by Josh Sewell
After Joel and Ethan Coen made The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, their last film together (let’s be optimistic and add “so far”), the siblings who spent their entire careers collaborating decided to make their own stuff for a while. Joel’s first solo effort was 2021’s fantastic The Tragedy of Macbeth starring his wife Frances McDormand and some guy named Denzel Washington.
Ethan took a different track, though he also decided to collaborate with his spouse – editor Tricia Cooke. They first made 2022’s little-seen documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind before returning to fictional narratives with last year’s sex farce/crime caper Drive-Away Dolls. I thought it was a silly, ridiculously crude watch, but other critics and moviegoers didn’t seem to agree.
Now Coen and Cooke are back just a year later with Honey Don’t!, a comedic thriller much closer in tone to the stuff the Coen brothers used to make together. It doesn’t reach that level of quality, but you can tell it’s got the same DNA.
The story centers on Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley), a private investigator in Bakersfield, Calif., who is compelled to look into a series of strange deaths connected to a mysterious church and its charismatic pastor (Chris Evans). Along the way, she strikes up a romance with a mysterious cop (Aubrey Plaza) while evading the advances of a dimwitted detective (Charlie Day).
While Honey Don’t! isn’t a full-blown comedy like Dolls, it’s still got plenty of laughs due to Coen and Cooke’s knack for clever, rapid-fire dialogue and quite a few shockingly violent physical gags. It’s a step up from their previous work (to me, at least) thanks to an intriguing mystery – albeit one packed with red herrings and dead ends – and a far more compelling protagonist.
Qualley (who also starred in Dolls) is terrific here, her engaging personality and commitment to the role making up for the fact that we only learn a little bit about Honey’s personal life and past. The protagonist is bright, headstrong and unafraid to charge into danger to protect her clients or other people that she cares about.
Plaza is quite good too, putting her trademark deadpan delivery to skillful use as a potential love interest for Honey, if she can work through some major baggage from her past. The two actresses are also fearless when it comes to the film’s most eyebrow-raising moments: some pretty graphic sex scenes that leave little to the imagination.
While these sequences don’t feel gratuitous (meaning they’re actually important to the story), they may come as a shock to viewers who are accustomed to the relatively chaste period that mainstream movies have been in for the last decade or more. They also manage to feel sexy, sweet and funny at the same time – no small feat.
Evans continues his post-Marvel track record of playing slimeballs, getting more than a few risqué moments of his own. The role highlights several of his strengths as an actor, particularly his ability to convey what a dummy thinks a smart person sounds like. Some might consider his character’s role in the central mystery a bit anticlimactic, but I appreciated the filmmakers’ attempts at surprise and misdirection.
Perhaps the most refreshing element of Honey Don’t! is the economy in Coen and Cooke’s storytelling. The movie clocks in at just under 90 minutes and somehow uses that brief amount of time to introduce a compelling character and give her an engaging arc, while also crafting a mystery that keeps the audience on their toes.
Granted, things wrap up a bit too fast and neat in the climactic confrontation. However, I reserve the right to change my mind after watching the flick a couple more times. I’m curious if Coen and Cooke left some narrative breadcrumbs along the way that I overlooked.
Regardless of its occasional missteps, Honey Don’t! is worth seeking out because of its refreshing originality and intriguing characters. Besides, we’re in for a sluggish few weeks at the multiplex. Might as well give this one a shot since there’s not much out there.
Honey Don’t! is rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, some strong violence and language. Opens in select theaters on August 22.
Grade: B-
Ethan took a different track, though he also decided to collaborate with his spouse – editor Tricia Cooke. They first made 2022’s little-seen documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind before returning to fictional narratives with last year’s sex farce/crime caper Drive-Away Dolls. I thought it was a silly, ridiculously crude watch, but other critics and moviegoers didn’t seem to agree.
Now Coen and Cooke are back just a year later with Honey Don’t!, a comedic thriller much closer in tone to the stuff the Coen brothers used to make together. It doesn’t reach that level of quality, but you can tell it’s got the same DNA.
The story centers on Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley), a private investigator in Bakersfield, Calif., who is compelled to look into a series of strange deaths connected to a mysterious church and its charismatic pastor (Chris Evans). Along the way, she strikes up a romance with a mysterious cop (Aubrey Plaza) while evading the advances of a dimwitted detective (Charlie Day).
While Honey Don’t! isn’t a full-blown comedy like Dolls, it’s still got plenty of laughs due to Coen and Cooke’s knack for clever, rapid-fire dialogue and quite a few shockingly violent physical gags. It’s a step up from their previous work (to me, at least) thanks to an intriguing mystery – albeit one packed with red herrings and dead ends – and a far more compelling protagonist.
Qualley (who also starred in Dolls) is terrific here, her engaging personality and commitment to the role making up for the fact that we only learn a little bit about Honey’s personal life and past. The protagonist is bright, headstrong and unafraid to charge into danger to protect her clients or other people that she cares about.
Plaza is quite good too, putting her trademark deadpan delivery to skillful use as a potential love interest for Honey, if she can work through some major baggage from her past. The two actresses are also fearless when it comes to the film’s most eyebrow-raising moments: some pretty graphic sex scenes that leave little to the imagination.
While these sequences don’t feel gratuitous (meaning they’re actually important to the story), they may come as a shock to viewers who are accustomed to the relatively chaste period that mainstream movies have been in for the last decade or more. They also manage to feel sexy, sweet and funny at the same time – no small feat.
Evans continues his post-Marvel track record of playing slimeballs, getting more than a few risqué moments of his own. The role highlights several of his strengths as an actor, particularly his ability to convey what a dummy thinks a smart person sounds like. Some might consider his character’s role in the central mystery a bit anticlimactic, but I appreciated the filmmakers’ attempts at surprise and misdirection.
Perhaps the most refreshing element of Honey Don’t! is the economy in Coen and Cooke’s storytelling. The movie clocks in at just under 90 minutes and somehow uses that brief amount of time to introduce a compelling character and give her an engaging arc, while also crafting a mystery that keeps the audience on their toes.
Granted, things wrap up a bit too fast and neat in the climactic confrontation. However, I reserve the right to change my mind after watching the flick a couple more times. I’m curious if Coen and Cooke left some narrative breadcrumbs along the way that I overlooked.
Regardless of its occasional missteps, Honey Don’t! is worth seeking out because of its refreshing originality and intriguing characters. Besides, we’re in for a sluggish few weeks at the multiplex. Might as well give this one a shot since there’s not much out there.
Honey Don’t! is rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, some strong violence and language. Opens in select theaters on August 22.
Grade: B-
Reach out to Josh Sewell at joshsewell81@gmail.com or on BlueSky @joshsewell.bsky.social
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