Honey Don’t! Review

Ethan Cohen's Second Solo Directorial Effort is Another Uninspired Genre Exercise

By: Marc Kozak

Honey Don’t!

Ethan Cohen's Second Solo Directorial Effort is Another Uninspired Genre Exercise

By: Marc Kozak

As upsetting as Ethan and Joel Cohen's amicable split has been for movie fans, it's been interesting to watch what they individually come up without the other one around. Joel's "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (2021) is an immensely stylish and award-winning drama, an accomplished piece of work that wouldn't stand out of place in the brothers' celebrated 35-year filmography. Ethan, on the other hand, decided to make a "lesbian B-movie trilogy" with his wife, Tricia Cooke. The trilogy's first installment, 2024's "Drive-Away Dolls," was a mixed bag at best, feeling surprisingly inconsequential even as a B-movie, and entirely lacking the trademark magic that the Coen's are famous for.

"Honey Don't!" fares slightly better but still feels a bit tired and frustratingly incomplete. The humor is a bit sharper this time around, but the story doesn't do much to elevate itself past the worn-out tropes of the detective noir genre, resulting in a moderately amusing homage that never really goes anywhere.

Margaret Qualley stars as Honey O'Donahue, a private investigator in Bakersfield, California that checks all of the typical boxes for a lead in a detective movie. She's a hard-drinkin', tough-talkin', chain-smokin' gal with looks to kill, brains for days, and an inaccessible emotional core that keeps everyone at a distance. After one of her potential clients is found dead in what appears to be a car accident, Honey starts sniffing around and gets caught in the middle of a tangle involving international drug dealers and religious cults.

" The story doesn't do much to elevate itself past the worn-out tropes of the detective noir genre, resulting in a moderately amusing homage that never really goes anywhere. "

Coen and Cooke (who co-wrote the screenplay together) attempt to structure things in that entertainingly convoluted way that the best noirs are known for, but really, there isn't anything too complicated about what's going on. The movie almost relishes in deflating any dramatic tension: within 20 minutes, we know the accident was actually a murder, who did it, and why. From that point on, it's simply a matter of the characters slowly figuring things out while they hang around town and have sex with each other (this happens a lot). I'm not sure if removing the mystery is supposed to be a subversion of sorts, but the fact that there are no narrative stakes means the movie's success rests almost entirely on how much fun the audience is going to have just hanging out with a group of kooky characters.

It does help that these kooks are played by some talented and likable actors who are clearly having a great time. Chris Evans channels the same brand of assholery that worked for him in "Knives Out" as a sex-crazy local cult leader that preaches "active submission" to his congregation. He is also selling drugs out of the church, but the visibility of the recent murder is upsetting his very French dealers, represented by a sexy assassin (Lera Abova) that dresses in leopard print and rides around town on a mod scooter.

Honey eventually gets pointed in the direction of the cult after getting marginal help from the local detective (Charlie Day), who can't understand why Honey won't go out with him even though she repeatedly tells him she's a lesbian. She also develops some rather instant and graphic chemistry with MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), a similarly wise-talkin' cop working at the evidence desk.

Qualley and Plaza have good chemistry, but the relationship between their characters basically amounts to constant, uncontrollable sex, which the camera gleefully captures in a pretty male gazey way. Similarly, the camera is frequently at butt level when it comes to Abova's assassin character, who also takes a nude bath in a lake for literally no discernable reason. In what is perhaps an attempt at evening the scales, Chris Evans is frequently on screen in nothing but underwear. I am not at all opposed to sex or nudity in movies, but it would be a pretty generous take to simply label the movie as "horny."

You would expect all of the various plot threads to collide in a thrilling conclusion, but again, expectations are subverted, intentionally or otherwise, as the various subplots are resolved in isolation, mostly in profoundly unsatisfying manners. There is no real climax outside of a final plot/character twist that makes little sense and is there and gone without much impact. There is no real thematic weight to any of the material, outside some loose hand waving at actively standing up to evil instead of being a passive observer.

All in all, it's a pretty sloppy effort from a director who has had a heavy hand in some of the greatest movies ever made. No one can blame the man for wanting to have fun and make silly movies with his wife and friends at this stage of his career, but it's hard to imagine many people will be interested in watching them if the quality stays at this level.