Drive-Away Dolls is the Lesbian Rom-Com You Didn't Know You Needed in Your Life

I’ve only seen Margaret Qualley in two roles but they were both so good I may watch anything else she’s in. I first saw her in Maid (Netflix) which has the most accurate portrayal of life in poverty I’ve ever seen. In the miniseries, her mother is played by Andie MacDowell who also happens to play her mother in real life.

Drive-Away Dolls Movie Poster

The movie Drive-Away Dolls dropped on Peacock and I was probably a good thirty minutes into the movie before I realized it was the same actress from Maid. There are actors I like because they always play the same lovable character type, but what truly impresses me are the actors who transform into any role thrown at them. Qualley has that skill, being nearly unrecognizable in mannerisms between the two roles.

The cast is great, but the movie is also a tremendous amount of fun that I assume will be constantly compared to Thelma and Louise. I have to make that assumption because I haven’t actually seen Thelma and Louise, but it’s two women on a roadtrip with some accidental crime sprinkled in to surprisingly comedic effect. Drive-Away Dolls is basically an Odd Couple lesbian roadtrip rom-com set in the late 90’s with dialogue so on-point I found myself rewinding to appreciate the writing a second time.

Defo worth the watch, but if you have kids be warned it does contain lots of sex and violence. Bit more than necessary, by my tastes, but that doesn’t detract from it being a well-crafted movie. The story opens with a murder, jumps to some girl-on-girl action, and then transitions to Marian in her cubicle at work delivering dry, monotone answers to her infatuated coworker trying to ask her out on a date. Think Daria (MTV) trying to be polite because it's not high school anymore. Jamie is her friend and ploar opposite, who describes herself early on by saying "You know how parents and such love me. They think I got charisma.'Oh Marian, who's your loquacious friend? I just love that chatty little girl, isn't she something?'"

The plot kicks off because Jamie struggles with fidelity, and invites herself along on Marian's road trip from Pennsylvania to Florida after her girlfriend discovered her cheating and throws her out of their apartment. They sign up for a "drive-away" car, which allows them to drive a vehicle for free on a one-way drop-off. This doesn't seem like it's a real thing, but Google swears it is. Of course, the car the ladies receive is connected to the murder of the opening scene, and hilarity ensues as the criminals try to track down the "drive-away dolls".

Drive-Away Dolls stands out in the genre for being a fun gay adventure, instead of a tortured romance or coming-out story. Can lesbians ever have a cinematic happy ending? Yes, yes they can.