I ‘RECUPERATI’ di ‘CelluloidPortraits’ - RECENSIONE - Ethan Coen al suo primo lungometraggio da solista, senza Joel, con cui di solito ha fatto coppia per la regia, con un curioso bagaglio di 'Bambole da viaggio' - Dal 7 Marzo
(Drive-Away Dolls; Usa 2023; Thriller Action Comedy; 84'; Produz.: Focus Features, Working Title Pictures; Distribuz.: Universal Pictures)
Cast: Margaret Qualley (Jamie) Geraldine Viswanathan (Marian) Beanie Feldstein (Sukie) Colman Domingo (Comandante) Pedro Pascal (Santos) Bill Camp (Curlie) Matt Damon (Senatore Channel) Joey Slotnick (Arliss) Miley Cyrus (Tiffany Plastercaster) C.J. Wilson (Flint)
Musica: Carter Burwell
Costumi: Peggy A. Schnitzer
Scenografia: Yong Ok Lee
Fotografia: Ari Wegner
Montaggio: Tricia Cooke
Effetti Speciali: Jennifer Bechak, Jesse LeChok
Makeup: Angie Mehlhorn, Krista Montgomery, Eve Negley
In Philadelphia in 1999, a man named Santos sits in a bar nervously clutching a briefcase. He exits in a hurry and is followed by the bartender, who murders him in an alley and decapitates him.
Elsewhere in Philadelphia, Jamie and Sukie are lovers whose relationship falls apart due to Jamie's infidelity. After Sukie kicks Jamie out of their apartment, Jamie learns her friend Marian is planning a trip to Tallahassee, Florida, and decides to go with her. They head into a drive-away car service, where someone can transport a car one-way for another client. Due to a misunderstanding, they are given a car that someone else has already booked for a trip to Tallahassee.
Moments later, a group of three criminals, Arliss, Flint, and Chief, come to the shop to pick up the car headed to Tallahassee. They find that Jamie and Marian have taken it by accident, along with unspecified cargo that is part of their illegal dealings. While Marian wants to go straight to Tallahassee, Jamie constantly tries to convince Marian to loosen up by taking detours and trying to have casual sex at lesbian bars along the way. Marian prefers to read Henry James' The Europeans but slowly comes out of her shell due to Jamie's prodding. When the pair finally enter Florida, their car gets a flat tire. They open the trunk and find the briefcase Santos was holding and a basket containing Santos' head and dry ice.
Jamie and Marian are followed by Arliss and Flint, who are led on a wild goose chase by a soccer team who invited Jamie and Marian to a party. When Jamie and Marian check into a hotel using Jamie's credit card, the mob is tipped off to their location. Jamie convinces Marian that she needs to have a positive sexual experience to enjoy life more, and they have sex. The next morning, Arliss, Flint, and the Chief arrive in Tallahassee, while Jamie decides to use the contents of Santos' briefcase: a collection of dildos. Marian is shocked but Jamie insists that she just wants the sexual release that Marian had the night before.
Immediately after Jamie climaxes, Arliss and Flint burst into their room, retrieve Santos' head and the briefcase, and abduct the women at gunpoint. In the backroom at a dog racing track, the Chief arrives to meet them all and explains that the sex toys are modeled after the genitals of powerful public figures, including one that was molded for Senator Channel, a right-wing politician whose career could be ruined by a sex scandal. This was the toy that Jamie used earlier in the morning and it was accidentally left behind in the hotel room. After the gangsters have an argument that leads to Flint shooting the other two dead and running away, Jamie and Marian decide to blackmail Channel.
Sukie has also been en route to Tallahassee in her capacity as a police officer after Jamie tipped her off. Jamie and Marian meet Channel at a lesbian bar and give him the dildo in exchange for one million dollars. Sukie intercepts them as they exit and Channel turns back around to try and kill the women. Sukie shoots Channel. Channel survives the shooting, but his reputation is ruined when news of the dildo collection and his criminal connections becomes public.
The next day, Jamie and Marian meet with Marian's aunt at their hotel. Jamie casually mentions that she and Marian plan to go to Massachusetts, as same-sex marriage is legal there. As the trio drive away, a bellhop races to give them a bag that they have left behind, which contains two dildos modeled after Channel's penis.
Commento critico (a cura di PATRIZIA FERRETTI)
“L’amore è una slitta che corre verso l’infernoâ€
Se c’è qualche carattere distintivo in questa prima prova da regista single per Ethan Coen - qui svincolato dal consueto tandem con il fratello Joel - è il ritmo ‘rockettaro’ e virtuosisticamente artistico, nel segno di un meta cinema piuttosto convinto. La ‘slapstick comedy’ Drive-Away Dolls - letteralmente, 'bambole da viaggio' (e che bambole!) - si direbbe una pellicola indie, molto ruffiana, e relativamente divertente. Se Ethan avesse dato maggior credito in espansione a qualche battuta umoristica ben assestata, oltre all’ironia dilagante generale, sarebbe stato un film ancor più accattivante. A farla da padrone è invece uno sgangherato affresco sull’amore lesbo, assatanato di sesso d’occasione, e su sculturine falliche, di gran pregio oltre che di atroce imbarazzo per certe ‘eminenze’ poco grigie della alta politica. L’idea di fare un calco di gesso sul pene di un giovane rampante all’apice di un’erezione, che nel
frattempo ha raggiunto la carica di Senatore - il Mr. Channel di Matt Damon che deve essersi ingolosito del ruolo sulla fiducia dell’illustre target ‘Coen’ - è in effetti più originale di tutte quelle orgette da strapazzo, isterie da fidanzate gelose, masturbazioni al femminile e orgasmi a go-go, che, alla fine, a braccetto con passi di sceneggiatura scurrilmente goliardico-boccaccesca, non necessariamente divertente, stimolano solo un sensibile calo di interesse.
Onore al merito al cast femminile: la disinibita Jamie (Margaret Qualley), sempre a caccia di ‘vere bambole’ non disdegnando d’altra parte neppure i gingilli erotici; la pudica Marian
(Geraldine Viswanathan), di lì a poco ‘convertita’ dalla compagna di viaggio Jamie/Qualley; l’effervescente e ‘cazzuta’ poliziotta carceraria Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), permalosa fracassona, stizzosamente gelosa e irresistibilmente comica. Ma Drive-Away Dolls vuole essere anche una commedia degli equivoci: lo scambio dell’auto con lo ‘scottante bagaglio’ di una testa nascosta in una cappelliera, il degno trofeo
