By 
Honey Don’t! (2025)
She only has two desires, and one of them is justice.
There’s a version of Honey Don’t! that really works — a sharp, sun-baked noir with a cool mystery. Ethan Coen returns to crime-comedy territory, flying solo again alongside Tricia Cooke, as Margaret Qualley leads a sleazy case backed by a cast that looks built for offbeat humor. But for a film that leans so hard on its title, this is very much a case of don’t rather than honey. Don’t expect much bite, don’t expect many laughs, and don’t expect a mystery that holds together — because more often than not, this one just drifts without ever finding its sting.
Set in Bakersfield, California, the story follows private investigator Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley), who begins digging into the suspicious death of Mia Novotny (Kara Petersen) after Mia reached out to her for help. The trail pulls Honey toward the Four-Way Temple, a shady church led by the ever-smiling Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans), while local police officer MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza) becomes both an ally and a romantic complication. From there, the plot spirals into a hazy mix of religion, sex, drugs and murder, with a rotating cast of characters drifting in and out as Honey pushes deeper into a case that never quite sharpens into focus.
Walking into a mystery that never quite arrives.
On paper, that sounds like it should really work. Ethan Coen doing a sun-scorched noir with Margaret Qualley in private-eye mode, Aubrey Plaza deadpanning from the sidelines, Chris Evans cutting loose as a sleazy preacher — there is a version of this movie that could have been sharp, strange and properly funny. Instead, Honey Don’t! mostly lands as a dull, messy slog, even at a mere 89 minutes.
The biggest problem is the script, written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. It’s boring, unfocused and, for a black comedy, disappointingly short on actual laughs. Scenes drift, characters wander in and out, and the film never seems fully sure whether it wants to be a murder mystery, a noir spoof, a queer crime caper or just a loose bag of oddball bits. The mystery itself feels like it’s been built on vibes rather than structure — it withholds, detours and stalls, but never in a way that feels clever or rewarding. Instead of tightening the screws, it just keeps circling, hoping something will click. It doesn’t.
That flatness extends to most of the characters. Qualley’s Honey is watchable because Qualley herself is watchable, but the character has so little personality on the page that she never quite comes alive as the kind of eccentric detective the story needs. She has the look, the rhythm and the presence — just not the writing. Chris Evans gets the flashiest role as Reverend Drew Devlin, but he feels more like a cardboard cut-out of a Coen-style creep than a fully formed comic villain. Aubrey Plaza, who should be perfectly suited to this material, is stuck in one note for most of the runtime, and her character never develops beyond her basic function in the plot. Lera Abova’s Chère, despite being central to everything, leaves almost no impression — her vaguely European, almost French-tinged presence never evolves beyond a sketch, more a device than a character. Charlie Day fares best. As homicide detective Marty Metakawich, he’s one of the only performers who finds a rhythm that actually works, bringing some much-needed energy and personality to a story that is otherwise pretty lifeless.
It is also hard not to come back to the direction. This is the co-director of No Country for Old Men (2007), Fargo (1996) and The Big Lebowski (1998), and yet Honey Don’t! feels oddly sleepy. Ari Wegner’s cinematography gives the proceedings some dusty California texture, and Carter Burwell’s score does what it can to suggest a mystery with weight behind it, yet the filmmaking itself rarely generates momentum. Even the supposedly off-kilter stuff feels muted. For a movie with sex, crime, religion and murder all colliding in the same frame, it is surprisingly inert.
There are ideas here, at least in theory. The script circles religious hypocrisy, predatory power, loneliness and desire, along with the way institutions hide corruption behind performance and respectability. There’s also an attempt to fold queer sexuality into a classic noir framework — with Honey’s relationships and attractions treated as part of the investigation itself, rather than something separate from it — which is at least an interesting angle. But it never digs deeply enough for any of those ideas to land with real force. They exist as texture rather than substance, hinted at more than explored.
Qualley does hold it together as best she can. She has star presence, she looks right in every frame, and she keeps this wreck from completely collapsing under its own shrugging indifference. But she can only do so much. In the end, Honey Don’t! is less a sweet surprise and more a firm “don’t.” Honey may do a lot of digging, but she rarely turns up anything worth finding. In a mystery built on dead ends, this one lives up to its title — and not in a good way.
2.5 / 5 – Alright
Reviewed by Dan Cachia (Mr. Movie)
Honey Don’t! is distributed by Universal Pictures Australia
