Drive-Away Dolls

[00:00:00] What you want, when you want it, where you want it.

[00:00:06] This is the Mesh.

[00:00:11] Foot Candle Films.

[00:00:13] Film news and reviews from two guys who really like movies.

[00:00:19] This episode is brought to you by the Foot Candle Film Society.

[00:00:23] For a schedule of upcoming screenings and Ethan Cohen one of the two well-known cone brothers of film lore we'll be discussing his solo film both director and writing along with his spouse I believe right Trisha Cook is the writer of the

[00:01:41] film so we'll be discussing Driveaway dolls here in just a moment in our review of that film then The Coen brothers entered their collective cinematic consciousness in 1984 with their

[00:03:01] noir drama Blood Simple.

[00:03:04] They'd continue working together over the years and create an oeuvre with hits like Honey Don't is set to begin production sometime in March. What was your experience with Driver Way to All's Island? And are you looking forward to a successor, Honey Don't? I had fun with this film. It is going into, gosh, this is tricky,

[00:04:23] because I did ultimately have a fun time with this film.

[00:05:23] It never quite hits the highs that I was hoping for. I think there are times where I've wanted this film

[00:05:26] to really excel and it didn't quite ever find,

[00:05:30] in my mind, the gumption to get there.

[00:05:33] But it had a fun premise, it had some fun characters.

[00:05:40] I generally had a good time with it.

[00:05:42] I can't sit here and harp on it

[00:05:44] as any major misgivings with it other than

[00:06:44] Was not exactly what I expected and that actually is what hurt the film

[00:06:47] In the film kind of like I mentioned in the setup

[00:06:53] It's about two girls and they go on this road trip. They you know have these interactions with the criminals They're kind of like running away because you know who wants to deal with criminals. So I expected that

[00:07:00] To be a little bit more like kind of not integral I knew of Margaret Qualley. I think I've seen her. She had a bit pardon. Let's put her time in Hollywood. I think she was one of the Manson girls in that. Was she also in Poor Things? She was. Okay. So I'm aware of her, but I've never really seen her hit center stage. Well, she definitely did in this. And granted, it's probably, I'm assuming,

[00:08:23] how her character was written.

[00:08:25] But she was operating, was more of the, kind of like, in a way, Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona, except it was like loud and grating, whereas Holly Hunter's delivery was rapid, but not quite the same, I don't know, it's just...

[00:09:40] Well, it's just to get a look at some of their characters

[00:09:43] they've written over the years.

[00:09:44] I mean, you had the Holly Hunter raising Arizona,

[00:09:47] you've got the Jennifer Jason Lee I just never felt any connection between the two of them or chemistry at all. Absolutely not. And again, you're right. A lot of the film does start to hinge on more of the relationship between the two of them. So obviously you want there to be a good connection. And I never quite felt that at all. I didn't, I don't think the film did a really good job or a great service of giving us any

[00:11:05] understanding of the nature of their relationship from the beginning and why role. There's other people in this cast. I mean, it's kind of an actually, you know, to be a B movie, it's actually kind of a stacked cast. We have Coleman Domingo, Pedro Pascal. We already mentioned Beanie Feldstein. We have Matt Damon and then a character actor guy who's always awesome when he's on screen, kind of Bill Camp. He was also in there. So,

[00:12:21] you know, you got, and if you're going try because I have an expectation of like, okay, if this is just a random B movie Put out by someone who maybe can't get the funding or can't get the you know Can't get the actors involved to make a a list movie then. Okay, I get it

[00:14:46] since lava lamp tie dye transitions, especially with the film taking place in 1999. It starts off, it always ends in 1999, but it starts off in Philadelphia and then they make the road trip to

[00:14:51] Florida. So it's just like, I didn't get it. And then at the very end, there's kind of tying in

[00:14:58] a little bit of the Matt Damon, you finally see Matt Damon and you get a sense of like, okay,

[00:15:04] that makes sense for that one transition, but the other and just assume that okay, well, it has to be a certain caliber and level. If it's not, I'm gonna be disappointed. So I guess maybe me going in, clearing those expectations, say, all right, let's just see under the film on its own merit. I walked away okay with it. But there are definitely issues. There are definitely problems.

[00:17:23] It does take the end of the film to kind of get to that point and say it all together, but

[00:17:28] it worked okay for me. I just thought they were a little indulgent. But again, you're right. A little.

[00:17:29] It was an hour, 24 minutes. I mean, it was a pretty short film to begin with already.

[00:17:32] I feel like 20 of those minutes were the transitions. But you know.

[00:17:35] Yeah, they could have been. They could have been.

[00:17:38] Something else. Like, I was just surprised. And there again, I mean, I can't help not know

[00:17:44] that this is Ethan Cook. It's like, you know, expectations dikes instead of drive away dolls. And I'm like, okay. And that's the payoff for that joke. Just very haphazard and not, in my opinion, very well thought through. Something else I don't get other than they wouldn't have had a problem achieving an R rating

[00:19:00] with this film because of all the sex scenes.

[00:19:03] But in the very beginning that they have, which is kind of another allusion to like a Tarantino type film or there's no R films where you never really know what's in the case and they keep everything. Okay, but the head, it doesn't mean anything. Like it doesn't serve any purpose. It's just there to...

[00:20:24] Again, just things that were just frustrating for me because it seems like it could have been developed or could have worked a little harder on making it make sense or have some flaws. I do wonder how much of perception is based on expectation. Well, sure. A little bit of that, which again, I'm trying to set that aside and say, I think it was enjoyable enough. Look, I'll tell you this, as many flaws as the film may have and how not every part of it worked for me

[00:21:42] and I had issues with-

[00:21:44] What part of it did work for you?

[00:21:46] I'm curious, and it it sounds like, yeah, I'm not forgiving of that, and you're more forgiving of that. So, okay, okay, I can see the road trip aspect. The road trip part, I enjoyed. And there were some fun moments, I thought, with the dumb criminals. I mean, yes, the typical Coen brothers,

[00:23:00] like these are the idiot criminals that are kind of,

[00:23:05] some of their banter, some of their situations, and let him make a very heartfelt, dramatic speech about the people that that suitcase represents. Like, that was worth it for me. So that was a fun moment. I appreciated that. It's a long way to get, it's 80 minutes to get to one joke. And yeah, his, yeah. It could have been two and a half hours, but it was 80 minutes to get to here.

[00:24:20] I'm like, it was like a real good joke.

[00:24:22] I did laugh at that, but by that point,

[00:24:24] I was so worn down by Margaret Kweli's Jamie but it sounds like you definitely had a lesser experience with the film. Yes. I think that's fair. Understandably. And I get it. I totally do. I'm like, I, if somebody says they hate this film, I'm like, yep, I get it. I get it. It is not a film that is going to be endearing to everybody. It's very much a hit or miss

[00:27:02] because of the complete dichotomy of different act and kind of a big, big, big show. But there's also times where like, you know, she's seems incredibly foolhardy word hate. Hate's a strong word. You were, you disliked this film. I disliked this film. I wouldn't say I hated it. You disliked this film. I found it passable, entertainment, and enjoyed elements of it enough to sit through the 84-minute running time.

[00:28:23] So I'll say that.

[00:28:24] Okay, fair enough.

[00:28:25] All right. Now let's take a always kind of fun when we have some differing opinions. Especially we saw that film in the theater at the same time, just some opposite ends of the theater. So there was no way to gauge each other's reaction to the film, which is always, I think, the way you gotta do it. So it's good. All right, Chris, I do want to share with you a kind of our movie news segment.

[00:29:40] I wish we had like little segment intros for each of these.

[00:29:43] We never got around to actually doing any, but you know,

[00:29:45] we do news almost every week. a kind of off-handed way. Never a direct Beatles movie. Backbeat is one of the ones I'm thinking of. Backbeat is one and that kind of covered early, early days of the Beatles. Uh, there was one about John Lennon that was, uh, was it Nowhere, Nowhere Boy? Yes.

[00:31:00] Or Nowhere Man.

[00:31:01] Or Yeah.

[00:31:02] That was kind of all about John Lennon.

[00:31:04] You got focused on him.

[00:31:06] Um, but other than that,. I think he's a good director. Skyfall, I think is the best James Bond movie I've ever made. Oh, absolutely. So he's responsible. The second one he did was not so great. True. But Sam Mendes is going to be making four movies, one for each of the Beatles members.

[00:32:20] As much as I like the Beatles, I just went to see the Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas,

[00:32:26] love that the Beatles'll do it in. But by the time you get to that fourth time, you're seeing the commonality point. I would think that would be kind of brutal.

[00:33:44] So I kind of feel sorry for whoever's that fourth movie. Cause you're like,

[00:33:46] okay, okay. Now we and nobody liked this film. It was horrible. We're scrapping the other three. You know, you're not going to do it. You got to do all four. Now, um, I was reading through variety. Um, Owen Gleiberman, uh, writer for variety actually was writing an article about this.

[00:35:01] It was like, when did Sam Mendes earn the right to direct four Beatles by the

[00:35:05] banks? Which I think it's kind of funny.

[00:35:06] Not just a be a boost. Like when did he earn the right to do all four?

[00:36:05] biography movie. But Greta Gerwig's Ringo is coming up and I'm so excited for that. You know, it's like that would work. But and you could totally make it work, have all four

[00:36:09] directors say, look, you can tell your biopic of this person. It just has to end here at this point.

[00:36:16] So all four films kind of end at the same spot. Like do anything you want to do up to that point,

[00:36:21] but it just has to come to that spot. That has to be something, you know, truly unique that

[00:37:42] you're kind of like even changing the way we think about things.

[00:37:45] Like it has to be, it has to be a big deal.

[00:38:44] But that is a comforting thing that they are all for all four

[00:38:49] Estates are on board and like willing to give full rights to do this. It makes me think okay There is a plan right and they feel good about it

[00:38:52] But and see they're getting that the whole like making something a unique that was why they got

[00:38:58] Danny Boyle got passed off for yesterday because he's like, okay, here's the idea

[00:39:02] Beatles me so I need to use the music but what if they didn't write them and they're like, okay, okay

[00:40:04] I'm sure doing it all and that may be one of the values in doing it with the single director too

[00:40:06] Is that it kind of makes the films a little bit more?

[00:40:13] Budget conscious is that okay? We have a master plan of how we're going to film all four characters stories

[00:40:20] There's going to be you know certain percentage of the film that is the same scenes or the same sets

[00:40:26] Locations across all four. We're just shooting it from gonna focus on until you go in and sit down and watch it. Now, granted, after you sit down and watch it, you're like, okay, I just saw John's story, and then everybody will get the word out, okay, this first one's on John, but what if the first, like, somehow they make it a secret,

[00:41:41] like they try to deal with the crying game,

[00:41:42] where they're like, okay, you don't know whose story,

[00:41:44] now granted, by the time you get whether the other three are also good. This could be a huge, a big deal. This could be a big, big thing for a year of 2027 where these become four of the biggest grossing movies in a single year of the same series. Oh, wow. That could be crazy. And it's possible.

[00:43:05] I mean, look, I'm going to go see it. Ihouse biopic coming out soon with Black in Black. We talked, I think, about Ridley Scott doing the Bee Gees movie. We talked about it last week or two. There's a lot happening in the music side. I mean, there always has been, but it seems like it might be a little bit more going on the next two to three years in musical biopics.

[00:44:21] And I'm of mixed emotions on that.

[00:44:23] I love a good musical biopic. as a way to lose their virginity to cheerleaders. The Fight Club gains traction and soon the most popular girls in school are beating each other up in the name of self-defense. But the pair find themselves in over their heads and in need of a way out before their plan is exposed. Not a perfect movie, but I rated it three stars. But it is enjoyable, it was funny on Amazon Prime, plus you can stream it there for free if you have Amazon Prime, but then you can rent it all sorts of places. So that is a film that worked much better for me. There was a comedy Bottoms. Okay, well good. So Chris, I appreciate what you did in this episode.

[00:47:02] You tore down a film that you did not like,

[00:47:05] and I completely understand why.

[00:48:02] at some point, the casting, a little speculation on casting. Anyway, how do people get a hold of us if they want to talk about any of these things?

[00:48:06] You can send an email to info at footcandle.org. You can follow us on Twitter at Foot Candle Film,

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[00:48:16] Foot Candle Film. Alan, I do keep a council and letterbox where we try to track what we're

[00:48:20] seeing and leave quick takes sometimes. Do us a favor. If you like the show, consider giving us a

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[00:49:41] You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network of shows and programs ranging