Need one thing attractive, foolish, and scandalous? Then you definitely’ll treasure Honey Do not!, the newest collaboration between married filmmakers Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. The pair, who’ve been collaborating because the 1990 Coen Bros film Miller’s Crossing, introduced audiences the madcap mayhem of Drive-Away Dolls simply final yr. Now they’re again, with one other story of lesbians caught up in a curious crime.
Drive-Away Dolls star Margaret Qualley reunites with Coen and Cooke, enjoying a title character as soon as extra. Honey O’Donahue is a small-town non-public eye who retains her playing cards near her chest. When a brand new consumer turns up useless in a suspicious automobile crash, she quips to the crumpled police detective on the scene (Charlie Day, completely forged as an affable dope), however will not surrender a single commentary. Unstated, that is her thriller to unravel.
Over the course of this homicide investigation, she’ll cross paths with a moped-riding femme fatale (Lera Abova), a surly sapphic cop (Aubrey Plaza), and an ultra-vain cult chief (Chris Evans). It is a wild experience with twists, intercourse, and homicide!
Margaret Qualley is dynamite in Honey Do not!
Whereas that is the second providing in Coen and Cooke’s proposed lesbian trilogy, Honey Do not! does not share the identical broad-comedy power as its peppy predecessor, Drive-Away Dolls. The important thing to each movies is Qualley, who units the tone.
Within the first movie, she was a chaotically comical masc with a Southern accent as thick as molasses and a libido as highly effective because the solar. The film adopted her frenzied power by means of pacing and plotting, taking wild turns with madcap power.
In Honey Do not!, Qualley shakes off the loony looseness of her limbs. Her stride is assured however no-nonsense, just like the fast-talking dames of ’30s screwball comedies and ’40s movie noir. Her look — click-clacking heels, pencil skirts or tailor-made flowing slacks with tidy however by no means bland gown shirts — displays these old-school inspirations. So does her frankness; she carries a Katharine Hepburn perspective with out the Mid-Atlantic accent. So when the aforementioned police detective flirts along with her, she says, clean as butter, “I like women.” (To which Day replies with a cheery bemusement, “You at all times say that!”)
Whether or not enjoying the cool homosexual aunt to a small military of nieces and nephews, uncovering a kinky clue, or hooking up with a one-night stand, Honey is suave and sharp, but additionally heat. This temperament units her other than the fleets of male detectives who’ve come earlier than her, all swagger and steely glares. Plus, her perspective displays the ambiance of Honey Do not!‘s setting: Bakersfield, California, a sunny place with a darkish urge for food.
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Honey Do not! is a uncooked and refreshing caper.
Author Tricia Cooke, actor Margaret Qualley and author/director Ethan Coen on the set of their movie “Honey Do not!”
Credit score: Karen Kuehn / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
The screenplay by Coen and Cooke is dedicated to darkish humor, providing gleeful jokes about kinky intercourse, ugly demise, and the final idiocy of crooks and con males.
As Coen directs Honey Do not!, it is tempting to search for comparisons in his shared filmography along with his brother, Joel. Is Honey Do not! extra Elevating Arizona or The Huge Lebowski? Burn After Studying or No Nation for Outdated Males? However participating on this debate dangers overlooking the thrilling exploration of crime tales that Coen and Cooke are constructing with their trilogy. Her stamp is evident and necessary right here because the movie’s co-writer, producer, and editor.
Sure, Honey Do not! pulls from movie noir inspirations, as do a number of earlier Coen Bros motion pictures… and tons of of different motion pictures earlier than that. However this crusty California setting provides recent air to tropes just like the femme fatale or the double cross. The place Drive-Away Dolls dug into the wealthy Americana and queer tradition to be present in street journey points of interest and lesbian bars, Honey Do not! embraces a less-familiar clutch of gnarly characters, sunbaked and deranged.
Chris Evans is hilarious, free of Disney constraints.
Thank goodness that Chris Evans’ MCU period has ended. Now the actor who has confirmed to be a sensational bastard in Knives Out can minimize free with characters who aren’t remotely function fashions.
In Honey Do not!, he performs Reverend Drew, a preacher who leads a congregation of devoted minions who will grant any want of intercourse or violence his twisted coronary heart wishes. Honey Do not! gives an array of beloved character actors, like Plaza, Day, Billy Eichner, and acclaimed theater performer Gabby Beans. And they’re all recreation for no matter damned factor Cooke and Coen throw their means. The place Qualley performs the straight man to this cluster of kooky clowns, Evans is a ringmaster of his personal circus.
From the second he flashes a comically insincere smile, there is a thrill of pleasure. Enjoying punchlines with a gleeful obliviousness, Evans creates a pointy satire of a sure model of non secular chief who believes an excessive amount of in his personal bullshit. His physicality is suitably absurd. Whether or not he is barking orders within the nude or giving probably the most hysterical supply of the phrase “oui” ever dedicated to display screen, he strikes like a cartoon caricature of an conceited buffoon. Props to Evans for locating a brand new and unbelievable approach to proceed being America’s ass.
What’s most thrilling about Honey Do not! is maybe additionally what’s most irritating about it. Coen and Cooke arrange a thriller with a kind that appears vaguely acquainted at the beginning. However as Honey chases down the suspects and confounding clues, this story is something however what you’d count on. And that comes right down to the finale, which is bound to divide critics and audiences.
Personally, I relished the ultimate shock of the movie, because it suggests this story is greater than one film and perhaps even one setting can include. As an alternative of closure, Honey Do not! gives a style of one thing candy and wild, with the potential for extra. And I am not mad at that.
Honey Do not! was reviewed out of the Cannes Movie Pageant. It will open in theaters on Aug. 22.
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