When watching final 12 months’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” I had the thought that, if I didn’t know this was a film directed by one of many Coen brothers, I might assume this may be from somebody making an attempt very exhausting to make a Coen brothers-esque movie.
The identical might be stated for Ethan Coen‘s follow-up to that movie, “Honey Don’t!” — one other lesbian caper with diminishing returns additionally starring Margaret Qualley. Like “Drive-Away Dolls,” Coen wrote the screenplay alongside together with his spouse Tricia Cooke. Additionally, like “Drive-Away Dolls,” it’s a slight work that’s too enamored with its personal quirkiness to quantity to a lot of something in any respect.
Whereas “Drive-Away Dolls” casts Qualley as a chaotic Southern broad, right here, Qualley performs Honey O’Donahue, a put-together personal investigator in Bakersfield, California. Honey is a tough-talking gal who reveals as much as the scene of a brutal automobile accident in crimson pumps, and brushes off come-ons from a dorky cop performed by Charlie Day by asserting she likes ladies. (Whereas not a lot about this movie is implausible, Honey’s wardrobe is to costume designer Peggy Schnitzer’s credit score.)
Honey is drawn right into a conspiracy of kinds when a lady who reached out to her for assist finally ends up lifeless on the backside of a cliff. Though Honey by no means formally began working for the sufferer, she’s curious sufficient to begin digging. This leads her to smell round a neighborhood church run by a lascivious Chris Evans as Reverend Drew, a holy man who offers medication on the facet and likes to have intercourse together with his congregants.
In the meantime, Honey strikes up an affair with an unassumingly seductive cop who goes by MG (Aubrey Plaza), all of the whereas Honey’s niece (Talia Ryder) will get into some hassle with a nasty boyfriend and Honey’s sister (Kristen Connolly) is just too busy with too many youngsters to take care of that.
That is all to say there’s loads happening within the film’s very quick operating time, and if you happen to’re hoping the threads all coalesce, properly, they don’t. As a substitute, “Honey Don’t!” appears like a mishmash of disparate elements that Coen and Cooke didn’t know tips on how to match collectively. The tip result’s an exhausting disappointment, and a waste of the assembled expertise.
Whereas “Drive-Away Dolls” was psychedelically foolish — permitting it to get away with extra of its slipshod plotting — “Honey Don’t!” goals for a spin on noir however has zero curiosity in really growing a compelling thriller. It’s extra occupied with the way it can reboot the aesthetics of the style. Although it’s set within the current day — with cell telephones besides — there’s a retro sheen that hangs over the affair. Honey wears stockings with seams and makes use of a rolodex regardless that her assistant (Gabby Beans) presents to digitize her operation.
Qualley sells the half properly, affecting a weary swagger, and but we’re by no means actually satisfied that she’s all that good at her job. She’s definitely higher than the police, who’re a bunch of bumbling fools, however she additionally by no means actually will get to the underside of any of the darkish goings-on in her city.
In reality, Evans’ plotline because the corrupt Reverend Drew primarily runs parallel to Qualley’s and the shortage of intersection is a curious oversight. Evans is definitely relishing the possibility to play a big-headed jerk and is up for some gonzo intercourse scenes, however by the point his character leaves the narrative you’re unsure what the purpose of him being there was. Much more complicated: His drug operation is overseen by a French syndicate, who has despatched an alluring emissary performed by Lera Abova, who wears leopard print and rides round on a scooter. Once more, she seems to be cool, however to what finish?
I wish to say that Coen and Cooke have one thing on their minds in regards to the state of America today, however the perception doesn’t actually transcend the obvious condemnation of non secular greed and proper wing assholes. At one level, for instance, Honey destroys a nasty man’s shotgun after which slaps a bumper sticker that reads “I Have a Vagina and I Vote” over his MAGA one. When the principle villain is revealed the motivation has one thing to do with anger over ladies’s perceived submissiveness, however the screenplay might have used one other move to make any of this sound logical.
The political commentary of “Honey Don’t!” additionally feels skinny as a result of Coen doesn’t have a robust grasp on his setting. Working with cinematographer Ari Wegner, he presents up visuals that showcase the barrenness of the panorama and the rundown environment, however we by no means actually get a way of the social material of the place. My thoughts couldn’t assist wander over to “Fargo,” the Coens’ finest recognized crime comedy the place the setting shapes what we all know in regards to the individuals we’re watching. In “Honey Don’t!” when individuals speak about being from Bakersfield, I don’t actually know what meaning, precisely.
This particularly begins to grate when their respective upbringing within the place turns into some extent of rivalry between Honey and MG. It’s a disgrace as a result of, at the very least for slightly bit, the one place the place “Honey Don’t!” excels is within the chemistry between these two performers. That’s additionally the place the twist on noir conventions turns into intelligent. Plaza is a very butch femme fatale, wooing the daintier P.I. by fingering her in public at a bar.
However good intercourse doesn’t make a relationship, and it’s not sufficient to maintain a film both.
Grade: C-
“Honey Don’t” premiered on the 2025 Cannes Movie Pageant. Focus Options will launch it in theaters on Friday, August 22.
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