After working with his brother Joel for years on many films including the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, Ethan Coen branched out last year to collaborate closely with another member of his family: his wife Tricia Cooke. Drive-Away Dolls was a fun, off-the-wall crime comedy with a terrific duo at its center in the form of Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan. It was entertaining and showed promise, even if it wasn’t fully realized. Coen and Cooke are back with Qualley in their latest film, one which doesn’t learn from the mistake of the former and presents something alternately intriguing and completely convoluted.
A woman is dead, and a ring is taken off her finger which connects her to the Four-Way Temple, led by the charismatic Reverend Devlin (Chris Evans), before both Detective Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day) and private investigator Honey O’Donahue (Qualley) show up to determine if this fatal car crash was indeed just an accident. Knowing that the deceased was supposed to meet her that day, Honey digs deeper while forging an intimate personal relationship with police officer MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza) and trying to help her sister Heidi (Kristen Connolly) manage her growing family, including rebellious teenage daughter Corinne (Talia Ryder).
It’s nearly impossible to discern what the tone of this film is meant to be. That Day is one of the first actors to show up only makes it more confusing since he’s portraying an inherently comedic role, toned down from his foul-mouthed TV characters but still laced with self-congratulatory sexism directed entirely at Honey, who reminds him again and again that she likes girls. Honey’s next client is a man convinced his husband is cheating on him played by Billy Eichner, another figure associated with comedy who isn’t exactly doing serious work here. But then there are moments which feel like atmospheric horror, and while there is some very dark humor laced into the ending of the film, it’s otherwise quite bleak and serious when everything does fall into place and reveal itself.
Billed as a part of a lesbian B-movie trilogy from Coen and Cooke started with Drive-Away Dolls, it’s hard not to compare this film to that one. Qualley is a skilled actress who has delivered numerous impressive performances, ranging from straight and intense in Maid, Sanctuary, and The Substance, to much lighter, like her heavily-accented lead in Drive-Away Dolls. It’s not clear what she’s going for here, since she frequently almost whispers her lines and seems to hold tremendous sway over most in her orbit – Falcone comments on how much she likes the click-clack of her heels when she very deliberately walks towards her – despite not being all that forceful or persistent. There’s no doubt that Qualley is capable of carrying a film, but this is a part that might actually have been better suited for someone else.
The rest of the ensemble is a mixed bag, again overflowing with those have been excellent in other roles but don’t feel quite as comfortable here. This is a part that forces Plaza to be almost deathly serious and creepy, and while it does work in certain respects, it’s not as emphatic as much of Plaza’s more outright funny or subtly dramatic work in the past. Evans, having concluded the part of his career that found him anchoring Marvel blockbusters, is letting loose even more than he did in Knives Out, and he’s definitely over-the-top, doing what the role calls for and hamming up this cult leader who loves himself more than anyone else. Just five years after breaking out in Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Ryder continues to show promise and enhance a supporting part that otherwise might not have been particularly noticeable. Lera Abova and Josh Pafchek are memorable in small parts that drive crucial events in the film’s plot.
There are traces of distinct Coen Brothers staples and tones to be found here, but even for a film that runs just under an hour and a half, it feels like not all of them get addressed and, worse still, interesting characters are disposed of far too soon without much of a chance to get to know them. The banality of violence is on full display here, with so many semi-innocents losing their lives over misunderstandings and a lack of willingness to sit down and have a conversation. That can all be good fun to watch, but this film doesn’t present a coherent version of its narrative, leaving far too much unsaid and unexplored to be remotely satisfying.
Movie Rating: 5/10
