The Hollywood Insider – ‘Honey Don’t’
Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s latest film stars Margaret Qualley as a sharp-witted private investigator entangled with a mysterious cult.
Ethan Coen is back with ‘Honey Don’t!’, the second entry in his and Tricia Cooke’s lesbian B-movie trilogy, and this time the ride feels both trashier and tighter than its predecessor ‘Drive-Away Dolls’. If ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ was an uneven road-trip farce with flashes of brilliance, ‘Honey Don’t!’ shows what happens when the same gleeful irreverence gets married to a more engaging whodunit. The result is a film that is shaggy around the edges, yes, but also confident, playful, and full of star power. It’s not a masterpiece and it doesn’t want to be one. It’s a cheeky neo-noir that celebrates sleaze, embraces absurdity, and still finds space for a little romance.
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Margaret Qualley Owns the Spotlight
At the center of it all is Margaret Qualley, proving once again she’s one of the most charismatic actors of her generation. She plays Honey O’Donahue, a private investigator working out of Bakersfield, California. Honey is glamorous but grounded, a detective who can knock back whiskey shots, swan through town in heels, and deliver a deadpan one-liner with equal ease. She usually handles cases of cheating spouses, but when a local woman dies in what looks like a car accident, Honey smells something bigger. Her instincts drag her into a world of cultish churches, mob-connected schemes, and more dead bodies than the precinct can handle.
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Style and Atmosphere
This is noir country, but Coen and Cooke aren’t interested in prestige gloom. Instead, they lean into campy humor and broad characterizations. That’s the whole point of this trilogy: to put queer characters at the center of genre setups usually reserved for straight couples and straight stories. Just as ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ turned the road movie into a sapphic romp, ‘Honey Don’t!’ plants a lesbian detective at the heart of a sleazy small-town conspiracy. It’s an idea that feels both overdue and refreshing.
Qualley owns the screen here. Where her character in ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ sometimes felt like a sketch, Honey O’Donahue is lived-in and witty. Qualley moves through the film with the poise of a classic Hollywood star but peppers it with her own modern, slightly mischievous energy. Every scene is better when she’s in it, and Coen and Cooke know it, they keep her front and center almost the entire runtime. Watching her light cigarettes, roll her eyes at clueless men, and swagger through crime scenes in tailored pantsuits is worth the price of admission alone.
But a detective story needs foils, and Coen has assembled an eclectic bunch. Chris Evans plays Reverend Drew Devlin, a lecherous prosperity preacher with a sideline in cult-like manipulation. He’s cartoonishly vile, and Evans seems to relish every smarmy line, shaking off his Marvel past with gusto. Aubrey Plaza is MG Falcone, a cop, and Honey’s romantic entanglement. Plaza’s signature deadpan and sharp edges bring a cool tension to their relationship, which oscillates between sultry and confrontational. Charlie Day pops up as a bumbling homicide detective whose main role is to hit on Honey despite her repeated reminders that she isn’t interested.
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Aboard the Chaos Train
The mystery itself is more scaffolding than substance. We’ve got car crashes, bodies piling up, French mobsters on Vespas, and a hypocritical pastor with skeletons in his closet. Coen and Cooke sprinkle in just enough intrigue to keep you leaning forward, but the details often feel secondary to the vibe. This is a film more concerned with character quirks and sharp dialogue than airtight plotting. Sometimes the threads unravel in the third act, but by then you’re either on board with the chaos or you’re not.
Visually, ‘Honey Don’t!’ is stylish without being slick. Cinematographer Ari Wegner captures Bakersfield in faded postcard tones, all sun-baked streets and dusty parking lots. Costume designer Peggy Schnitzer outdoes herself, especially with Honey’s wardrobe of retro-chic power suits and MG’s utilitarian cop gear. Every outfit tells you something about the characters before they even open their mouths. And then there’s Carter Burwell’s score, which threads Western twang into noir suspense, giving the film a sly musical feel.
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A Modern Romance
What makes ‘Honey Don’t!’ feel special, though, is its attitude. It’s not just that Honey is a lesbian PI, it’s that the film refuses to treat her queerness as a novelty or a tragedy. Instead, it’s folded into the story with casual irreverence. Honey bats away Charlie Day’s come-ons not with outrage but with the kind of weary humor any queer woman might recognize. Her romance with MG is messy and hot, sometimes sweet and sometimes twisted, but never sanitized. These details matter. They show Coen and Cooke aren’t just dropping a queer character into a familiar mold; they’re reshaping the mold itself.
That said, the romance is one of the areas where you wish the film pushed further. Qualley and Plaza have real chemistry, and some of their scenes crackle with intensity, but the relationship doesn’t get as much narrative weight as it deserves. The final act makes choices that feel abrupt, even arbitrary, as if the script ran out of room to fully explore them. It’s not a fatal flaw, but it’s the kind of thing that keeps ‘Honey Don’t!’ in the category of fun experiment rather than a fully satisfying story.
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Midnight Movie Energy
And yet, a fun experiment is probably what Coen and Cooke want. They’ve described this trilogy as a chance to make scrappy B-movies with a queer lens, and ‘Honey Don’t!’ nails that ethos. The film belongs in the Midnight Screenings section of Cannes, where it premiered, because it’s more about a good time than a grand statement. Think ‘The Big Lebowski’ meets pulp detective paperback meets sapphic screwball romance. The fact that it feels so unserious is part of its charm.
The question is whether audiences outside festival circles will buy in. ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ struggled at the box office despite its culty vibe. ‘Honey Don’t!’ is stronger, thanks to Qualley’s star turn and a more coherent narrative, but it’s still proudly niche. It’s a film for people who like their noir funny, their comedy sleazy, and their romances complicated. If you go in expecting the precision of a classic Coen Brothers joint, you might walk out frustrated. But if you want something shaggy and stylish, this is a ride worth taking.
Ethan Coen’s solo career continues to be an unexpected pivot. There’s something liberating about a filmmaker of his stature committing to projects that don’t aspire to greatness, only to be enjoyable, subversive, and a little bit trashy. ‘Honey Don’t!’ may not be a classic, but it’s a reminder that movies don’t always need to be. Sometimes it’s enough to let your heroine strut through town in red heels, solve a murder, seduce a cop, and leave chaos in her wake.
Credits:
Director: Ethan Coen
Writers: Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke
Main Cast: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day
Cinematographer: Ari Wegner
By Elizabeth Gelber
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Elizabeth Gelber is an aspiring film and television producer and writer with a love for all things media, from music to fashion to entertainment. With a background in Television, Radio, and Film, as well as Fashion Communications, she is passionate about telling female-led stories that empower and resonate. Her work blends wit with empathy, aiming to humanize entertainment through an authentic lens. She believes the most powerful narratives are often rooted in everyday life, and she is drawn to creating media that reflects the world as it truly is, diverse, imperfect, and meaningful.
Elizabeth Gelber is an aspiring film and television producer and writer with a love for all things media, from music to fashion to entertainment. With a background in Television, Radio, and Film, as well as Fashion Communications, she is passionate about telling female-led stories that empower and resonate. Her work blends wit with empathy, aiming to humanize entertainment through an authentic lens. She believes the most powerful narratives are often rooted in everyday life, and she is drawn to creating media that reflects the world as it truly is, diverse, imperfect, and meaningful.
