Honey, Don’t! Review: Margaret Qualley’s Vibrant Performance Shines in Ethan Coen’s Uneven, Though Colourful Vignette-Style Neo-Noir Comedy
Ethan Coen continues to explore the queer-themed B-movie style with co-writer Tricia Cooke in Honey, Don’t!, transplanting from Drive-Away Dolls‘ road movie/crime comedy hybrid to his latest movie’s screwball neo-noir comedy. Coen casts Margaret Qualley again, albeit in a different role as a private investigator, Honey O’Donahue, from Bakersfield, California. The first time the movie introduces her character, Honey looks more like a femme fatale than a private investigator, all dolled up in a figure-hugging, V-neck red blouse with floral prints, complete with a deep, husky voice that reminds me of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat.
Arriving at the scene where a fatal car crash takes place in a pair of red heels, she doesn’t succumb to Marty Metakawich’s (Charlie Day) advances, despite the latter trying his best to flirt with her. She “likes girls” as she openly tells him to his face, not hiding the fact that she’s a queer. Her character looks as if she’s oddly stuck in the past, like how she prefers to use an old-fashioned Rolodex to search for contact rather than letting her assistant, Spider (Gabby Beans) to update all the info in a computer.
So, the dead body in the car crash turns out to be her client, Mia Novotny (Kara Petersen). This leads her to investigate the case and find out that Mia was a member of Reverend Drew Devlin’s (Chris Evans) Four-Way Temple. Far from a mere reverend, he’s a devil in disguise who exploits her followers, particularly vulnerable young women, for sexual trysts and is even involved in drug dealing.
The movie runs only in 89 minutes and yet, Coen and Cooke keep their movie busy layering with one subplot after another: Honey takes on a case to help his client Mr Siegfried (Billy Eichner) to investigate about his cheating boyfriend (Christian Antidormi); the introduction of Hector (Jacnier), whose meet-up with a customer turns into a series of bloody consequences; Honey’s niece, Corinne (Talia Ryder) ends up getting kidnapped; Corinne’s encounter with a mysterious elderly man; and the enigmatic foreign woman (Lera Abova) seen in the wordless opening scene and how she is connected to Reverend Drew Devlin.
Not to mention Honey’s passionate romance with a local police officer, MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), where their steamy encounters, including a scene set in a crowded bar, served as the highlight of the movie. All these and more are compacted together within a short runtime, making the movie look like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive whole, even when Coen and Cooke’s screenplay is meant to be interconnected with each other.
Not surprisingly, the result is uneven, with its brisk pacing could have used a breather, allowing us to absorb what’s going on rather than forcing us to play catch-up in this movie. And yet, the movie’s biggest weakness turns out to be a blessing in disguise, though not entirely so, with a few worthwhile moments within its vignette-style storytelling. For instance, the Hector subplot, which is leaning on all things uncompromisingly macabre and pitch-black humour, is worth mentioning here.
The colourful cast helps to keep Honey, Don’t! from falling into mediocrity, beginning with Qualley‘s tough and fetching lead performance while she shares a sizzling on-screen chemistry with the otherwise underutilised Audrey Plaza, where the latter does whatever she can with the material given to her. Chris Evans has a field day chewing the scenery with his sleazy supporting turn as Reverend Drew Devlin, while Lera Abova is ideally cast as the mysterious femme fatale. Coen has a knack for quirky dialogue and screwball comedy vibes, where he incorporates them in his Honey, Don’t! with plenty of irreverent and campy charm to sufficiently entertaining results.
