‘Honey Do not!’ overview: Chris Evans, Margaret Qualley, and Aubrey Plaza get wild in lusty crime comedy through NewsFlicks

Need one thing attractive, foolish, and scandalous? Then you can treasure Honey Do not!, the most recent collaboration between married filmmakers Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. The pair, who have been taking part because the 1990 Coen Bros film Miller’s Crossing, introduced audiences the madcap mayhem of Power-Away Dolls simply final yr. Now they are again, with some other story of lesbians stuck up in a curious crime. 

Power-Away Dolls megastar Margaret Qualley reunites with Coen and Cooke, taking part in a identify persona yet again. Honey O’Donahue is a small-town personal eye who helps to keep her playing cards with reference to her chest. When a brand new consumer turns up useless in a suspicious automotive crash, she quips to the crumpled police detective at the scene (Charlie Day, completely solid as an affable dope), however would possibly not surrender a unmarried remark. Unstated, that is her thriller to resolve. 

Over the process this homicide investigation, she’ll move paths with a moped-riding femme fatale (Lera Abova), a surly sapphic cop (Aubrey Plaza), and an ultra-vain cult chief (Chris Evans). It is a wild journey with twists, intercourse, and homicide! 

Margaret Qualley is dynamite in Honey Do not!

Whilst that is the second one providing in Coen and Cooke’s proposed lesbian trilogy, Honey Do not! does not proportion the similar broad-comedy power as its peppy predecessor, Power-Away Dolls. The important thing to each motion pictures is Qualley, who units the tone.

Within the first movie, she used to be a chaotically comical masc with a Southern accessory as thick as molasses and a libido as tough because the solar. The film adopted her frenzied power thru pacing and plotting, taking wild turns with madcap power. 

In Honey Do not!, Qualley shakes off the loony looseness of her limbs. Her stride is assured however no-nonsense, just like the fast-talking dames of ’30s screwball comedies and ’40s movie noir. Her glance — click-clacking heels, pencil skirts or adapted flowing slacks with tidy however by no means bland get dressed shirts — displays those old-school inspirations. So does her frankness; she carries a Katharine Hepburn perspective with out the Mid-Atlantic accessory. So when the aforementioned police detective flirts along with her, she says, clean as butter, “I love ladies.” (To which Day replies with a cheery bemusement, “You all the time say that!”) 

Whether or not taking part in the cool homosexual aunt to a small military of nieces and nephews, uncovering a kinky clue, or hooking up with a one-night stand, Honey is clever and sharp, but additionally heat. This temperament units her aside from the fleets of male detectives who have come prior to her, all swagger and steely glares. Plus, her perspective displays the ambience of Honey Do not!‘s surroundings: Bakersfield, California, a sunny position with a depressing urge for food.  

Honey Do not! is a uncooked and refreshing caper. 

Creator Tricia Cooke, actor Margaret Qualley, and publisher/director Ethan Coen at the set in their movie “Honey Do not!”
Credit score: Karen Kuehn / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

The screenplay through Coen and Cooke is dedicated to darkish humor, providing gleeful jokes about kinky intercourse, grotesque loss of life, and the overall idiocy of crooks and con males.

As Coen directs Honey Do not!, it is tempting to search for comparisons in his shared filmography along with his brother, Joel. Is Honey Do not! extra Elevating Arizona or The Large Lebowski? Burn After Studying or No Nation for Previous Males? However attractive on this debate dangers overlooking the thrilling exploration of crime tales that Coen and Cooke are development with their trilogy. Her stamp is apparent and essential right here because the movie’s co-writer, manufacturer, and editor.

Sure, Honey Do not! pulls from movie noir inspirations, as do a number of earlier Coen Bros motion pictures… and loads of alternative motion pictures prior to that. However this crusty California surroundings provides contemporary air to tropes just like the femme fatale or the double move. The place Power-Away Dolls dug into the wealthy Americana and queer tradition to be present in highway travel sights and lesbian bars, Honey Do not! embraces a less-familiar grasp of gnarly characters, sunbaked and deranged.

Chris Evans is hilarious, free of Disney constraints. 

Thank goodness that Chris Evans’ MCU generation has ended. Now the actor who has confirmed to be a sensational bastard in Knives Out can minimize free with characters who are not remotely function fashions. 

In Honey Do not!, he performs Reverend Drew, a preacher who leads a congregation of devoted minions who will grant any want of intercourse or violence his twisted middle needs. Honey Do not! provides an array of loved persona actors, like Plaza, Day, Billy Eichner, and acclaimed theater performer Gabby Beans. And they’re all recreation for no matter damned factor Cooke and Coen throw their means. The place Qualley performs the directly guy to this cluster of kooky clowns, Evans is a ringmaster of his personal circus. 

From the instant he flashes a comically insincere smile, there is a thrill of pleasure. Enjoying punchlines with a gleeful obliviousness, Evans creates a pointy satire of a undeniable logo of spiritual chief who believes an excessive amount of in his personal bullshit. His physicality is suitably absurd. Whether or not he is barking orders within the nude or giving probably the most hysterical supply of the phrase “oui” ever dedicated to display screen, he strikes like a cool animated film cool animated film of an conceited buffoon. Props to Evans for locating a brand new and implausible technique to proceed being The united states’s ass. 

What is maximum exciting about Honey Do not! is possibly additionally what is maximum irritating about it. Coen and Cooke arrange a thriller with a kind that turns out vaguely acquainted initially. However as Honey chases down the suspects and confounding clues, this tale is anything else however what you would be expecting. And that comes all the way down to the finale, which is bound to divide critics and audiences.

Individually, I relished the overall marvel of the movie, because it suggests this tale is greater than one film and perhaps even one surroundings can comprise. As a substitute of closure, Honey Do not! provides a style of one thing candy and wild, with the opportunity of extra. And I am not mad at that. 

“Honey Do not!” is now taking part in in theaters national.

UPDATE: Aug. 21, 2025, 5:12 p.m. EDT “Honey Do not!” used to be reviewed out of the Cannes Movie Pageant on this article, firstly revealed on Would possibly 23, 2025. It’s been up to date to incorporate present viewing knowledge.