NH Audubon in Concord showcases artist Jackie Hanson
Starting Tuesday, March 12, the artwork of New Hampshire native Jackie Hanson will be on display at the Susan N. McLane Audubon Center at 84 Silk Road.
“It is a really nice space,” Hanson said, describing the venue. “Great natural light, plenty of wall space — I feel like I need to make a few more pieces before I hang the show.”
Hanson, a 2022 Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from New England College (after the New Hampshire Art Institute merged with the school) was thrilled to be asked by the New Hampshire Audubon to exhibit her collection titled “Human/Nature.”
“I do a lot of landscapes and other nature-based things,” Hanson said. This will be her third showing since September.
“I had my art hang at two different public libraries last year,” she said. “The first one was Nashua Public Library. That was in September and October. Then my work went to Amherst Town Library in December.”
The NH Audubon describes this collection on their website as “immersive landscapes that feature both well-known and overlooked vantages.”
Hanson likes to pick and choose how to express an image.
“This show will all be in soft pastel,” Hanson said, “which is kind of like a chalk. That’s what that series of work is, but apart from that I also like to use watercolors, acrylic, wash … I like to jump around in different mediums. I find that if I do switch now and then, then I am better at all of them when I switch again.”
The collection for this show is solid. “I believe I have around 15 or 20 pieces. The biggest one that I have is called ‘Annie C Maguire Shipwrecked Here 1886.’” The painting measures 30 by 62 inches installed.“It is a four-panel, I guess quadriptych, of a panoramic view at Portland headlight in Maine. I named it that because there is a rock that you can see that they have to repaint it every few months because of the tide, but it says the name of a shipwreck that happened there.”
Hanson, as the NH Audubon points out, enjoys the vantage points less traveled.
“I have done a few pieces in this way, where I went to an iconic landscape in New England and I kind of turned away from the classic view, which in this case would be the lighthouse,” Hanson said. “I had it behind me and I was taking a view of the little cove next to it instead. And you can actually see the place that most people stand to take their photo of the lighthouse in my painting.”
Hanson grew up in an artistic family; her mother is an artist and has “always been doing artwork,” she said. “My family and my mom have shaped my idea of what’s beautiful in the world. So I like to promote that with other people, to look for beauty in everyday moments. ”
“I have a full-time job and it can be tricky,” she said; Hanson makes the most of her time, though, “painting at night and on the weekends. As we get into the warmer months, I do a lot of art and craft fairs on the weekends. You can find me all around the state and sometimes into Maine or Massachusetts, bringing my art and prints and cards and stickers of my art to different places. I like to do pop-ups, making it accessible to everyday people to have artwork in their homes. That’s a lot of how I get my art income. I do have my work at a store in Contoocook called Maple Street Mercantile as well.” The majority of her pieces will be for sale at the McLane Center.
Be on the lookout for future shows from Hanson.
“I just finished up an unrelated series that’s in mostly acrylic but some mixed media that’s botanicals, mostly house plants. I wanted to make sure that they had a distinctly feminine aesthetic.” As she sees it, “a lot of the high art world and some of the academic art world doesn’t think that things considered feminine are necessarily worthy…. So, a lot of pink, a lot of vibrant colors. I was thinking: art by a woman for women.”
Human/Nature Where: McLane Audubon Center, 84 Silk Farm Road, Concord When: March 12 through May 17; the gallery is open Tuesdays through Fridays 11 a.m to 5 p.m. An artist reception will be held Saturday, March 23, from 2 to 4 p.m.
More info: “Looking Back: Owl’s Head” by Jackie Hansonart. Courtesy Photo.
A quartet of Broadway actors in need of a reputation reboot and a gay high school student looking to disrupt the status quo in her small town are at the center of The Prom, a musical that’s at turns heartwarming and hilarious. The latest production from the Palace Theatre, it will run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through March 24.
Creative Director Carl Rajotte decided to do the show after watching a Netflix adaptation of it with Palace staff during the pandemic.
“We just all loved it,” he said in a recent phone interview. “People cried, we all laughed; we thought this should be something that we put in our season once we reopened.”
The story begins as diva actors Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman are finishing opening night of Eleanor: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story. The musical is immediately panned by the critics for missing the point. Both actors are slammed for being narcissistic and out of touch. Dee Dee is played by Michelle Rajotte, seen most recently in Dancing Queens. Jay Falzone plays Barry; it’s the ninth production for the Palace veteran.
Crestfallen, the two decide to combine altruism and public relations and look for a cause. With help from Trent Oliver, an underemployed Juilliard graduate (Richard Gomez), and Angie Dickinson, an actress who wants to move beyond 20 years in the Chicago chorus line (Katie Harvey), they learn about Emma (played by Palace newcomer Juliana Chimenti), whose attempt to take her girlfriend to the prom caused the whole thing to be canceled.
To the soundtrack of the un-self-aware anthem “Changing Lives,” the four hatch a plan to love-bomb the prom back into existence. Hopping on the bus with Trent, who’s in a non-union touring company of Godspell, they head to Indiana and an incredulous reception. The object of their crusade (mixing in Godspell is a lovely touch) is among the most bewildered.
Of course, the well-meaning bunch is undeterred. Like four bedazzled bulls in a China shop, they push their Big Apple agenda, as it were (“I’m a liberal from New York who’s come to save you!” Trent shouts at one point), on a cornfield community. Gratefully, life lessons outnumber caricatures, and The Prom’s heart shines through in the end.
The Prom’s greatest strength is taking a serious topic and leavening it with outsized humor, while weaving in compelling subplots to move the action along. The Broadway-loving (and Emma ally) high school principal who has a lifelong crush on Dee Dee, and Barry vicariously living his dashed high school prom hopes through Emma, are among the entanglements that carry things forward — along with great songs.
Ultimately, it succeeds because of what’s stumbled upon in an errant pursuit of redemption.
“It’s a comedy but it has so much heart too, it’s so charming,” Rajotte said. “Elites from the big city come thinking that they’ll bowl over the small town and they begin to learn where the soul of this place is, and they learn about themselves as well in the process.”
In preparing for the show, Rajotte was surprised to learn that playwright Jack Viertel got the idea for The Prom from a real event. “In Mississippi in 2010, a girl went to her school and asked to bring her girlfriend, and she wanted to wear a tux and they ended up canceling the whole prom,” he said. “That kind of hit me hard; that’s why this show is just so important.”
A few years back, Rajotte helped with a prom for teenagers in the Palace’s Youth Theatre program; it opened his eyes. “I thought … we’ll put some music up, dance a little bit,” he said. “But then I talked to the kids; one came to me, and this hit me like a brick wall. He said, ‘thank you so much for doing this…. I love it here more than school because I’m able to dance and be myself, and no one will make fun of me.’”
The moment reminded him why the show’s message matters. “Being inclusive and taking a moment to step in someone else’s shoes for a second before you judge … see it from another point of view and see how much someone can be hurt because of that,” he said. With The Prom, “we’re trying to get that message across, of course, with a ton of humor.”
The Prom When: Fridays, March 8, March 15 and March 22, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, March 9, March 16 and March 23, at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, March 10, March 17 and March 24, at 2 p.m. Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester Tickets: $28 and up at palactheatre.org
Local Eateries talk about how they’re faring, Plus a pairing of restaurants and theater in Manchester
Running a restaurant has never been easy.
The past four years have surpassed the definition of “challenging” for the restaurant industry — from the pandemic that shut New Hampshire restaurants down in March 2020 to all the supply chain, staffing and inflation issues that have come after. So how’s it going now?
How it’s going
Less than optimal, according to Todd Roy, owner of Cheers Grille and Bar in Concord.
“It’s not great,” he said. “Everything is down; I can tell you that.”
Roy blames a combination of inflation and too many restaurants in the Concord area.
“There’s just not enough population to support all of us,” he said. But he sees inflation as a bigger challenge to his business. Rent, utilities, and especially food costs have gone up, but there are secondary effects as well. When money is tight, he clarifies, restaurant patrons have to set priorities: “Going out to eat goes farther down the list.”
“We’re all struggling. I’ve added breakfast on the weekends to raise our revenue,” Roy said.
Jeff Paige, chef and co-owner of Cotton in Manchester, is happier about business conditions. “Business has been great,” Paige said. Overall, his regulars have been very loyal.
“We’ve been able to build a relationship with our customers over the years,” Paige said. “A few of them come in so regularly that they call in to let us know if they can’t make it in.”
He agrees that staffing can be challenging. Cotton, which pre-pandemic was open weekdays for lunch, has had to drop lunch service.
“Lunch was busy; we just didn’t have the staff,” Paige said. Fortunately, most of Paige’s core kitchen staff have been with him for 20 years or more. “We make sure we take care of those people. We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to pay more than a lot of other restaurants.”
Amanda Wihby, co-owner and COO of Red Arrow, agrees that business is good. During uncertain times customers crave comfort food — something that diners like the Red Arrow specialize in.
“It’s been a tumultuous four years,” she said. “We’re finally coming out of the effects of the pandemic. Because of inflation, we’re seeing the customers coming back.”
Takeout. Photo by John Fladd.
Ready to eat?
Keith Sarasin, cookbook author, chef and owner of The Farmer’s Dinner Dining Group, sees a change in many restaurant customers, who have traditionally had conservative tastes in food. “It’s encouraging,” he said. “People are embracing foods that they aren’t familiar with — that haven’t been represented in the mainstream up until now. The education piece has been much higher for the average diner. As a chef, that’s super encouraging.”
He also sees more of a relationship between customers and individual chefs.
“I’m seeing trends where people are getting involved with the [local] chef community. I see diners following chefs from restaurant to restaurant,” Sarasin said.
Chris Viaud, the chef and owner of Greenleaf (serving seasonal, contemporary American style food) and Ansamn (Haitian cuisine) restaurants in Milford, has been surprised and gratified by the loyalty of his customers over the past few years.
“Our guests have been so supportive,” he said. “In 2019, we got off to a great start, then boom! But our customers have been supportive of both our restaurants, coming out during Covid and helping build us back up.”
Viaud, too, sees customers becoming more adventurous.
“They’re definitely more sophisticated than they used to be,” he said. “Diners do want to see different and new things. As a chef, my excitement comes from being able to adapt and change. I’m excited that there is such excitement for new and different cuisines.”
Chef Chris Viaud. Courtesy Photo.
On the menu
While traditional comfort foods will always play an important role in New Hampshire dining, across the board, cuisine diversity was frequently mentioned as the biggest change in the local restaurant scene.
“I think we’re getting more international food,” said Jessica Martin, Executive Director of Intown Concord. “We’ve got our classics, but we’re getting a lot more restaurants in Concord that reflect how diverse our population is becoming.” She cited Batulo’s Kitchen, a Concord restaurant that specializes in Somali-inspired cuisine, as one example.
“There’s Buba Noodle (a Vietnamese restaurant), N’awlins Grille (Creole), and STREET, which specializes in dishes inspired by street food from around the world,” Martin said.
Sarasin agrees that the New Hampshire restaurant community is embracing diversity and food from around the world. He points to Classic Biryani, Kabab and Curry — an Indian restaurant on Manchester’s West Side.
“I travel all over the country, tasting food everywhere. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best kebab house in the country. It’s incredibly encouraging that a community like Manchester can support an Indian restaurant of that quality,” Sarasin said.
Wihby of the Red Arrow agrees.
“I’d like to see even more diversity in fine-dining restaurants,” she said. “It would be great to see more places popping up.” She expressed a fondness for Thai Food Connection, which has restaurants in Manchester and Bedford.
Viaud, whose Ansanm restaurant in Milford specializes in Haitian-fusion cuisine, feels vindicated by the expansion of offerings.
“Coming up in the industry, you get pigeonholed,” Viaud said. “I feel strongly that this is my background, and I want to share it. Customers have definitely become more sophisticated. Indian, Mexican, Italian — they’re open to it all.”
Kaji Maharjan of Kathmandu Spice, a Nepali/Indian restaurant in Manchester, said before Covid most of his business was in-house dining.
“2021 was a very bad year, though,” Maharjan said. “Now, 25 to 30 percent of our customers eat here; the rest of our business is takeout, at this point.”
He said that in addition to customers using Grubhub, UberEats and DoorDash, his restaurant has changed its online presence. “Now people can order online or call in their orders,” which, he said, translates into even more takeout business.
Maharjan said that over the past year, however, in-house dining has been on the rise.
“There are more people eating here,” he said. “It’s slowly getting better.”
Cheers. Courtesy Photo.
What’s next
According to Jessica Martin at IntownConcord, there are some very positive developments on the horizon. She points to the Capitol Center For the Arts’ Culinary Artist in Residence program, which works with newly arrived community members who want to start a food business. The culinary residents are able to use the Capitol Center’s two commercial kitchens to develop a customer base and to work out recipes on a commercial scale.
She also points to State Street Kitchen’s incubator program, which helps provide equipment and training for prospective small food businesses. Traditional restaurant models are changing. “We’ve been working on bringing more food trucks to the area,” she said, such as the food trucks that show up for the monthly First Friday shopping events.
Jeff Paige at Cotton sees more changes to traditional service models in the future.
“I’m seeing a trend toward dinner-only service,” he said. Staffing issues and kitchen efficiencies make eliminating lunch more attractive to restaurant owners. He also points to the difficulty of staying open seven days a week.
“Tuesday through Sunday makes the most sense for most of us,” he said, “and holiday Mondays.” Paige said that although the past few years have been tough, he’s cautiously optimistic. “We’re doing really well and a few of our friends who own restaurants are doing well, too.”
Kaji Maharjan at Kathmandu Spice agrees. His restaurant has been open seven days a week for years, but has just started closing on Tuesdays.
“Being open all the time is just too hard,” he said. “My staff needs a break.”
Roy at Cheers continues to worry about rising business costs: “I just signed a three-year contract with my food reps to keep prices down.”
Sarasin sees New Hampshire’s restaurant scene as only becoming more diverse, and more focused on superior ingredients. “More small, chef-driven restaurants centered around high-quality, fresh, seasonal ingredients are going to thrive,” he said.
Viaud sees area restaurants working together to build a culinary community where restaurants play off each other. As customers at one restaurant open themselves up to new experiences, hopefully they will take that spirit of adventure with them to other restaurants.
Different restaurants with different cuisines pull together to build a common culinary vocabulary. “I’m hoping the industry continues to be collaborative,” he said.
Chef Keith Sarasin. Courtesy photo.
Great Manchester Restaurant Week
Greater Manchester Restaurant Week runs through March 14. The Greater Manchester Chamber and the Palace Theatre are working together this year, to promote the Palace’s production of the Broadway musical The Prom (running weekends March 1 to March 24) by collaborating with more than 25 participating Manchester restaurants, who will have special offerings from custom cocktails to prix-fixe meals.
“Pairing a Restaurant Week with the Palace Theatre’s production of Prom is quite a creative way to experience the culinary and cultural contributions of the Greater Manchester community,” said Cole Riel, Director of Small Business and Community Development at the Greater Manchester Chamber, in a press release.
“We’ve been wanting to sponsor a restaurant week for a couple of years now,” says Kelsey Collins, the Marketing Director for the Palace Theatre. “Prom is a new show for us and we’re very excited about it, so we decided to do it now.”
The Prom is a musical comedy about four overly enthusiastic Broadway actors who try to help an Indiana teenager, who has been banned from attending her prom. Their over-the-top efforts are overwhelming to the teenage girl, who just wants to be left alone.
Many participating restaurants will be serving prom-themed cocktails and meals. Campo Enoteca has developed a pair of bespoke cocktails called “The King of Prom” and “The Queen of Prom.” The Gyro Spot is featuring an “After Prom Special” — two gyros of the customer’s choice, and a special chocolate-covered loukoumades. Current Kitchen & Bar at DoubleTree is serving a Honey Nut Cheerios ‘Prom-tini’ with Honey Nut Cheerios-infused rum, Angry Orchard hard cider and honey cinnamon simple syrup.
“A lot of theater-goers are going out to dinner,” Collins explains, “either before or after a show. This is a good way to let them know about the great restaurants in the area, and vice versa.”
The Prom is running at the Palace Theatre until March 21. For tickets and a list of participating restaurants, see palacetheatre.org/restaurant-week.
Tuesday, March 12, is town election day in many New Hampshire towns. Check with your town’s city clerk’s office for your town’s hours, voting registration requirements and sample ballots.
Virtual ER
Elliot Hospital announced in a press release that it is unveiling a new online avenue called VirtualER for patients with non-life-threatening ailments or injuries (such as minor burns, cold and flu symptoms, or UTIs). Dr. Matthew Dayno, of Elliot’s Emergency Department, said in a statement, “The program brings board-certified emergency physicians directly to the fingertips of the patient to help assist with either attending to their care virtually or getting them to the right location at the right time.”
In a press release, Elliot said the VirtualER service is an online platform that will virtually connect patients to Elliot emergency-certified physicians to ensure they receive the same level of expertise they would expect from an in-person visit at their Emergency Department (ED). Patients can be treated virtually, through verbal or visual instruction, or be triaged to an urgent care center or the ED for a physical exam, according to the release.
Patients will need to have a MyChart Patient Portal account to use Elliot’s VirtualER but should know that it’s free to use the VirtualER service. Once logged into their MyChart account, patients will be able to request a same-day appointment by selecting from available time slots, which exist in 15- to 20-minute increments, according to the release.
Assistance ends
The New Hampshire Homeowner Assistance Fund (NH HAF) announced in a release that the program will stop accepting applications on Friday, March 8, because funding for the program is projected to be depleted. If an application has already been submitted, it will be placed on a waitlist and those applicants will receive a notice regarding their eligibility and the availability of funds, according to the release.
The NH Homeowner Assistance Fund program was launched two years ago in March 2022, and the fund has helped eligible New Hampshire homeowners through grants for past-due mortgage payments, utility bills, property taxes and association fees. The NH HAF has awarded more than $36.5 million in grants funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
The NH Homeowner Assistance Fund is a temporary relief program federally funded through the NH Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery and administered by New Hampshire Housing.
Crop loss help
On March 1, Gov. Sununu and Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food Commissioner Shawn N. Jasper announced in a press release that the Crop Loss Program, totaling $8 million, would begin accepting applications that same day. Developed in collaboration with UNH Cooperative Extension, the Crop Loss program is designed to help New Hampshire farmers who suffered significant losses because of extreme weather conditions during 2023.
Surveys that were conducted by the Cooperative Extension after the severe weather found that fruit growers lost almost all their peach crop due to extreme low temperatures, according to the release. The release went on to say that this loss was followed by a late freeze that destroyed a significant portion of the state’s apple crop as farms saw additional losses throughout the growing season due to an excess accumulation of rain.
The release also stated that the program is open to any farm that suffered at least a 30 percent loss of any commodity, had a gross farm income of at least $30,000 in the previous three years, and was neither closed nor currently in bankruptcy.
Funding for the program was repurposed from ARPA funding and was approved at the Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 21. All applications, which will be reviewed weekly, must be received by May 15. Additional payments may be made if funding allows, according to the release, and no payments will exceed their loss, but they will include a reasonable allowance for an owner’s operator labor. Applications can be completed by visiting www.agriculture.nh.gov.
Pollinators in the city
The Tuesday, March 12, Science on Tap presentation from SEE Science Center will focus on “Sharing our cities with pollinators,” according to see-sciencecenter.org, where you can register for this free program, which takes place at 6 p.m. at Stark Brewing (500 Commerical St. in Manchester).
The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Londonderry is holding a volunteer open house on Tuesday, March 12, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.Volunteers are needed in aspects such as community outreach, aviation research, engineering and more. Those interested can contact the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, 669-4877) or email [email protected].
A new exhibition, “I live a journey of a thousand years,” featuring the work of French artist Raphaël Barontini, opens Thursday, March 7, at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester. The exhibition comprises about 20 works, according to a press release, and will run through June 23. The museum will host an opening celebration on the evening of March 7 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. with the artist and Currier staff. The opening reception is $20 for non-members and $10 for members. Visit currier.org.
Carol Coronis returns to the Seacoast Artist Association at 130 Water St. in Exeter for their Second Friday artist reception on Friday, March 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. She will perform a Celtic music program to get everyone ready for St. Patrick’s Day, according to a press release. The public is invited, and donations are appreciated. See more at seacoastartist.org.
The Portsmouth Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St.) will host bestselling author Andre Dubus III on Wednesday, March 13, at 7 p.m. to talk about his new book Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin. The event will be moderated by Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept. Tickets cost $50. Visit themusichall.org
Blending elements of alt country and harmony-rich classic rock, Slim Volume is a breath of fresh air on the local music scene. At the core of the four-piece band is the songwriting team of Trent Larrabee and Jake DeSchuiteneer, who met as coworkers at SNHU’s Manchester campus, bonded over a shared love of ’60s bands, and found their mojo at Strange Brew Tavern’s open mic night.
With the addition of Mike Morgan on guitar and, soon after, drummer Jonny Lawrence, they picked a name and began playing whatever bar, basement or party would have them, polishing their sound while writing a growing list of original songs. Their sound isn’t easily pinned down — the Jake-written “It’s Been Sweet” echoes “Take It to the Limit” from the Eagles, while Trent’s composition “Talk it Over” is a lovely slice of dream pop wrapped in Tom Petty jangle.
Ever present, however, is the pair’s lush harmonizing. This comes through in the covers they choose. A mid-February listening room show at The Livery in Sunapee included no fewer than four Beatles tunes — “The first song we learned together was ‘This Boy,’” Trent said from the stage — and “Dream” from the Everly Brothers.
Other influences include Wilco and Pavement, along with contemporaries.
“A lot of local bands inspired me the most,” Trent said in a recent phone interview. He specifically cited Evan Benoit and his band Badfellows, now called Happy Just to See You, and Great White Tourist. “Just the whole Manchester music scene from 2015 to 2017 was super influential on me because I was still living in a Beatles/Bob Dylan paradigm that I had not really broken out of yet.”
The duo’s vocal connection began with Trent teaching himself Ricky Skaggs’ “You’ve Got a Lover” and Jake deciding to come in on top of the vocal. “I remember we noticed that it worked, and Trent being like, ‘You should do more of that type of thing,’” Jake recalled. “My voice does things Jake can’t and he does things mine doesn’t really do,” Trent agreed. “They definitely complement each other in that way.”
Trent had played in a few other bands before meeting Jake, who was just starting to explore taking his interest in music to another level. Working together on Trent’s 2021 solo album Billions of Musics helped Jake’s songwriting to grow. It’s led to a collaborative process that usually starts with one or the other writing a nearly complete song and then taking it to the band for fine tuning.
“I was inspired by the fact that Trent seemed to be finishing songs [that] had something to say and were interesting from start to finish,” Jake said. “That kind of helped me to see my way toward doing more, because a lot of what I’d done at the time was just writing stuff on my own, with really no intention of any audience hearing it.”
They’ve released one EP, Staring at the Sun, and a handful of singles. They have two more finished EPs, set to drop later this year. Each represents a different side of the group, Trent said. “One is more indie rock, and the other is our indie soul folk kind of sound. So that’s going to be a great display of, I don’t want to say the polarities of our music, but the range and spectrum of what we do.”
They’re also at work on their first full-length album with, noted Trent, an embarrassment of riches facing them.
“We have so much material, it’s really become a problem,” he said. “We can keep doing singles and EPs forever, but putting 10 or 12 songs together is really more important. It’s helped us focus [and] filter songs through the lens of what’s going to be good on an album, what’s going to fit together sonically, and what’s going to be the most accessible to an audience.”
Jake agreed. “I think we’re really starting to circle the target on what our sound, Slim Volume original music sounds like,” he said. “It’s a little bit indie rock, a little bit folk rock, sometimes it’s a little pop, sometimes it’s soulful. I think the album is gonna really show in a cohesive way what that range is.”
Slim Volume When: Saturday, March 2, 5 p.m. Where: Twin Barns Brewing, 194 Daniel Webster Hwy., Meredith More: slimvolumeband.com
A pair of friends, one recently dumped by her girlfriend and one getting burned out at work, decide to take a road trip and become unwitting participants in a caper involving a group of tough guys and a couple of suitcases in the 1999-set Drive-Away Dolls.
Marian (the always fun Geraldine Viswanathan) is prickly at work and seems sort of exhausted by the idea of a romantic life, hers having petered out after a breakup with a serious girlfriend (who 1990s-ily worked for Ralph Nader) years earlier.
We learn Jamie’s (Margaret Qualley) whole deal while she’s in bed with one girl and on the phone with her live-in girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein). When Sukie kicks Jamie out of their apartment, Jamie decides that she will accompany Marian on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee. Marian’s plan is to visit an aunt and do some birdwatching. Jamie’s plan is that they hit as many lesbian bars on the drive down as they can. Both of them decide to take the trip in a “drive-away” — a car-share-type situation where they drive down a car that someone else has asked to have transported.
As it happens, they show up at the drive-away shop declaring their desire to go to Tallahassee just after its owner, Curlie (Bill Camp), is told in a shadowy phone call to expect people to take a car, and a “package” hidden inside, to Tallahassee. He thinks Marian and Jamie are those people, which is how these two twentysomething-ish girls looking for relaxation and romance end up in a car with a BEEP and a briefcase full of BEEP in the truck.
We know something’s in the trunk but it would spoil a couple of enjoyably dumb moments to tell you what it is.
Initially, I found Qualley’s Jamie deeply aggravating, Juno’s Juno dipped in a coating of Pulp Fiction. There is purposefully cartoony and then there is the Texas accent and devil-may-care affectations of this character and I just wanted Jamie to calm down — a vibe that extended to the movie overall. But then, at about the halfway point, the movie started to click. It found the key that it was meant to be in; it got how to mix the stuff about Marian and Jamie — their individual issues, their friendship-and-maybe-more with each other — with the crime caper. It wandered fully into the land of nuttiness and it dragged Colman Domingo, Matt Damon and Miley Cyrus with it. It gave in, or maybe I gave in, to the 2020s approach to the 1990s-ish take on the 1970s dirtbag indie tone of it all.
And I found it all kind of cute, sweet even.
Drive-Away Dolls doesn’t quite fill its 84 minutes; there is some bagginess that I wish the movie could have filled with more character detail or humor or something other than the banter that feels particularly loud and heavy in the beginning. But by the end, this movie won me over. B-
Rated R for crude sexual content, full nudity, language and some violent content, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Ethan Coen with a screenplay by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, Drive-Away Dolls is an hour and 24 minutes long and is released in theaters by Focus Features.
