THE STORY – A dark comedy about Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.
THE CAST – Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, Billy Eichner, Lena Hall, Gabby Beans, Kristen Connolly & Talia Ryder
THE TEAM – Ethan Coen (Director/Writer) & Tricia Cooke (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 93 Minutes
In the few short years since the Coen Brothers (albeit temporarily) called it quits on their collaborative efforts, we’ve now, as viewers, had a sampling of their sensibilities as solo artists. Joel’s somewhat morose nature translated perfectly into an adaptation of Shakespeare with “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” A film draped in shadows, invoking the films born out of the German expressionist movement and anchored by a masterclass Denzel Washington performance. Meanwhile, Ethan decided to stray down an opposite path with “Drive-Away Dolls,” an acid trip of a sex comedy focused on two lesbian southerners carrying a secretive case filled with dildos. If it wasn’t clear enough, those two vastly differing cinematic offerings display how Ethan is the brother who has shown the propensity to let loose. It seems that breezy nature remains in Ethan’s newest film, “Honey Don’t!” but this time around, he is attempting to switch things up. While he and co-writer Tricia Cooke retain their specific sense of laugh-inducing raunchiness, the laughs fall few and far between this time around. It all builds up to a dark comedy that is far less cohesive than what the two were able to conjure up with their last film.
In Bakersfield, California, a local woman’s death perplexes straight-arrow private detective Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley). O’Donahue, who was recently approached by the victim for a job still unknown to her, is suddenly lured into this case by her morbid curiosity. Qualley, who makes a great addition to the Coen Brothers’ troop of performers, returns this time ditching the southern accent and hyper-energetic nature for a far more stoic register. Honey is starkly different from Qualley’s character in “Drive-Away Dolls,” here’s a charm she so easily retains. Her demeanor is primarily that of a Humphrey Bogart-type character, essentially becoming Coen’s equivalent of Sam Spade. But here, she’s wearing immaculate pantsuits, donning a billy club, and rocking a variety of sex toys. So it’s all the more amusing to see Honey spearheading an investigation filled with the likes of oddball characters such as dysfunctional family members, a French gangster, and corrupt church members preying on susceptible women looking for some sort of salvation. On paper, “Honey Don’t!” sounds like an absolute blast, so why is it more often than not a dullish conformity of Coen’s style struggling to fuse into this exercise in genre filmmaking?
The reactions to “Drive-Away Dolls” were perplexing to a degree, as its breezy nature and complete confidence in how it viewed itself was apparent. The ensemble was maximized to its full potential, and there are plenty of dick jokes to make anyone crack a grin. So, seeing Ethan Coen shift gears for a neo-noir that feels like a rehashing of countless films born out of Hollywood’s studio system era comes off as nothing but a letdown for longtime fans. Maybe it’s my overt familiarity with the genre, as I’m constantly consuming the works of Dymytryk and Wise, Lang, that may have placed me at odds with “Honey Don’t!” quite early into its brief but drawn-out runtime. When viewers see the opening credits, there’s a richness in the environment that feels like it has never been explored to its full potential. Oil rigs, rundown shops, and RV camps all populate a noir that should only be aided by this regional specificity. On top of all this, you add in the score by Carter Burwell and Ari Wagner’s cinematography, and it all seems like something Coen would easily know how to take advantage of.
There’s a wavelength Coen and Cooke were able to stride efficiently in their previous film that stutters in “Honey Don’t!”as certain portions come off as stilted, which can only be described as puzzling. Multiple storylines are interwoven in the most unfocused manner, never amounting to much or devolving into specific genre tropes that are too simplistic for someone of Coen’s caliber. Not to say “Honey Don’t!” isn’t completely devoid of what makes Coen’s films work so well. While not as consistent, there are laughs to be had. Most of which are derived from Chris Evans’s shitbag sex pest Reverand Drew Devlin who thrusts himself into the most opportune of moments (no, like, literally plenty of thrusting). Evans, tapping into a signature style of swarm, a lane he has silently mastered at this point in his career, makes for an effort that is, without a doubt, the best thing he’s done since Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out.” Whether delivering sermons in the bedroom to fuel his praise kink or trying to charm his way out of trouble, Evans is, by far, the best aspect of the movie. On the other hand, a talent like Aubrey Plaza in an Ethan Coen film feels like a match made in heaven, so it’s disappointing to see her somewhat wasted and underused. Plaza’s butch police evidence officer MG Falcone has some hilarious moments with Honey, even if these two characters’ relationship never works, as well as the chemistry the actors bring to it. At least viewers will be treated to a consistently humorous running gag involving Charlie Day’s pathetic detective, Marty Metakawitch, committed to pursuing Honey even though he knows she’s very obviously into women.
When the Coen Brothers first announced they were splitting, I didn’t find myself as defeated as many other fans of their work. They have an entire filmography stacked with a wide array of films that span genres since the 80s. There are plenty of gems in there to satisfy any fan of their work. Demanding anything more, despite where their artistic ambitions drive them at this point, seems greedy to a degree. While we have yet to see what Joel is working on next, we have gotten two projects out of a loosely connected trilogy that only Ethan and Tricia Cooke could conjure up. Seeing “Honey Don’t!” is the first time I’ve found myself compelled by the thought of a reunited Coen Bros, hoping they will make another film together as soon as possible. It’s not that Ethan’s career is any less interesting on its own. It’s more so his deficiencies as a filmmaker are only more apparent. Many are on board for having more adventures in this Coen-Cooke lesbian adventure (hopefully with more Margaret Qualley), but at least make it as fun as it sounds.
