It’s been nearly a decade since the Coen Brothers split up, and neither Joel nor Ethan has made quite the same impact alone as they did together. There’s something uniquely compelling about what each brought to the partnership: Joel, the visual perfectionist with a taste for existential melancholy; Ethan, more drawn to oddball characters and the messy, spiraling chaos they create. Ethan’s recent collaborations with his wife, editor-turned-co-writer Tricia Cooke, have carved out a niche: queer-led, black comedy crime stories that are looser, sloppier, and hornier than anything in the Coen filmography.
“Drive-Away Dolls” wasn’t a major work, but I was mostly smitten with its “Looney Tunes” energy and chaotic charm. Naturally, I was excited for their follow-up, “Honey Don’t!”—a film so unfocused in its plotting that it barely seems to care whether you keep track of what’s going on. But here’s the gist: Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley), a queer detective in Bakersfield, California, investigates the murder of a local woman. She ends up caught between a religious sex cult (led by Chris Evans), a romance with a local cop (Aubrey Plaza), and some scattered family complications.
Qualley is the Clear Standout
Tonally, it’s reaching for something like “The Big Lebowski”—a mystery that’s less about the case and more about the weirdos bumping into each other along the way. But “Honey Don’t!” lacks the colorful supporting cast (and pointed character work) that made “Lebowski’s” nonsense feel like the point. This time around, the nonsense just feels… well, nonsensical.
Qualley is the clear standout—more fluent in this kind of dialogue than she was in “Drive-Away Dolls,” and even more at ease on-screen. Her chemistry with Plaza has real spark, but not enough to light a fire under the rest of the film. Most of the supporting performances are either uninteresting or pitched wrong: Chris Evans plays his cult leader so broadly he drifts into untalented sketch comedy, and Charlie Day seems to be acting in a different movie altogether. The tone never clicks. The film wants to be a raucous romp, but it feels like riding in the backseat of a car doing slow, pointless circles.
Tonally Frustrating
There’s a breezy, disposable quality to “Honey Don’t!” that keeps it from being a total misfire, but it’s frustrating all the same. “Drive-Away Dolls” felt like it had more fun being trashy, messy, and meaningless. This one feels sparsely populated, undercooked, and too smug about its own shagginess. I wanted to give myself over to the chaos again, but I kept checking the clock instead. I came hoping for zing and got a thud.
Still, I’m cautiously optimistic about whatever Ethan and Tricia try next. Maybe this loose, messy formula still has something to offer if they can find the right rhythm. But if these experiments end here, or if they make way for a Joel-Ethan reunion? I wouldn’t shed a tear.
