Long thought of as one creative mind, the Coen Brothers have started to show us what they are made of individually. Following Joel’s 2021 solo project (directing wife Frances McDormand in The Tragedy Of Macbeth), Ethan has a crack too. He helmed the 2022 documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind alone, but Drive-Away Dolls is his first narrative effort without his older bro. Instead, Ethan collaborates with his spouse, the editor Tricia Cooke, who worked with him on the screenplay.

In many ways this screwball road-tripper is exactly what you’d expect, channelling films like Raising Arizona, Fargo and The Big Lebowski in its colourful and cartoony crooks, as well as the B-movie classic Kiss Me Deadly. Nevertheless, with its focus on a pair of young lesbian friends and unabashed approach to female sexuality, Drive-Away Dolls has a different audience in its sights (Cooke identifies as queer, with her marriage to Coen described as ‘non-traditional’).

Margaret Qualley (Maid) plays free-spirited Texan nympho Jamie, with Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers) the droll, uptight Marian. It’s 1999 and they’re on their way from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in a ‘drive-away’ rental, having inadvertently taken possession of a mysterious MacGuffin of a briefcase. Colman Domingo and his henchmen are in hot pursuit, trying to get the briefcase back.

The story is a tad sketchy and it lacks the consistent visual chutzpah of the Coens’ finest works. However, with Pedro Pascal expiring at the outset while Matt Damon’s senator and Beanie Feldstein’s spurned cop also play their part, Drive-Away Dolls brings together a fine cast. Qualley and Viswanathan combine great comic instincts with effervescent charm, and it’s hard not to root for this odd couple once their problems pile high. The film’s fresh focus is welcome and, as heads and dildos fly, it’s as filthy as it is funny.

Drive-Away Dolls is in cinemas from Friday 15 March.