Nerdspresso

[Nerdspresso] Honey Don't Forget the Coherent Story?

Margaret Qualley blazes through Ethan Coen’s sun-baked noir with wit and swagger, but flashy style and clever chatter can’t hide a plot that fizzles on reveal.

Jeff Stanford

07 Nov 2025 — 4 min read

Ethan Coen and his co-writer (and wife) Tricia Cooke serve up clever chatter and plenty of outrageousness to bolster this neo noir. But unresolved plot threads and twists for the sake of gotcha moments leave their sterling cast stranded.

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There’s a lot to like in Honey Don’t!, the new comic mystery by co-writer/director Ethan Coen (one half of the brain trust behind Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Raising Arizona).

It boasts a dark sense of humor, killer atmosphere, and a superb cast. Margaret Qualley (The Substance, Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood) is a knockout as Detective Honey O’Donahue, who busts heads and breaks hearts while investigating a murder in dusty Bakersfield.

Too bad the story can’t keep up with her. Coen and his co-writer (and wife) Tricia Cooke serve up clever chatter and plenty of outrageousness to bolster this neo noir. But unresolved plot threads and twists for the sake of gotcha moments leave their sterling cast stranded.

Qualley holds her own with the best gumshoes in the business in this flick, which is now streaming on Peacock. But instead of cracking the big case, this movie sadly deflates like a limp balloon.

Remember this Nerdspresso column from Jeff Stanford about Captain America: Brave New World?

HULK SMASH!

Honey Don’t! is not lacking in style and attitude and delivers all the visuals you’d expect from a kitschy detective yarn. While most private eye movies take place on neon-lit streets in the dead of night, Coen, Cooke, production designer Stefan Dechant (The Coen Brothers’ True Grit remake), and cinematographer Ari Wegner (who also shot Coen and Cooke’s Drive-Away Dolls) achieve a similar mood under the scorching sun.

Their Bakersfield is a bleak desert of small-time businesses, roadside motels, and rusting oil wells. The movie plays like a cheap pulp novel come to life. Honey O’Donahue is drawn into the mystery surrounding the suspicious death of a young woman who had hired her only days before. She uncovers that the victim was a member of the Four-Way Temple church so Honey checks out Rev. Drew Devlin, played to smarmy perfection by Chris Evans.

Evans is best known as Captain America in the Marvel movies. He is having a blast tweaking his image here. Reverend Drew uses his church as a front for nefarious affairs, including some dealings with the French criminal underworld (just go with it). He also enjoys getting romantically entangled with his female parishioners. Reverend Drew becomes one of Honey’s prime suspects, and when her own niece goes missing, she gets even more suspicious.

She turns to the local police for assistance, including Detective Marty Metakawich (Charlie Day from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Officer MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza from Parks & Recreation and Season Two of The White Lotus). Day’s detective is an amiable goofball with a crush on Honey, but she won’t return his affections because she likes girls. MG is surly and sarcastic and just Honey’s type. They enter into a passionate romance. She also supplies a good bit of exposition to keep the story moving.

Honey Don’t! does a good job at goosing the detective genre by making the hardboiled gumshoe a woman. Honey O’Donahue is a fast-talking, hard-drinking, two-fisted hero, who also rocks a dress and some killer heels. Coen and Cooke aren’t making a statement with the lesbian characters beyond putting a spin on noir character tropes. However, some scenes do feel less like they’re subverting established genre gender roles and more about Coen just wanting to watch girls make out. But that could just be me.

Coen made a name for himself writing and directing off-kilter classics like Barton Fink, O Brother Where Art Thou, and Inside Llewyn Davis with his brother, Joel. For four decades, The Coen Brothers were synonymous with quirky quality cinema, racking up awards and acclaim for movies like Miller’s Crossing, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit. For now, it seems the brothers are taking a sabbatical from each other to stretch their individual creative muscles. Joel directed The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2021 and the upcoming Jack of Spades, while Ethan made his solo directorial debut last year with Drive-Away Dolls (also starring Qualley).

While this flick shares some DNA with earlier Coen classics, most notably sharp dialogue and offbeat characters, it misses the mark when it comes to coherent storytelling. While I appreciate the movie clocking in at 90 minutes, it does so at the expense of clarity. The big reveal feels rushed while other plot points are left hanging. Joel must be the Coen who knows how to wrap things up. I like a movie with twists and turns, but that winding road needs to lead somewhere.

Honey Don’t! does get kudos for sprucing up the trappings of a vintage film noir with a modern sensibility. It’s like a contemporary The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep, but Bogie is a chick! Margaret Qualley assumes the persona of a cinematic shamus with great aplomb. Her tough gal demeanor ricochets gamely off a champion cast. Honey O’Donohue could definitely headline her own franchise, but she needs a bigger mystery to solve than why all this talent couldn’t deliver a better movie.