coen and a solid cast led by Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan with plenty of noteworthy guest stars helps it to remain mostly enjoyable and engaging throughout even if it never really finds a fitting way to conclude everything, or at least not one that most folks won’t see coming as it progresses. Fans of the key cast or director will still probably want to give this one a whirl whenever convenient, but I would strongly encourage not going in expecting something on the level of many Coen brothers’ outings as it instead offers a curious road trip tale that’s quite enjoyable but still largely average as a whole.

OVERALL:

‘Drive-Away Dolls’ serves up an off-beat, fairly amusing and consistently odd road-trip caper that never quite manages to excel very far beyond average but keeps the vulgar fun and laughs coming with a few twisted surprises and ridiculous moments to keep us intrigued throughout its duration and curious as to just what might come next. ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ may not be anything groundbreaking or truly magnificent, but fans of director Ethan Coen and the solid cast led by Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, as well as those who enjoy a strange and off-beat comedy with some violent twists and turns throughout should find enough to appreciate about this one to probably make it worth giving a chance. For those of you that are intrigued but haven’t yet had a chance to give it a whirl I would strongly encourage renting it as opposed to making a blind purchase just to be safe.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks great altogether and offers a clean, sharp and well detailed presentation from start to finish that’s absent of any notable troubles to be uncovered along the way. Detail is solid throughout with everything from character faces to indoor settings, outdoor landscapes and more looking sharp and pristine, while even the acid-trip like moments showcase bright, vivid colors. Deep, clean black levels also hold up nicely throughout. Overall, this is a solid high definition video presentation that does its job well and should easily satisfy fans and newcomers alike.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack makes a fun complement to the off-beat road trip comedy caper and provides a crisp, clean and occasionally quite aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send music, some action and vehicle effects, plus a handful of other effects throughout the various speakers at every reasonable opportunity, while making certain that no dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously become distorted or rendered problematic along the way. Overall, this is a very nice 7.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that holds up well throughout and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release of ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ doesn’t offer much in the way of bonus content but does include a couple brief Behind the Scenes Featurettes that feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew. The included Featurettes are ‘The Drive-Away Gang’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length) and ‘Drive-Away Dolls: An Ethan and Tricia Project’ (running approximately 3 minutes). Also included is ‘Road Trip Essentials’ (approximately 1 minute).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 6/10
Disc Rating: 6.5/10

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‘Drive-Away Dolls: Collector’s Edition’ Arrives on Blu-ray & DVD April 23, 2024 & is Now Available on Digital from Focus Features & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

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You can purchase your copy of the ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ Blu-ray on Amazon HERE!

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