New Lesbian Road Trip Crime Comedy From Ethan Coen

Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke join forces to create a lesbian road trip crime comedy movie titled Drive-Away Dolls, releasing in theaters on Friday, February 23.

Drive-Away Dolls, originally titled Drive Away Dykes, is a new film written by husband and wife team Ethan Coen (The Big Lebowski) and Tricia Cooke (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) that centers around a pair of lesbian best friends Jaime (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan). The pair enter on an impulsive road trip to Tallahassee following Jaime’s breakup with her girlfriend, played by Beanie Feldstein, and end up running into a trio of inept criminals on the way. 

Cooke describes their writing process, telling Associated Press that “I kind of represent the queer world, all of the bumbling men in the movie and all of the caper stuff definitely comes from Ethan’s mind.” The couple took inspiration from 90s queer movies such as But I’m a Cheerleader and Go Fish.

The visuals in the film stray from Coen’s usual visual style to a more gritty style, inspired by Cooke’s experiences in lesbian bars. She wanted to create a lesbian genre movie that didn’t exist when they wrote the script originally, specifically a movie that “was light-hearted and had a happy ending and felt free and fun.” Drive-Away Dolls fulfills this goal, as a playfully R-rated, unashamedly queer film that echoes the sexploitation films of the 60s and 70s. Hopefully this is a predition of the revival of 70s B-movie filmmaking.

Drive-Away Dolls is the most recent dark comedy lesbian film, following the box office success of the lesbian teen fight club movie Bottoms last August. Here’s to a future filled with lighthearted, playful, happy-ending queer films that echo the film styles of the past and maybe include a little bloodshed.