Michael Madsen’s brooding charisma needed Tarantino to unlock it | Peter Bradshaw

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The Reservoir Dogs and Donnie Brasco actor had a rare, sometimes scary power, as well as a winning self-awareness and levity Michael Madsen, star of Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Donnie Brasco, dies aged 67 Michael Madsen– a life in pictures Until 1992, when people heard Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel on the radio, they might smile and nod and sing along to its catchy soft-rock tune and goofy Dylan-esque lyrics. But after 1992, with the release of Quentin Tarantino’s sensationally tense and violent crime movie Reservoir Dogs, the feelgood mood around that song forever darkened. That was down to an unforgettably scary performance by Michael Madsen, who has died at the age of 67. Stuck in the Middle, with its lyrics about being “so scared in case I fall off my chair”, was to be always associated with the image of Madsen, whom Tarantino made an icon of indie American movies, with his boxy black suit, sinister, ruined handsomeness and powerful physique running ...
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Drive-Away Dolls review – Ethan Coen’s lesbian road trip is a cheerfully nonsensical caper

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Geraldine Viswanathan lends a quiet seriousness to her role that anchors this otherwise flimsy, silly story

Here is a saucy, silly, queer road-movie caper from director Ethan Coen and his partner, co-writer and co-producer Tricia Cooke; it’s Coen’s second film without his brother, Joel, following his Jerry Lee Lewis documentary in 2022. Drive-Away Dolls is a flimsy lark wrapped up smartly and economically in 84 minutes with a perfunctory (and cheerfully nonsensical) MacGuffiny premise that makes it look like a Xerox of Coen brothers classics such as No Country For Old Men or Fargo. Lead player Margaret Qualley’s twangy down-home accent is moreover something that could have been re-thought in rehearsal. But it rattles along watchably enough. Geraldine Viswanathan nicely underplays her part and Beanie Feldstein delivers the gags with resounding gusto. There’s a nice sprinkling of A-lister cameos, including Colman Domingo, who I wished had been in the action a bit more.

Jamie (Qualley) has just broken up with her formidable girlfriend Sukie (Feldstein) and needs to get away for a while. So she goes on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida with her strait-laced friend Marian (Viswanathan), having hired a car on a one-way “driveaway” basis from a rental company run by a stolid fellow played by character stalwart Bill Camp. Jamie is on a mission to get Marian laid. But they’ve accidentally got a certain something in their boot, which some very unsavoury characters want to get their hands on.

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