PARTNERS IN CRIME

Ethan Coen and wife Tricia Cooke take a road trip…

Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan are road-trippers on the run

Me and Trish read a lot of those pulpy noir novels by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain,’ says Ethan Coen over Zoom. ‘Well, me and Joel [do too], but also me and Trish.’ Tricia Cooke jumps in: ‘Maybe because those have a good antihero. And there’s a darkness.’ Ethan nods. ‘Well, sure. We gravitate towards the unimportant stuff, well done.’

Like much of the Coen brothers’ output, Drive-Away Dolls – written, directed and edited by Ethan and his wife of 33 years, Cooke, who’s edited several of the Coens’ movies – promises to be a twisty-turny crime movie populated by colourfully incompetent oddballs. It’s set between Philadelphia and Tallahassee, as road-tripping lesbian pals Jamie and Marian (Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan) find themselves in accidental possession of a vital package wanted by bungling crims (Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo). Things are about to get messy – more so when Beanie Feldstein’s cop enters the fray, plus a bunch of queer women who aren’t about to take shit from dumb men.

So how did Cooke find writing and directing with her hubby? ‘I mean, we trust each other, and we’re able to kind of throw out ideas and not feel insecure about them.’ Coen agrees. ‘All your egos are invested in making it a good script. Nobody feels offended.’ He grins. ‘It’s never a problem when we’re having dinner.’