
Ethan Coen directs Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan and Beanie Feldstein in the crime caper comedy where two lesbian pals get out of town and start a new life but their rental car has some dark cargo hidden within.
At the start of this new decade, the unthinkable happened. Joel and Ethan decided to put their 40 year working relationship on pause, do “solo” projects with their respective spouses and now it suddenly seems like we know exactly who brings what to a Coen Brothers film. The Tragedy Of Macbeth might be indisputably the better made project, formally exciting and technically astounding, but it ain’t anywhere near as dirty loose and sugar sweet as this. Feels like Ethan has rolled back the clock to The Big Lebowski days… and I’m there for that. Nothing here tries too hard, it is deeply throwaway but in a way that has been missing from multiplexes since A Life Less Ordinary. Positives: Stacked cast. Unpretentious sex scenes. Wonderfully verbose dialogue. Gun totin’ shocks. Dumb support by lovely character actors. An overriding sense of the absurd. Bonkers transitions. Qualley absolutely understand the assignment and this will gain her more fans. That Coen exclusive dialogue falls out from her mouth perfectly. If you are a fan of hotties with big eyebrows this will sate your thirst. Slight but never dull.
7
Perfect Double Bill: Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/