Honey Don't! ~ Review - 8/22/2025

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Neo-noir is a tough genre to pull off. Because the story not only has to feel fresh, but it also has to be a throwback to older films, books, and TV series. A neo-noir film typically feels like it occupies a liminal space between the modern day and a bygone era. The Coen Brothers are some of the best filmmakers to have made neo-noirs, and by my count, they have at least six classics in the genre. Honey Don’t! is a sun-scorched neo-noir from Ethan Coen that feels like a throwback to the films he made with his brother Joel, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of those early classics.
 
Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) is a private detective in Bakersfield, California. Honey tries to do right by her clients, and despite her hardboiled exterior, has a decent heart. She keeps in touch with her sister Heidi (Kristen Connolly) and her enormous family. When a client of hers ends up in a traffic fatality that looks suspiciously like a homicide, Honey decides to solve the case. This investigation leads her across a collection of oddballs, losers, and eventually to the seedy Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans). At the same time, Honey strikes up a relationship with police officer MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza). AND Honey’s niece Corinne (Talia Ryder) goes missing and might have something to do with the murder.
 
Honey Don’t! is a lot of fun. The script by Coen and wife, Tricia Cooke creates unique and quirky characters in the Coen Brothers tradition. Honey is really cool; she’s both a throwback to detectives of old but also feels modern. Qualley plays Honey with a combination of gruffness and gumption, which reminded me of Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hudsucker Proxy. Plaza is fantastic as a mousy police officer who opens up to Honey during their relationship. Chris Evans is clearly having a blast as the seedy preacher. Charlie Day is also on hand as a police detective who is constantly hitting on Honey, despite her repeatedly telling him that she “likes girls.” All of this is a blast, but then the film starts to fall apart when the mystery is fully revealed and then the movie just ends. The climax is a combination of being too easy and too anticlimactic. It’s not that it deflates the tension; it just ends. Which isn’t a problem, per se, but I wanted more.
 
For my money, a neo-noir needs to be a sprawling, overly complicated mystery with lots of twists and turns and red herrings. And Honey Don’t is fairly simple and straightforward. On the other hand, that’s asking for what I want a movie to be, and not the movie that was made. So, perhaps this is my problem. I loved the world and characters of Honey Don’t! and I really wanted to luxuriate in its sun-bleached weirdness.
 
Two and a half out of three Stars.