Roku has released the first teaser trailer for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a live-action series based on the novels by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.

The Spiderwick Chronicles follows “Helen and her children, 15-year-old fraternal twins Jared and Simon and their sister Mallory, as they move to their ancestral home, Spiderwick. Jared discovers a boggart and realizes that magical creatures are real! The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda who implores Jared to find the pages of her father’s field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath.” The series stars Joy Bryant as Helen, Lyon Daniels as Jared, Noah Cottrell as Simon, Mychala Lee as Mallory, Jack Dylan Grazer as the voice of Thimbletack, and Christian Slater as Mulgarath.

You might remember that The Spiderwick Chronicles was originally ordered for Disney+ and had actually finished shooting when the streaming service pulled the plug on the project. Thankfully, the series found a new home at Roku.

“It is an honor to bring The Spiderwick Chronicles, a spectacular adventure-filled story led by the incredible Christian Slater and Joy Bryant, exclusively to The Roku Channel,” said Brian Tannenbaum, Head of Originals, Roku Media. “We cannot wait to introduce this exquisitely crafted series, imagined by a world-class creative team, to millions of streamers.“
 
“We are elated that The Spiderwick Chronicles has found a new home and want to thank The Roku Channel for their passionate partnership,” said Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ Original Scripted Series. “Our showrunner Aron Eli Coleite has crafted a beautiful series full of all the enchantment that made the books so beloved, and we can’t wait for audiences to meet these wonderful characters.“

This isn’t the first time The Spiderwick Chronicles has been adapted as Paramount Pictures released a feature film in 2008 directed by Mark Waters. The movie starred Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Sarah Bolger, Nick Nolte, Seth Rogen, and Martin Short. It received largely positive reviews and grossed $162 million worldwide.

What did you think of the teaser trailer for The Spiderwick Chronicles? Will you be watching when the series premieres on Roku on April 19th?

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Last year, New Line Cinema went all-in on a partnership with Barbarian (watch it HERE) writer/director Zach Cregger and the film’s producers at BoulderLight Pictures. New Line came out the winner in a bidding war over Cregger’s next film, a mysterious horror project called Weapons. They signed a first look deal with BoulderLight Pictures, tasking the company with developing high concept genre projects for them. And they gave a greenlight to the thriller Companion, produced by BoulderLight and Cregger. Last May, it was announced that Pedro Pascal of The Last of Us had signed on to star in Weapons… and six months later, it was reported that Pascal was also in talks to play Reed Richards in Marvel’s new attempt at bringing the Fantastic Four to the big screen. Last month, a rumor started to circulate that the shooting schedules for Weapons and Fantastic Four were conflicting, so Pascal would have to choose one project over the other, and he was going with Fantastic Four. The fact that Pascal is no longer involved with Weapons has been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter – and they’ve also revealed that he might be replaced by Dune, Avengers: Infinity War, and No Country for Old Men star Josh Brolin! A deal hasn’t been closed yet, but Brolin is in talks.

We never got any details on the character Pascal would have been playing, and now Brolin will hopefully be playing, in Weapons. In fact, most details about the project are shrouded in mystery. It has been said that it’s “an interrelated, multistory horror epic” that’s tonally in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, and The Hollywood Reporter adds that the story revolves around the disappearance of high schoolers in a small town.

Weapons was originally supposed to start filming last fall. If it had, Pascal would have been able to stick with it. But production was delayed due to the strikes that hit Hollywood last year.

Cregger wrote the Weapons screenplay and will be directing the film. He’s also producing it with Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures.

We previously heard that Renate Reinsve, who starred in the Oscar-nominated film The Worst Person in the World, would be in this film as well. It’s not clear if she’s still attached.

New Line Cinema is paying Cregger a sum in the eight figure range to make this movie. When they won the bidding war over the rights, New Line’s president and CCO Richard Brener released the following statement: “Zach proved with Barbarian that he can create a visceral theatrical experience for audiences and that he commands every tool in the filmmaker toolbelt.We couldn’t be happier that he, Roy [Lee] and Miri [Yoon], and J.D. [Lifshitz]and Rafi [Margules] chose New Line to be the home of his next film, and hope it is the first of many to come.“

Are you disappointed to hear that Pedro Pascal won’t be in Weapons? Are you glad to hear the role might be going to Josh Brolin now? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The 1988 Tim Burton-directed classic Beetlejuice (watch it HERE) is finally getting a sequel this year, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice set to reach theatres on September 6th. Burton directed the sequel, for which Michael Keaton is back in the title role, Winona Ryder is reprising the role of Lydia Deetz, and Catherine O’Hara returns as Lydia’s stepmother Delia. We’ve known for a while that Jenna Ortega will be playing Lydia’s daughter in the film – and during a new interview with Vanity Fair, Ortega talked a little bit about working on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, revealing along the way that her character’s name is Astrid.

Commenting on the original film, Ortega said, “I had always loved the movie. I think the first time I saw it was actually at a friend’s house, and then the rest of the time, I’d see it whenever it was playing on TV around Halloween. Before I’d even seen the movie, I knew who Beetlejuice was. I knew who Lydia was. I was able to recognize costumes just because it was everywhere. … That’s why I was excited that they were bringing it back as well. I feel like studios nowadays, of course they want people in seats and you’ve got to do reboots or sequels or things like that to get people entwined, but to bring Beetlejuice back—of all of the stories—is so good because people need to revisit weird, strange, off-putting stories again. We need to introduce the younger generation that’s always on the phone to new artistic and creative ideas. The weirder you get with it, the more people you can get to see it, I think will probably do a lot for film in general.“

When she was asked for details, she said, “I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, but I am Lydia Deetz’s daughter, so I’ll give that away. She’s weird, but in a different way and not in the way you’d assume, I would say. The relationship between Lydia and Astrid, my character, is very important. And it’s also really strange because it’s a lot of catching up and putting the pieces together of what’s gone on in Lydia’s life since, which is nice, I think, for anybody who loves the character and is excited to see her again. I wouldn’t say (Astrid is) bright and sunny at all. She doesn’t go to the opposite end of the spectrum, but any kid who becomes a teenager wants to be removed from their parents. I think they instantly just fight whatever it is that their parent loves. So I think it’s a little bit of that. I’m not wearing pink and a cheerleader, but I am a little bit against my mom’s history or past. We butt heads quite a bit. For me, Lydia is the coolest ever. So then to play her daughter and also have to be like, ‘Mom…,’ and roll your eyes was definitely more challenging for me as an actor, but super fun to play.“

Beetlejuice 2 was in development hell for decades before it finally got made. In 1990, Jonathan Gems was hired to write a sequel that was going to be titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. Burton considered having Daniel Waters rewrite that script, Pamela Norris did rewrite it, and Warner Bros. offered Kevin Smith the chance to do another rewrite. He turned it down. Seth Grahame-Smith was hired to write and produce a new version of a sequel in 2011. Mike Vukadinovich was brought on to rewrite his script in 2017.

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators and co-showrunners of Wednesday, have written the screenplay for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice that was actually filmed. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing the sequel, which filmed in London before moving to Vermont and Massachusetts.

Ortega, Keaton, Ryder, and O’Hara are joined in the cast by Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice’s wife, Willem Dafoe as a law enforcement officer in the afterlife, and Justin Theroux in an unspecified role.

Are you looking forward to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? What do you think of what Jenna Ortega had to say about her character Astrid? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Who’s ready for a joyride? The long-rumored Ferris Bueller’s Day Off spin-off, Sam and Victor’s Day Off, is ready to twist and shout with David Katzenberg (Young Rock, The Goldbergs, Ballers) at the helm. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, Katzenberg is buckling up for a film featuring the two mischievous valets who borrowed Cameron’s father’s Ferrari to rip through the streets of Chicago joyously! In his newsletter, Sneider says the duo’s adventure takes place on a single day, with Sam and Victor grabbing life by the short and curlies for a fast-paced tear through city streets.

Sam and Victor’s Day Off will be Katzenberg’s feature directorial debut after helming numerous television episodes for various shows. Famously known in the industry for directing 41 episodes of The Goldbergs, Katzenberg’s director credits extend to Young Rock, 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Schooled, Riverdale, and more.

Sneider’s report says the hunt is on for new writers for the spin-off, intending to unleash the high-speed comedy in theaters. Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald of Cobra Kai fame will produce Sam and Victor’s Day Off with Paul Young of Argyle Media. Dina Hiller executive produces through Counterbalance, with Stephen Cedars, Benji Kleiman, and Scott Yacyshyn acting as associate producers.

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris (Matthew Broderick), Cameron (Alan Ruck), and Sloane (Mia Sara) escape the doldrums of high school by playing hooky in Chicago. Their journey of self-discovery eventually finds them dropping Cameron’s father’s Ferrari off at a garage, where attendants Sam and Victor first look at the gorgeous vehicle. Richard Edson and Larry “Flash” Jenkins play the car enthusiast duo who plan to drive the sports car at high speeds before the teenage trio returns to the garage. In the John Hughes-directed comedy, we never see what Sam and Victor get up to beyond ripping through an empty road. Presumably, Sam and Victor’s Day Off explores their hijinks from that mysterious afternoon.

What do you think about David Katzenberg taking control of the Ferris Bueller spin-off? Have you ever wondered what Sam and Victor got up to with the Ferrari? Will the new film include scenes from the original, or will everyone be recast? We’ll find out when Sam and Victor’s Day Off picks up speed.

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Who’s ready for a joyride? The long-rumored Ferris Bueller’s Day Off spin-off, Sam and Victor’s Day Off, is ready to twist and shout with David Katzenberg (Young Rock, The Goldbergs, Ballers) at the helm. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, Katzenberg is buckling up for a film featuring the two mischievous valets who borrowed Cameron’s father’s Ferrari to rip through the streets of Chicago joyously! In his newsletter, Sneider says the duo’s adventure takes place on a single day, with Sam and Victor grabbing life by the short and curlies for a fast-paced tear through city streets.

Sam and Victor’s Day Off will be Katzenberg’s feature directorial debut after helming numerous television episodes for various shows. Famously known in the industry for directing 41 episodes of The Goldbergs, Katzenberg’s director credits extend to Young Rock, 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Schooled, Riverdale, and more.

Sneider’s report says the hunt is on for new writers for the spin-off, intending to unleash the high-speed comedy in theaters. Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald of Cobra Kai fame will produce Sam and Victor’s Day Off with Paul Young of Argyle Media. Dina Hiller executive produces through Counterbalance, with Stephen Cedars, Benji Kleiman, and Scott Yacyshyn acting as associate producers.

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris (Matthew Broderick), Cameron (Alan Ruck), and Sloane (Mia Sara) escape the doldrums of high school by playing hooky in Chicago. Their journey of self-discovery eventually finds them dropping Cameron’s father’s Ferrari off at a garage, where attendants Sam and Victor first look at the gorgeous vehicle. Richard Edson and Larry “Flash” Jenkins play the car enthusiast duo who plan to drive the sports car at high speeds before the teenage trio returns to the garage. In the John Hughes-directed comedy, we never see what Sam and Victor get up to beyond ripping through an empty road. Presumably, Sam and Victor’s Day Off explores their hijinks from that mysterious afternoon.

What do you think about David Katzenberg taking control of the Ferris Bueller spin-off? Have you ever wondered what Sam and Victor got up to with the Ferrari? Will the new film include scenes from the original, or will everyone be recast? We’ll find out when Sam and Victor’s Day Off picks up speed.

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A24 is planning to give Civil War, the latest film from Alex Garland, the director of Ex Machina, Annihilation, Devs, and Men, a theatrical release on April 12th – but before that movie makes its way out into the world, A24 and Garland are already moving forward with another, currently untitled war movie. A couple weeks ago, it was announced that Charles Melton – whose credits include May December, Heart of Champions, Secret Headquarters, American Horror Stories, Poker Face, History of the World: Part II, and Riverdale – had signed on to star in the film. Now Deadline has broken the news that Melton is being joined in the cast by Joseph Quinn!

Quinn has over a decade of credits to his name, with roles in Dickensian, Game of Thrones, Howards End, Overlord, Les Misérables, and Catherine the Great, among others, but it was when he played fan favorite character Eddie Munson on season 4 of Stranger Things that his career was launched to a whole new level. Since working on Stranger Things, Quinn has been cast in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel and the upcoming A Quiet Place prequel / spin-off A Quiet Place: Day One. Last week, it was announced that Quinn will be playing Johnny Storm / the Human Torch in Marvel’s Fantastic Four.

Quinn’s work on the A24 war movie will be wrapped up before filming on Fantastic Four begins this summer.

This Untitled War Movie is a collaboration between Garland and Ray Mendoza, who served as the military supervisor for Civil War. Garland and Mendoza have written the screenplay together and will be co-directing the film.

Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich of DNA and Peter Rice are producing the project. A24 will be handling the global release of the film. As Deadline notes, this is just like any Garland project in that “details behind what the film is about are being shrouded in secrecy.”

In addition to directing the films mentioned in the first paragraph, Garland has also written The Beach, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go, and Dredd, among others. (There have been claims that he directed Dredd as well.) A couple weeks ago, it was announced that Garland and 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle are working on a sequel called 28 Years Later, which may be the first entry in a trilogy of sequels.

Are you a fan of Joseph Quinn, and are you glad to hear he’s going to work on this war movie before he moves on to Fantastic Four? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is about to laugh all the way to the bank as reports about the budget for Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux are accurate. In a new article from Variety, the outlet says the budget for Joker 2 is a staggering $200 million! In contrast, the original film’s budget was $60 million. Small in scope and execution, Joker kept its story street-level, focusing on the increasing madness of Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck and his influential rise in Gotham City. Phillips’ Joker 2 is a musical, which I would assume calls for elaborate sets, fancy costumes, and immense musical numbers with choreography to compliment the carnage.

Variety’s report says Phoenix is getting $20 million to reprise his role as the struggling comedian turned psychopath. At the same time, Lady Gaga, who plays Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn) in the film, will sing her heart out for $12 million. Joker: Folie à Deux’s musical roots paint a confusing picture for Joker fans. Is Phillips’ film a song-and-dance feature with ultra-violence and questionable relationship goals? Surely, Phillips knows musicals are typically box office kryptonite, and it’s unlikely that Joker fans are anticipating a villain who croons his way through the sequel. If this concept sounds like a gamble, that’s because it is. Then again, maybe Joker 2 will break the curse.

Aspects of the Joker 2 plot remain a mystery. Still, we know a portion of the film takes place in Arkham Asylum, a fortified prison masquerading as a hospital for Gotham’s criminally insane population. In the comics, Dr. Harleen Quinzel thinks she can crack the Joker’s insane exterior and explore the man beneath the smile. As their sessions continue, Harley becomes entranced by the Joker’s charm and worldview. Together, they form an unlikely bond, leading Quinzel and Joker to escape Arkham Asylum to create a new brand of havoc in Gotham City.

Other stars attached to Joker: Folie à Deux include Brendan Gleeson, Cathrine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Zazie Beetz, who reprises her role as Sophie Dumond from the original film.

What do you think of Joker 2 getting a budget of $200 million? What are they spending all that money on? What will you do if Joker: Folie à Deux is an all-out musical? Will you still be on board or riot online like Arthur’s followers on the lawless Gotham streets? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Nic Pizzolatto got his career as a storyteller started by writing short stories and a novel called Galveston, then made his move into television by writing a couple episodes of the first season of the AMC series The Killing. He wasn’t pleased with that experience, telling NOLA.com that, “I want to be the guiding vision. I don’t do well serving someone else’s vision.” So he left The Killing as it headed into season 2 and went off to create his own show: True Detective, which found a home at HBO. Pizzolatto’s deal with HBO was renewed twice over the years as he crafted three seasons of True Detective, with his final deal with the network earning him $3 million a year. He was going to work on the network’s Perry Mason reboot, but had to let it go so he could focus on True Detective. Once True Detective season 3 wrapped up, Pizzolatto’s HBO deal expired and he signed a new deal with FX… but while Pizzolatto was gone, HBO retained the ownership rights to True Detective, and they were interested in bringing in someone who had “a fresh voice with a different point of view” to oversee a new season of the show. That’s how we see Issa López’s True Detective: Night Country – and now only has Pizzolatto’s social media behavior made it clear that he’s not happy to see True Detective continue without him, it has also led fans to wonder what he’s up to these days. So The Hollywood Reporter has put together an article on what Pizzolatto has been doing since his True Detective days ended.

First came the series he set up at FX: a drama called Redeemer, based on the Patrick Coleman novel The Churchgoer, which was set to star True Detective season 1’s Matthew McConaughey. FX gave the project a “script to series commitment”, meaning it would get a straight-to-series order, bypassing the pilot stage, if the network liked the scripts Pizzolatto turned in. Unfortunately, this project was set up in January of 2020, so it came to a standstill during the first year of the pandemic. At the start of 2021, FX decided to pass on Redeemer, and Pizzolatto negotiated an early exit from his FX deal, two years before it would have expired.

During the True Detective years, Pizzolatto had also worked on the scripts for the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven, an adaptation of his novel Galveston (which he took his name off of when director Mélanie Laurent did her own rewrite of the script), an unmade World War II drama called Ghost Army (which had Ben Affleck attached to direct and star), and Deadwood: The Movie. While Redeemer was falling apart, he wrote another movie, the Netflix release The Guilty (a remake of a Danish film).

In 2023, it was announced that Pizzolatto had set up “an untitled Western TV series” at Amazon’s Prime Video, again securing a “script to series” commitment… and soon after, Amazon got him to refashion his initial idea into another take on The Magnificent Seven. That project was just getting off the ground when Pizzolatto was hired to write a new draft of the Marvel Comics adaptation Blade, which is set to star his True Detective season 3 lead Mahershala Ali – but his work on that project was cut short when the writers strike hit. Once the strike was over, Marvel set aside Pizzolatto’s version of the story and decided to hire Logan‘s Michael Green to rewrite the screenplay instead.

But Pizzolatto is doing fine without Blade, because Amazon confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that his Magnificent Seven series is still in development. He has also written “a feature film that has attracted a top-name star and director that should be announced this month, and is working on two other TV projects.”

And in just a couple months, he will be making his feature film directorial debut, as production on his film Easy’s Waltz is scheduled to begin in April. Pizzolatto will be directing the film from his own screenplay, with Al Pacino, Michelle Monaghan, Simon Rex, and True Detective season 2’s Vince Vaughn signed on to star. Easy’s Waltz has been described as “Swingers meets A Star Is Born”  and will tell the story of a down-on-his-luck comedian-crooner navigating modern Las Vegas with old-school Vegas personalities.

So Pizzolatto has plenty going on, but also takes time to let people know he’s not happy that True Detective is in the hands of others now… which is kind of ironic, coming from someone who has worked on multiple remakes.

Are you a fan of Nic Pizzolatto’s work, and are you looking forward to Easy’s Waltz and/or his Magnificent Seven series (and whatever else he has in development)? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The fourth season of The Boys has yet to start. Still, a listing on the Film & Television Industry Alliance website (Production List) says production for The Boys Season 5 begins on April 08, 2024, with plans to shoot until August 22, 2024. While this listing is not an official announcement, the series will likely continue racking up viewership numbers on Prime Video, making a Season 5 renewal inevitable.

Meanwhile, The Boys Season 4 premieres in 2024, though no official premiere date has been announced. The Boys Season 4 picks up about a month after the Gen V Season 1 finale. When Season 4 begins, Butcher knows about Indira Shetty’s (Shelley Conn) engineered virus to kill Supes. Additionally, Homelander is going to trial after obliterating a protestor at a political rally during The Boys Season 3 conclusion. The new season also welcomes new cast members, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Rob Benedict, in mysterious roles. New Supes flying onto the scene include Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), with Rosemarie DeWitt making things complicated as Hughie’s long-lost mother.

In other news related to The Boys, the property will introduce a Spanish-language spin-off called The Boys: Mexico from Blue Beetle writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, with Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal set to executive produce. Details regarding The Boys: Mexico are being kept under wraps for now, but the series will be shot in Mexico. The search is on for someone to serve as co-showrunner alongside Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. Deadline adds that Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal are also considering appearing in the series, although they would not be main roles.

Since the debut of The Boys in 2019, we’ve seen two spin-off series released: The animated anthology series The Boys Presents: Diabolical debuted on Prime Video in 2022, followed by Gen V. This college-set spin-off wrapped up its first season in November and has already been renewed for a second. With The Boys: Mexico now on the way, seeing how the franchise will expand with this latest spin-off should be fun.

How are you enjoying The Boys after three bloody seasons of superhero-related carnage? Are you excited about The Boys Season 4? How about hearing there’s production plans for The Boys Season 5? How long can Prime Video ride the wave before the property becomes oversaturated? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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PLOT: Two young women, fleeing heartbreak, embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee. Unfortunately for them, the drive-away car they sign for happens to have some precious cargo being sought by deadly parties. 

REVIEW: As a lifelong fan of the Coen Bros, it’s a drag for me to say that Drive Away Dolls is a bit of a dud. Granted, it’s apparently “trying” to be bad, with it a gay-themed take on B-movies, but it’s so winking and self-aware that it feels more like an extended episode of Showtime’s cheesy Rebel Highway series from the nineties than a real movie. Running just a hair over eighty minutes, it feels like little more than a lark for one-half of one of the greatest directing duos ever. For some, that’s reason enough to make it worth seeing, but despite some inspired moments, it largely falls flat. 

Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan star as Jamie and Marian, two gay young women looking to shake their lives up. In classic quasi-rom-com fashion, the two are opposites, with Jamie the sexually voracious one. Marian prefers planting her nose in the literature of Thomas Hardy and early nights. Jamie’s been sleeping around on her cop girlfriend (played by Beanie Feldstein) and needs to lay low for a while, so the two head to Tallahassee to visit Marian’s aunt. They sign up for a “drive-away”, where they drop off a car in Tallahassee for a shady small-time car dealer (Bill Camp – delivering the film’s most amusingly deadpan performance), only to discover they’re transporting precious cargo being sought but a well-connected big shot (Colman Domingo).

While it certainly seems like the kind of movie that would be fun for Coen to do, he and his producer/screenwriter/ editor, Tricia Cooke, get carried away in trying to make it self-consciously a B-movie. I suppose we’ve never seen a “love on the run” type movie from a lesbian perspective before (although we’re about to get a great one with Love Lies Bleeding), but the film is all silly/ no substance. It’s all done in this nudge-nudge, wink-wink fashion that grows tiresome, with the girls randomly being invited to high school “basement parties,” straight out of a 50s Roger Corman movie (with a gay twist) where all the girls are gay and randomly make out with each other, and other such episodes. If you decide to roll with it, you might find Drive Away Dolls fun in a stoner way, but the problem is that as much as it’s trying to be amusing, it isn’t.

Virtually all the gags fall flat, with a big star-cameo in the last chuck of the film being embarrassingly telegraphed. The only positive thing about Drive Away Dolls is that Qualley and Viswanathan do their best with the material. Qualley is tasked with delivering a very over-the-top (Coen-esque) performance as the “wacky” Jamie and certainly seems game. You’ve never seen her like this before, and she deserves kudos for willing to be so “out there” in her performance. At the same time, Viswanathan gets to be lower-key (and funnier) as the more buttoned-up Marian. The large ensemble cast shows up to play in the Coen sandbox, but only Pedro Pascal, in a tiny role, really makes the most of his cameo. The others tend to be grating – except for Domingo, who is the only one who gets to underplay a bit (it makes him seem like he’s in a different movie from everyone else  – a better movie). 

In the lead-up to its release, Coen and Cooke warned that critics might not get the vibe they’re going for, and that’s fair. As a midnight movie, Drive Away Dolls could find a following, as it has aspirations of being high camp. For me, it’s just not memorable, funny or stylish enough to work as the kind of entertainment it wants to be. Midnight movies are supposed to be fun, but this is just grating. 

Drive Away Dolls

BELOW AVERAGE

5

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