How many dildos are the right amount for a road trip movie about two lesbian women? None? Two? Seven?
Whatever the answer, there appears to be a unusually large amount in "Drive-Away Dolls", the new film by Ethan Coen, better known as one half of the Coen brothers behind classics like "The Big Lebowski" and "Fargo".
For "Drive-Away Dolls", Ethan Coen enlisted the support of his wife Tricia Cooke, who also works in the film industry as an editor and producer and who, in her own words, sees herself as queer.
Cooke had long had the idea for a road movie about two lesbian women, originally set to be called "Drive-Away Dykes". Coen told industry website MovieMaker that "the squares at the studio" vetoed the word "dyke" as it is still seen as an offensive word for gay women in some places.
"Drive-Away Dolls" tells the story of Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who spontaneously set off on a road trip to Tallahassee in Florida around the turn of the millennium.
They couldn't be more different: While Jamie picks up every woman she finds, Marian overthinks everything until nothing happens in the end. What the two of them don't realise: There's a suitcase with explosive contents in the boot of their rental car - and of course a horde of crooks is after it.
"Drive-Away Dolls" has all the ingredients for a brilliant film: a quirky, unpredictable story full of action, likeable main characters, Coen's famous sense of humour, great costumes and a great cast - among them Matt Damon, Miley Cyrus and Pedro Pascal.
It even brings back one of the cornerstones of "The Big Lebowski" - a plot that revolves around the contents of a briefcase.
The film brings together queer and diverse characters. But there's a catch: We have a somewhat clichéd view of the lesbian duo and their sexuality. Some might find the viewer's gaze feels, at times, rather male and heterosexual.
We see lots of lesbian sex and intimacy, which perhaps help normalize this for some viewers more accustomed to hetero love interests - or is it perhaps voyeuristic?
And then there's all the dildos. For a film that tries to do without male leads, the male phallus plays an absurdly important role - both in the protagonists' sex life and in the plot.
As a queer filmmaker, Cooke has certainly brought her own creativity to the film, and she told online magazine Indiewire she wanted to find ways to work silly ideas into the structure of the movie without trying to say much.
"There's not a lot of earnestness," Cooke told the magazine. "The points for me are: men can be clueless, or, women are powerful, strong, fun, interesting characters, or you can put queer people in the movie, and it doesn't necessarily just have to be about them being queer, they can be in a genre movie."
Coen sums up the film's undertaking in the same interview: "You can have a raunchy boy movie, except it’s girls." And so "Drive-Away Dolls", despite its queer, feminist facade, does remain something of a raunchy boy movie.