‘HONEY DON’T!’ Review: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans Get Stranded in Ethan Coen’s Wayward Whounit

In Honey Don’t!The Latest Film in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Intended Lesbian B-Movie TRILOGY, Margaret Qualley Plays Honey O’Donahue, A toUug But Glamorous Private Investigator in Backers. Honey is typingly in the business of infidelity, taking casings involving Suspicious Spausees and their philandering partners. But at the start of Coen’s Prankish Film, WHICH Premiered at Cannes and Will Be Released in Theaters by Focus Features on Aug. 22, The Sleuth Finds Herself Drawn Into a Higher-Stakes Mystery. The Death of A Local Woman Leads Honey Down A Slippery Path Involving Religious Cults, Megalomaniacal Pastors and Annexpectioned Romance.

For the most part, Honey Don’t! Lives in the Same TheMatic Universe as Coen’s First Solo Narrative Venture Drive-Away Dollswho director Also Co-Wrote with Cooke. In that film, Qualley Played a lesbian Lothario, Who, After a Bad Braak-Up with Her Police Officeer Girlf State Viswanathan). But Their Interstate Adventure is Compromisened WHEN THEY REALIZE THEIR RESTAL CONTAINS GOODS CITICAL TO A NEFARIUS Scheme, and The Women Spend MOST OF THE LEADEN ROAD MOVIE Secondary to the Zany Caper is a love story that, disappeintingly, Lacks Real Stakes.

Honey Don’t! is a better movie than Drive-Away Dolls Thanks to an Englishing WHODunit Plot, But Its Ultimately Suffers From The Same Issues As Its Predecessor: The Film Feels Like A Series of Gags with Newehere to Go.

In previous interviews, coen and cookies have Descripted their Joint Narrative Ventures As An Opports A Make Films for An “underserved Market.” The Pair Want to Put Queer Characters at the Center of the Kinds of Brash Genre MOVIESS they admire, which is a refreshing goal, notable taken up by the filmmakers Like.Bottoms), Annapurna sriram (F*cktoys) and rose glass (Love Lies Bleeding). But Even the Corasest Humor Needs a Narrative Anchor, A Story That Keeps Viewers Meaningfully Invested. Honey Don’t! begins with a little of that, But Eventuly Squanders the Viewer’s Good Will in A FrUSTRATING THIRD ACT THAT INSPIRES more exasperation than laughs.

What does work in this film are the performanCes and some elements of its world-buying. Qualley is Much Better Suitted for the ROLE OF A SARDONIC, HARD-BOILED DETACTIVE CLICKING-CLACKING AUND TOWN IN HER HER HER HER HER HEELS SHE WAS FOR The UNINHABITED LESBIENT. Aubrey Plaza is Also Well-Cast As Her Emotionally Distant Love Interest, Mg Falcone, A COP at the Local Precinct; And Chris Evans Slips Easily Into The Role of Drew Devlin, A Lecheros Religious Cult Leader.

There Is Also A Gallery of Strong Supporting Characters, Including JOsh Pafcheck and Gabby Beans, Who Bring Real Humor to Their Roles as Drew’s Assistant Specialt, Resistaeli, Resista And Credit Must Go to PEGGY SCHNITZer, Whose Excellent Costume Design-from Honey’s Well-Tailored Pants Suits to Spider’s Eye-Catching Blouss-ReinForce and Distinguishing Era. Surreal EcoSystem.

Weet Honey at the Site of An Awful Car Crash, WHERE SHE JOINS MARTY METAKAWITCH (Charlie Day), A Homicide Detective for the Police Department, in Surveying the Damage. The Victim’s Name is Mia and Although The Scene Looks Like An AcCIDent, Honey Isn’t ConvinCed. Institute of Trying to Support the Private Investigator, Marty Just Flirts with Honey. A recurring bit through the Film, whicky Quickly Grows Stale, is Marty’s Refusal to Accept That Honey Is A Lesbian. Against the Backdrop of this investigation, Honey Starts Sleeping with Mg (Plaza), Another Officer at the Local Precinct, and Tries to Help Her Teenage Niege (Talia Ryep) Leave.

Outside of Honey’s Personal Life, The Details of A Cultish World Emerge. Drew, a revend for a prosperity gospel type Church, Realizes that Investigations Into the Car Crash Could Lead Authorities to the Depth of His Scheme.

Here’s WHERE Honey Don’t! Becomes Shaky, Revealing The Limits of a Film Propelled Only by Antics. There are sugGGGGESTIONS OF A COVERT DRUG RUG RUN BY A FRINCH MAFIA GROUP, WHOSE INTESTES ARE REPRPRESENTSENTED BY A MYTERIOUS FRENCHWOMAN (LERA ABOVA) WHO Rides. As More Dead Bodies Pop Up in Bakersfield, Honey Starts to Realize their Connection to the Strange Church That Preys on the Emotionally Vulnerable People, Especialyly Young Women. You Want to Know More About The Scheme and How Drew’s Church, Whoch The Arrogant Pastor Runs Poorly, Fits Into All of It, But Coen and Cooke Only Elaborate ITAPAR AS Helps.

A similearly compelling thread that doesn’T get the enough air is the reactionship Between Honey and Mg. The Lesbians are an emotionally distant pair who’ve Met Their Match in Each Other. There’s A Mix of Steamy and Sweet Sequences, But As With Jamie and Marian in Drive-Away DollsA Sense of Incompleteness Nags at the Romance, Especially As It Takes Darker and More Twisted Turns.

Qualley and Plaza do their Best to shade their Characters, and Plaza, Especialy, Makes A Lot of A Much Thinner Role. Both Get Some Sharp One-Liners and there are plot gestures that tryen to deepen our Sense of Each Character. But Ultimately, Honey Don’t! Is The Kind of Film Having So Much Fun with Itself that It Forgets to Let Audiences in on the Joke.