WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Drive-Away Dolls (2024)!
Ethan Coen’s 2024 comedy thriller, Drive-Away Dolls, calls back to a classic scene from The Big Lebowski, but with a fun twist. Following Joel Coen’s solo directorial debut The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), Ethan Coen premiered his first solo directorial feature in 2024 with Drive-Away Dolls. In addition to highlighting more of the differences between the styles of the Coen Brothers after directing 18 movies together, Drive-Away Dolls includes some subtle references to the duo’s past films that are considered classics in the comedy and crime genres.
Though Drive-Away Dolls’ reviews fail to recapture the acclaim of the Coens Brothers’ best movies, it does manage to revive several great underlying themes and tropes from their comedy outings. In addition to some of the more satirical elements of Fargo, Drive-Away Dolls’ characters and ironic situations are somewhat reminiscent of the Coens’ 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski. One Drive-Away Dolls scene, in particular, is shot in a way that harks back to one of the most iconic sequences from the beginning of The Big Lebowski.
Drive-Away Dolls Ending Explained
Directed by Ethan Coen, Drive-Away Dolls wraps things up but leaves things open. We break down the film’s biggest ending moments and what’s next.
Drive-Away Dolls Features A Scene Almost Identical To The Big Lebowski’s Apartment Break-In
When the criminals in Drive-Away Dolls discover that the car containing the head of Pedro Pascal’s character and his briefcase of dildos was mistakenly given to Jamie and Marian, they head to the apartment of their reference, Sukie (Beanie Feldstein). Needing to find information about Jamie and Marian, Arliss and Flint break into Sukie’s apartment. This sequence bears a notable resemblance to The Big Lebowski scene in which Treehorn’s enforcers break through the Dude’s apartment door after mistaking him for a different Jeffrey Lebowski. However, Drive-Away Dolls’ enforcers don’t urinate on Sukie’s rug like they did in The Big Lebowski.
In a fun twist, Drive-Away Dolls’ Sukie ultimately has the upper hand in the confrontation in her apartment, unlike the Dude, whose head was dunked into his toilet by Treehorn’s two criminal partners. In Drive-Away Dolls, Sukie’s training as a police officer leads to her overpowering and grilling the criminals more than they question her. Sukie also quickly gives away Jamie and Marian’s identities due to her resentment over the former, so, similar to Treehorn’s mistake with the Dude’s identity, there was no reason for Arliss and Flint to be so aggressive in the first place.
Where To Watch Drive-Away Dolls: Showtimes & Streaming Status
Ethan Coen’s 2024 road trip comedy movie has a stacked cast, and here is where to watch Drive-Away Dolls in theaters or on streaming later on.
Drive-Away Dolls’ Psychedelic Scenes Are Perfect Callbacks To The Big Lebowski
A memorable aspect of The Big Lebowski was its hallucination scenes when the Dude was high on drugs. The 1998 film integrates psychedelic backgrounds and effects for the Dude’s hallucinations, and Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls has similarly-designed and shot trippy sequences. Miley Cyrus cameos in Drive-Away Dolls’ psychedelic interludes, which are later revealed to be a type of flashback to the ’60s or ’70s involving young Gary Channel (Matt Damon). The style and effect of these sequences thus suggest that the Dude’s hallucinations in The Big Lebowski were crafted by Ethan Coen rather than Joel.
The Big Lebowski
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One of Joel and Ethan Coen’s most successful crime comedies, The Big Lebowski follows Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) after he is assaulted in a case of mistaken identity. After becoming tangled with the millionaire who shares his name, the Dude is tasked with delivering a ransom in order to save Lebowski’s wife from a group of hardened criminals. The Dude is joined by his bowling buddies Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi), who complicate Lebowski’s plans.
- Director
- Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
- Release Date
- March 6, 1998
- Cast
- Julianne Moore , Jeff Bridges , Steve Buscemi , John Turturro , John Goodman , David Huddleston , Phillip Seymour Hoffman
