Honey Don’t (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Honey Don't

HONEY DON’T (2025)

Starring Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Billy Eichner, Kristen Connolly, Gabby Beans, Talia Ryder, Jacnier, Don Swayze, Josh Pafchek, Lena Hall, Lera Abova, Kale Browne, Alexander Carstoiu, Christian Antidormi, Kinna McInroe, Sean Dillingham, Jude Atencio, Sean Philip Glasgow, Donny Ness and Gloria Sandoval.

Screenplay by Ethan Coen & Tricia Cooke.

Directed by Ethan Coen.

Distributed by Focus Features. 89 minutes. Rated R.

“She only has two desires, and one of them is justice.”

If you ever wondered what a hard-broiled film noir detective movie would be like if Sam Spade happened to be a gorgeous lipstick lesbian, then perhaps Honey Don’t is the film for you.

Ethan Coen and his wife Tricia Cooke have been working on a loose lesbian B-movie trilogy, even though he is starting to try to collaborate with brother Joel again, after both have taken some time off for solo projects. Honey Don’t is the second film in this trilogy – following last year’s Drive Away Dolls, which also starred Margaret Qualley, although in a different role. (The third film planned will be called Go Beavers!)

And like Drive Away Dolls, Honey Don’t is a fun if very light genre pastiche. For the record, Honey Don’t is slightly better than Drive Away Dolls. It doesn’t rank close to the same level as some of the films that Ethan did with his brother, such as Fargo, Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, A Serious Man and No Country For Old Men.

You can pretty much tell what Coen is going for from the poster, a pastiche of old potboiler paperback books. Honey Don’t is scary, sexy, arch and a bit cartoonish – all at once. Some of the parts work, some don’t.

Qualley is effortlessly funny as the sexy-but-aloof private eye Honey O ‘Donahue, who is looking into a few strange and perhaps intertwined incidents in Bakersfield, California, all while wearing skin-tight pencil-skirts and wicked stilettos. It all seems to have something to do with a mysterious automobile accident and a local church. Honey picks up clues as she is flirting with the ladies and good-naturedly rebuffing the advances of horny guys.

One of the ladies she flirts with is MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), a pretty and sexually open cop who is working on the case. She and Honey end up hooking up, and the heated byplay between Qualley and Plaza makes for some of the best moments in the film.

On the complete other end of the spectrum, Chris Evans chews scenery spectacularly as the cartoonishly evil, sex-obsessed preacher Reverend Drew Devlin. As I know that Evans can be an effective actor, I assume that he was asked to play the role so completely over-the-top, but that doesn’t make it any less difficult to watch.

Overall, the crime plot doesn’t really make much sense, but I don’t think it really is supposed to. It’s just a garnish on the dish; to keep the plot moving forward as we get to know these eccentric characters.

Honey Don’t is a pleasant enough diversion to keep Ethan Coen busy for now, but hopefully his long-rumored reunion with brother Joel will happen soon. Alone neither of the filmmakers seem to be able to reach the heights which they used to regularly reach together.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: August 22, 2025.