Coen co-wrote “Dolls” along with his overtly lesbian spouse Tricia Cooke. Though Cooke had been frank about her sexuality, she and Coen have been married since 1993, and have had two children collectively. The main points of their private lives have solely just lately been made public. Cooke has additionally served as an editor and as an affiliate producer on lots of the Coen Bros. motion pictures. She and Ethan have been cooking up a lesbian highway journey crime comedy for a few years, and their authentic title for the movie was “Drive-Away Dykes.” Although Ethan has the only directing credit score within the remaining minimize, experiences have said that Cooke was basically a co-director along with her co-writing duties.
This film marks Ethan Coen’s second time as a solo director with out his brother Joel, having beforehand directed the 2022 documentary “Jerry Lee Lewis: Bother In Thoughts.” It is also the primary narrative movie that Ethan has made since 2018’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” a movie that made him burn out on filmmaking somewhat bit.
Having now seen each “Drive-Away Dolls” and Joel’s solo directorial effort “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” one can see what every brother might have dropped at the desk. Joel was the moody mental, apparently bringing a way of sardonic bleakness to his works. Ethan, conversely, appears to have introduced the colourful, humorous quirkiness and outsize characters. That stability — between clueless lovable weirdos and apocalyptic hubris — was what made the Coen Bros. distinctive.
Take away the bleakness, and one comes away with “Drive-Away Dolls,” a movie no darker than a pitcher of lemonade. Dated or not, it is nonetheless going to be refreshing below the best circumstances, and grand to see queerness flung so gleefully about.
/Movie Ranking: 7.5 out of 10