Drive-Away Dolls

As it recombines variations on themes and characters from almost four decades of the Coen brothers’ catalogue, Drive-Away Dolls manages to rise above a genre formula they helped pioneer.

With style and attitude to spare, the solo narrative directorial debut of Ethan Coen is a slight but amusing throwback — a wildly uneven and mildly transgressive caper comedy elevated by the endearing odd-couple chemistry of its two leads.

The film finds an agreeable balance between playful mischief and brutal violence. After all, you’ve barely settled into your seat before someone is stabbed in the neck with a corkscrew and decapitated.

Yet the bulk of the pre-Y2K story centers on impulsive Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and timid Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), best friends and proud lesbians in Philadelphia, who intercept a drive-away rental car destined for Tallahassee, Florida.

They’re just looking for some time to connect and get away. But as they hop between cheap motels and roadside bars, they don’t realize there’s some cargo in the trunk that a crime boss (Colman Domingo) has sent two goons to retrieve at any cost.

Meanwhile, Jamie’s ex-girlfriend cop (Beanie Feldstein) needs to know the duo’s whereabouts to resolve some unfinished business. They also cross paths with a sleazy conservative politician (Matt Damon) harboring a secret.

Along the way, Jamie and Marian must navigate a maze of oblivious misogynists and unscrupulous rogues as their road trip evolves into a surreal odyssey of self-discovery — serenaded by Linda Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou” and simmering with sexual tension.

Qualley (Stars at Noon) and Viswanathan (Blockers) seem to have fun with the freewheeling nature of the material, as Jamie’s bubbly charisma provides a fun contrast to Marian’s deadpan apprehension.

Coen’s acerbic wit is sprinkled throughout the dialogue, even if his screenplay co-written with wife Tricia Cooke lacks teeth as a sociopolitical satire and spins its wheels into a familiar cat-and-mouse screwball scenario in the second half.

The film also is overloaded with quirks, many of which are clever enough to cover up for the silly detours in this breezy trifle that could have been even leaner and meaner.

Drive-Away Dolls doesn’t add up to much in the end. However, in this case, success is indeed more about the journey than the destination.

Rated R, 84 minutes.