Ethan Coen is well-known for the work he’s executed along with his brother Joel, together with The Large Lebowski and No Nation for Outdated Males, however final yr he set out on his personal to direct Drive-Away Dolls. Ethan is now again with a follow-up, which hit the 2025 film calendar on August 22. Margaret Qualley additionally returns, starring at nighttime comedy Honey Don’t! — the second of a lesbian B-movie trilogy from Coen. Critics screened the movie forward of its launch, they usually appear a bit conflicted on Ethan’s solo work.
Alongside Margaret Qualley on this second (however unrelated) film from Ethan Coen and his spouse Tricia Cooke are Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans, who play a police officer and cult chief, respectively. David Worry of Rolling Stone says Qualley’s efficiency as non-public investigator Honey O’Donahue was worthy of that Cannes standing ovation, as she is well one of the best half, writing:
You possibly can’t overstate how a lot her efficiency glides the film over an abundance of tough patches and previous dead-end detours. Honey is a recognizable archetype, the kind of pulp-fiction staple honed over many years of classic publications, dog-eared paperbacks and B-movie double options. Such white knights with hourly charges are normally male and virtually all the time straight, and whereas the concept of a queer feminine investigator poking round a case affected by corpses and double-crosses isn’t revolutionary in 2025, O’Donoghue continues to be an anomaly.
Jesse Hassenger of Paste charges the film a 7.0 out of 10, saying that whereas Honey Don’t! doesn’t fairly come collectively as a thriller, it feels very very like a web page out of the Coen Brothers’ playbook. Margaret Qualley’s confidence as Honey makes this a viable choice for a enjoyable theater expertise. The critic continues:
Will probably be admittedly tough for some viewers to re-adjust their Coen-related expectations once more for Honey Don’t!, which is much less rat-a-tat than followers of The Hudsucker Proxy or Miller’s Crossing may hope, in addition to much less unexpectedly tender than Dolls (although, if something, much more express in its sexiness). But divorced, or at the least amicably separated, from these expectations, the brand new image makes for a high quality night time out, evenly subversive because it mixes character moments with absurdities.
Fred Topel of UPI agrees audiences are in for some “gentle, horny enjoyable,” although he says some facets really feel like a retread, and nothing about it surpasses something Ethan Coen’s executed along with his brother. Topel says:
There are quite a lot of convoluted occasions for a plot that quantities to a drug deal gone unhealthy. Because it spirals, there are many Coen-esque unintended killings with sudden implements. It entertains, however appears like leftovers since they’ve already used the wooden chipper in Fargo and cattle gun in No Nation for Outdated Males. … The movie resolves slightly too neatly however it’s not boring alongside the way in which. At beneath 90 minutes, Honey Do not can afford to be a trifle of B-sides from a solo Coen brother.
Lindsey Bahr of the AP offers Honey Don’t! 3 out of 4 stars and says that whereas it’s in the end (and possibly deliberately) insignificant, it’s nonetheless “enjoyable and immensely watchable.” That’s due to Margaret Qualley, Bahr writes, because the actress meshes Philip Marlowe with Veronica Mars, including pink lipstick, excessive heels and silks. Extra from the critic:
Honey Don’t may play extra like a pilot episode of a tv sequence than a contained movie, however it’s a step up from Coen and Cooke’s earlier effort, Drive Away Dolls, which felt constructed of comedic elements whose shelf life expired 20 years in the past. This script, written by Coen and Cooke, might be simply as classic, technically talking, however it feels extra timeless. … Honey Don’t is gory, unapologetically sexual, quippy and darkish. It additionally clocks in at beneath 90 minutes — they knew simply when to get out.
Todd Gilchrist of ScreenRant has the same middling opinion to many critics, ranking the movie 6 out of 10, as he acknowledges Ethan Coen going solo to blaze his personal path. Nevertheless, he says the physique depend and an overbaked plot in the end crush what needs to be a fizzy thriller. Gilchrist continues:
Even with a stacked screenplay stuffed with formidable feminine roles, this bloody, small-town thriller in the end feels an excessive amount of like a retread of territory that Coen explored to raised impact in movies along with his brother. Does that make Honey Don’t! much less a movie impressed by neo-noir than the style and sensibility coined singularly by the Coens over two and a half many years of teamwork? Maybe. Both method, it doesn’t fairly stay as much as what got here earlier than it.
Critics appear to understand what Margaret Qualley brings to the function of the P.I., however many critics are struggling to see Ethan Coen’s distinctive imaginative and prescient as a director. Total, the film has collected 49% on the Tomatometer, however in the event you’re in search of some darkish Coen enjoyable, Honey Don’t! is in theaters now.