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’d assume this is able to be from somebody attempting very onerous to make a Coen brothers-esque film.
The identical will be mentioned for Ethan Coen‘s follow-up to that film, “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. Also, 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 automotive accident in purple pumps, and brushes off come-ons from a dorky cop performed by Charlie Day by asserting she likes women. (While not a lot about this movie is improbable, 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 useless on the backside of a cliff. Although Honey by no means formally began working for the sufferer, she’s curious sufficient to start out digging. This leads her to smell round an area church run by a lascivious Chris Evans as Reverend Drew, a holy man who offers medicine on the facet and likes to have intercourse together with his congregants.
Meanwhile, 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 bother with a nasty boyfriend and Honey’s sister (Kristen Connolly) is simply too busy with too many kids to take care of that.
This is all to say there’s lots happening within the film’s very quick operating time, and in case you’re hoping the threads all coalesce, properly, they don’t. Instead, “Honey Don’t!” seems like a mishmash of disparate components that Coen and Cooke didn’t know the best way to match collectively. The finish 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 keen on the way it can reboot the aesthetics of the style. Though 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) affords 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 actually 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 truth, Evans’ plotline because the corrupt Reverend Drew basically runs parallel to Qualley’s and the shortage of intersection is a curious oversight. Evans is actually relishing the prospect 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 undecided what the purpose of him being there was. Even extra 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. Again, she seems cool, however to what finish?
I need 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 girls’s perceived submissiveness, however the screenplay may have used one other go 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 affords 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’ greatest recognized crime comedy the place the setting shapes what we all know in regards to the folks we’re watching. In “Honey Don’t!” when folks 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, no less than for a bit of 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.
But 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 Film Festival. Focus Features will launch it in theaters on Friday, August 22.
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