“Drive-Away Dolls,” directed by Ethan Coen, is a hysterical and absurd lesbian road trip movie that sometimes flies too close to the sun but remains an irresistible fever dream nonetheless. 

Originally called “Drive-Away Dykes,” Coen and his wife, Tricia Cooke, wrote the film together — drawing from Cooke’s experiences gliding through gay bars in the 2000s.

Embarking on the most impromptu journey of a lifetime in 1999, lesbian friends Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) travel from Philadelphia to Tallahassee, Florida, unknowingly carrying a decapitated head and a suitcase with some pretty gnarly contents that are relatively impossible to guess up until the reveal. 

The movie opens with a twisted incident involving Santos (Pedro Pascal) clutching the suitcase and running for his dear life. A man follows him into an alley and chops off his head — cut to an uncensored sex scene between Jamie and a random chick. The film gushes at its unabashedness toward female sexuality, and sometimes it crosses into over-sexualization, but its raunchiness is sort of the whole point. 

As Emma Seligman’s “Bottoms” (2023) showed audiences morally gray, animated lesbians, “Drive-Away Dolls” does similarly and arguably better. 

After Jamie’s cop girlfriend, Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), kicks her out of their apartment for cheating, Jamie joins her uptight office job-working, Henry James-reading pal Marian on a trip to Tallahassee to see Marian’s aunt. 

The pair utilize a drive-away car service and take a car that happens to hold Pedro Pascal’s head and the mysterious suitcase.

A group of inept small-time criminals is hot on their pursuit to retrieve what’s inside the drive-away car’s trunk.

However, the two girls have no clue as they hop from dyke bars to a women’s soccer team makeout session in a basement. 

If this sounds all over the place and too absurd to be plausible — it is, and it’s awesome.

Qualley and Viswanathan assume their respective roles as hilariously horny lesbian number one and hilariously sexually frustrated lesbian number two.

Their on-screen chemistry is remarkable and surprisingly tender. However, at times, their clashing dynamics are plain grating. 

Qualley uses the most ridiculous Texan accent ever to grace the big screen, and it sort of works.

If you remember, this flick is practically “Pulp Fiction” with dildos. Marina’s principled attitude balances Jamie’s often-questionable motives, and Viswanathan acutely captures being off-put by a friend’s lack of shame.

The film is a brief 84 minutes, and maybe the plot is a bit dumb, but the movie doesn’t seem hellbent on being taken seriously. 

According to MovieMaker Magazine, Cooke even said “Drive-Away Dolls” is “a little trashy,” and she doesn’t know if anyone would ever take it “very seriously.”

It relies mostly on its foul-mouthed dialogue, which grants the occasional eye-roll, but it’s hard not to get into its intentionally ridiculous groove.

The film is laced with several acid-crazed montages that tease what’s inside the suitcase, including cameos of Miley Cyrus and Matt Damon engaging in hippie sex. 

That’s right — “Drive-Away Dolls” incorporates swirls of fuzzy, psychedelic, PowerPoint-esque imagery as transitions that will have audiences saying, “Is that Miley Cyrus?” out loud. 

Stop asking why at this point.

Although the film is glazed in provocative madness, meaning it is not for the narrow-minded, it has a weirdly touching ending for lesbians in the late ‘90s.

Diving into the film with zero expectations makes this convoluted masterpiece a million times more exciting, so strap on in.

“Drive-Away Dolls” was released Feb. 23 and is available in theaters.