Though we still hold out hope that the Coen brothers can patch things up and work side-by-side sooner rather than later, having both estranged siblings pumping out solo projects simultaneously is a pretty sweet consolation prize all things considered.
While Joel played it too straight for our taste with his sturdy, black-and-white Macbeth rendition, Ethan seems right at home working on a lighter register and trying to replicate the directing duo’s trademark slapstick humor and wry misdirection (“Raising Arizona” and “Burn After Reading” spring to mind) in his own solo venture. Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley (thrice represented in the present list) crack and sizzle together as two lesbian twentysomethings who tear across the country in a rental car and inadvertently become embroiled in a shady political cover-up scheme involving a Florida senator and a misplaced briefcase.
Critics bashed it, audiences ignore it, and, frankly, not every gag lands. But as long as you take it for what it is — a knowingly trashy, honest-to-goodness B-movie romp that barely stretches past the 80-minute mark — there’s a little something for every kind of viewer to enjoy here.
