Honey Don’t! — Ethan Coen’s shaggy, queer neo-noir: a full movie blog.
Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t! lands like a dusty postcard from a desert noir: retro-tinged, queer-forward, picaresque and intentionally ragged around the edges. It’s the second film he’s released since going solo with co-writer Tricia Cooke (after Drive-Away Dolls), and it keeps the same appetite for oddball characters, sexual swagger and B-movie impulses — a film that prizes mood, performances and mischievous tone over tidy plotting. Below I cover who’s in it, who the movie centers on, how it performed at the box office, its niche, and a deep dive into what works and what doesn’t.
Quick essentials: the facts you’ll want first.
- Title / Year: Honey Don’t! (2025).
- Director / Writers: Ethan Coen; screenplay co-written with Tricia Cooke.
- Principal stars: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day.
- Runtime: 89 minutes.
- World premiere: Midnight Screenings, Cannes Film Festival, May 24, 2025.
- U.S. release: Focus Features — August 22, 2025.
- Worldwide box-office (reported): roughly $6.8–7.4 million (domestic ~ $5.8M, international ~$1.0–1.6M).
Those numbers place Honey Don’t! in the “modest arthouse / studio-backed indie” commercial band — not a blockbuster, but big enough to register and roll in multiplexes in August.
Cast — how many, who are the principals?
The film assembles an eclectic, sizeable supporting roster around its four leads. Key credited players:
- Margaret Qualley — Honey O’Donahue (the private investigator at the story’s center).
- Aubrey Plaza — a significant supporting lead (romantic / professional foil).
- Chris Evans — Reverend Drew Devlin, the charismatic but sleazy cult leader.
- Charlie Day — Marty Metakawich, small-town homicide detective / comic foil.
Additional cast announced or credited include Billy Eichner, Gabby Beans, Talia Ryder, Lera Abova, Kristen Connolly, Lena Hall, Don Swayze and a number of bit-players and ensemble supporting actors. If you count players with meaningful screen time (leads + named supporting roles) you get roughly 15–25 credited performers.
Who is the “means character”? Who does the story belong to?
This is Honey O’Donahue’s movie. Margaret Qualley’s private investigator — sharp, sexually magnetic, a little distracted, and often wrongfooted — is the viewpoint and the engine: she shows up at a car-crash scene, recognizes the dead prospect client, and begins pulling threads that lead into a church-cult underworld and a mess of small-town secrets. The plot is episodic, and Honey’s curiosity, flirtations, and blunt instincts guide us through the tangles. Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans’ characters orbit and complicate Honey’s investigation, but the camera and the beat structure consistently return to Honey’s choices and perspective.
Box collection — did it make money?
Short answer: Honey Don’t! performed modestly.
- Domestic gross: about $5.8 million.
- International gross: reported between $1.0–1.6 million depending on source.
- Worldwide total (approx): $6.8–7.4 million.
Opening weekend estimates were in the low millions with a ~1,300-theater rollout — respectable for an offbeat August release but not huge. Trades noted that box-office returns were okay for a mid-budget dark comedy/noir that leans queer and off-center; critical buzz and festival visibility likely did a lot of the heavy lifting.
The niche — where this Honey Don’t! movie lives.
Honey Don’t! lives in a very particular intersection:
- Neo-noir / dark comedy detective caper — it riffs on 1970s pulp and noir, but with contemporary, queer sensibilities.
- Lesbian B-movie trilogy entry — Coen and Cooke present it as the second instalment in a loose “lesbian B-movie” trilogy following Drive-Away Dolls. Expect camp, sex, and genre playfulness.
- Small-town, off-kilter crime comedy — think noir tropes filtered through Bakersfield grunge, evangelical kitsch, and sexually frank characterization.
If you like films that prioritize character quirks, tonal experimentation, and a certain retro sleaziness rather than strict puzzles or tightly wound mystery logic, this one is in your lane.
Deep dive — story, tone, themes, what works and what doesn’t.
The short setup
A fatal car crash pulls Honey into a case: the deceased was a woman who had sought Honey’s help that day. Her investigation — part curiosity, part tug of conscience — draws her into the orbit of a local evangelical operation called the Four-Way Temple and its charismatic leader, Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans). Beneath the sermons are darker acts: drug distribution, cover-ups and sexual transgressions. Honey’s interactions with local cops (Charlie Day), romantic interests, and a cast of eccentrics form the body of the movie, which shirks a tidy whodunit in favor of episodic set pieces and character vignettes.
Tone & style
Ethan Coen plays the long game of B-movie homage: the film feels intentionally shaggy — it winks at genre tropes, delights in eroticized encounters, and lets scenes breathe even when logic frays. Critics described it as a “loose,” “spinny” neo-noir that prefers crazed characters and gags over structural rigor. There’s a mid-century crime-capers sheen one moment and a scrappy, sex-positive late-night grindhouse energy the next. The cinematography by Ari Wegner and Carter Burwell’s score (Coen regular) help the film feel lived-in and slightly spectral.
Performances: the heart of the Honey Don’t! movie
Margaret Qualley anchors the film with brassy physicality and likeable aimlessness: Honey is both compelling and fallible, and Qualley sells both. Aubrey Plaza adds the deadpan, sometimes steely counterweight; Chris Evans is deliciously sleazy as a reverend who trafficks in sins and excuses; Charlie Day provides comic bewilderment as the local cop, often played for laughs. Critics generally praised the performances — even reviewers who were cool on the plotting tended to single out the cast as essential fun.
Themes & subtext
At face value this is an erotic noir caper, but beneath the gumshoe jokes are recurring concerns:
- Religious hypocrisy and sex economy — the film mines the dissonance between pious image-making and exploitative behavior. Reverend Drew’s public charisma masks private vice; the temple is a front for commerce and control.
- Sexual freedom & queer visibility — Coen and Cooke make no secret of centering queer women and their sexual agency; the film treats it with gamboling frankness rather than didacticism. That shift marks it as distinct from classic noir’s often misogynistic gaze.
- Loose morality & performative identity — Honey’s sleuthing often feels improvisational; she navigates communities where performance (sermons, PR, private persona) and truth seldom match.
What works
- The cast: Strong, charismatic performances rescue scattershot plotting. Qualley, Evans, Plaza and Day make pretty much every scene watchable.
- Mood & audacity: If you enjoy movies that are slightly unhinged and proudly “B” in aesthetic, Honey Don’t! is a guilty pleasure — the film leans into eroticism, camp, and Coenesque dark humor.
- Queer re-framing of noir: Giving a private eye role to a queer woman and centering queer sexuality within a noir framework feels fresh and subversive.
What doesn’t
- Plot & coherence: Many critics found the mystery thread underdeveloped; scenes sometimes feel like a string of gags with nowhere rigorous to land. IndieWire and The Wrap argued the film is entertaining but narratively loose.
- Tonal inconsistency: The film’s deliberate “shagginess” is a double-edged sword — it can feel charmingly chaotic, but also aimless and underbaked when the viewer expects a pay-off.
Critical reception snapshot
Critics are mixed. Rotten Tomatoes aggregates a middling Tomatometer (~46%) and an even lower audience score — a sign the movie divides viewers between those who love its freewheeling spirit and those who want more structural discipline. Reviews range from affectionate (Variety, Vulture) to disappointed (IndieWire, The Wrap) — but almost everyone praises the cast.
Verdict — who should see Honey Don’t!?
Go see Honey Don’t! if:
- You like your noir messy, sexy and queer — a film that values vibe over tidy sleuthing.
- You go to see actors do weird, daring things — Chris Evans in a sleazy reverend role is already headline-grabbing.
- You enjoyed Drive-Away Dolls and liked Ethan Coen’s new solo outputs — this feels like another piece of the same eccentric puzzle.
Skip it if:
- You need a tightly plotted mystery or a polished thriller — this one delights in digressions and patchwork structure.
Final line of Honey Don’t! Movie.
Honey Don’t! doesn’t want to be a polished studio classic; it wants to be a strange, sexy detour — a neo-noir with a wink and a queer heart. It’s uneven, occasionally underplotted, and intentionally throwaway — but it’s also frequently funny, often sensual, and kept afloat by bold performances and an off-kilter auteur’s vision. If you enjoy films that trade certainty for atmosphere, this particular guilty pleasure is worth a trip into Bakersfield’s neon-lit weirdness.
