My Review of Honey Don't! (2025)

 

Written by Ethan Coen And Tricia Cooke

Directed by Ethan Coen

Honey: "Sorry, I think I left some lipstick down there."

MG: "It's okay, that's the only place I ever wear it."

One of a few films of last year that I didn't get through to watching, I remedied that yesterday and I had a good time with it. I'm not gonna say that I'm a hardcore Coen brothers fan but I've seen some of their movies and they're generally enjoyable.

Of course in recent years, both brothers have directed separately and it would appear that Ethan Coen wanted to a lesbian trilogy of sorts. Out of order, I'm reviewing the middle bit I guess. I guess I better find Drive-Away Dolls soon.

Anyways one of the currently popular collaborators with Ethan Coen would be Margaret Qualley. She's cast as the titular Honey O'Donahue. She's a lesbian private investigator that quite frankly feels like she's from another time altogether and got displaced into current day Bakersfield. I mean, she doesn't feel like a modern day person.

Saying that, her problems do seem universal enough with the death of Mia Novotny (Kara Peterson) forming a huge component to this movie. There are bodies dropping all over the place and there's also a rather sinister looking Reverend named Drew Devlin (Chris Evans). He's also a cult leader, who seemed to enjoy seeing himself while having sex with various women.

There's a subplot with the Reverend pissing off high ups and his sexy tunes with the charismatic Chère (Lera Abova) and getting killed as a result. I genuinely thought he was going to be the big bad of the movie, especially when Honey's niece Corinne (Talia Ryder) went missing.

The actual baddie turned out to be a better choice. Of course Honey's love interest, MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza) would be the one responsible for Mia's murder. The chemistry with Qualley and Plaza definitely helped with this plot along with Honey herself finding another bad girl to tangle with by the end of this movie.

- Charlie Day popped up as Detective Marty Metakawich, who didn't get that Honey liked women. There's also a subplot where Honey confronted her father, played by Kale Browne.

- Billy Eichner also appeared as Honey's client, Mr. Siegfried. He was convinced his boyfriend, Colligan (Christian Antidormi) was cheating on him. He was correct.

- Standout music: Brittany Howard's We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Margaret Qualley's Odd Wad Wankers and Wanda Jackson's Honey Don't.

- Chronology: Present day Bakersfield, California.

Honey Don't! I guess did make for a good lesbian B noir movie. Everyone's on fine form but it's Margaret Qualley seemed to have the most fun out of everyone. I enjoyed this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10