After four decades, numerous Academy Awards, and several masterpieces, the Coen Brothers are seeing other people. Must make Thanksgiving awkward. Older brother Joel went in a completely unexpected direction with 2021's tragically underseen "The Tragedy of Macbeth." Now, baby brother Ethan is directing "Drive-Away Dolls," a screwball comedy thriller that seems right at home alongside the Coen's oeuvre. However, the "Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Yes!" sub-genre may make a compelling movie, but it's not a very enticing selling proposition.
Sure, we adore all-time greats like "Raising Arizona," "Fargo," and "The Big Lebowski," but none of them set the box office on fire. Meanwhile, more recent pics like "Burn After Reading" and "Hail, Caesar!", as well as Coen comps like "Suburbicon" and "Downsizing," straight up bombed. And those movies had stars! "Drive-Away Dolls" doesn't, at least not in leading roles. The film follows Margaret Qualley as a free-spirited ne'er-do-well and Geraldine Viswanathan as her mousy friend, as they go on a raucous road trip that's broken up by a group of bungling bad guys. So yeah, sounds straight out of the Coen Brothers' playbook (minus one brother), and should be good. But when it comes to actually making money, it seems likely that "Drive-Away Dolls" will crash and burn.
