Ethan Coen and co-writer and wife Tricia Cooke reteam with actor Margaret Qualley for the second of a purported loose lesbian neo-noir trilogy. That first outing, last year’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” was a bit of a rickety start, but through no fault of Qualley, who packed the punchy best of both Thelma and Louise as one of two gal pals who zoom off in a car with various factions of angry patriarchy hot on their tail. It was a concept in search of a story. Here, Coen and Cooke dial up the noir aspect and concoct something more worthy of Qualley’s onscreen allure.
She plays Honey O’Donahue, a private detective working the dusty, depressed streets of Bakersfield, California. There’s trouble right off the bat as an angular French woman (Lera Abova) in leopard-skin tights navigates the scree of a ravine to get to an inverted car, its driver dead or dying. She’s not there to help, but to pluck a signet ring off a finger, and in the next scene Abova’s agent of cold deeds is floating casually full frontal in a nearby quarry pond. An important fashion note: As she clads up, there’s a Garanimals moment as we realize her underwear and bra match her motorbike helmet.
Just where the ring is going and why is what drives the film. Turns out the operator of that car was Honey’s client.
Honey herself has her own sense of impeccable style: red high heels, a red-and-white, flower-patterned dress and bright red lipstick. Honey and Abova’s mysterious character look like movie stars of the ’40s or sex icons of the ’70s against the backdrop of broke-down town of eternally pumping oil rigs.
In the mix is a well coiffed Chris Evans as the oversexed head pastor of a sect that takes in and empowers the unaccepted with self-esteem issues; Charlie Day as a lead homicide detective always hitting on Honey despite her repeated claims that she “likes girls” and won’t give him her cell; and Gabby Beans as Honey’s wide-eyed assistant, who keeps Honey on time and in focus.
“Honey Don’t” is the third film made by Ethan without brother Joel, but like the Coen brothers’ crime classics (“Fargo” and “Miller’s Crossing,” to name just two), things move from quirky and ominous to gonzo and bloody. It’s not on par with the tandem’s revered canon, but it is a step up from “Drive-Away Dolls.” Much of that’s due to Qualley, whose wide eyes and sense of sensual self also helped transform “The Substance” (2024) and “Sanctuary” (2023) into more formidability. Her smoky, cool confidence and husky intonations are akin to Jane Mansfield or Barbra Stanwyck or, more recently, Kathleen Turner and Sharon Stone in “Body Heat” (1981) and “Basic Instinct” (1992), respectively.
Honey’s Louise this time comes in the form of an evidence-room cop named MG (Aubrey Plaza, “Emily the Criminal,” “Megalopolis”). They bond seamlessly, and erotically, at a cop bar one night – it’s hysterical that with all the signs Day’s chipmunk-mouthed cop doesn’t get it. How the relationship with MG plays out and the plot overall (drugs, deceptions getting peeled back) doesn’t quite pay off. The buildup is a moody arousal, but the climax is a slapdash and abrupt slump. Perhaps the third time’s the charm?
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