The Coen Brothers, Ethan and Joel, are among the best duos in film history. Powell and Pressburger, The Russo’s, Anthony and Joe, and The Wachowski’s, Lana and Lilly, are the best of this group. The Coens deserve to be in the conversation, if not the leaders of this group. They’ve won multiple Academy Awards for Best Picture, Original/Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director in their careers thus far. Lately, they’ve gone solo as Joel has directed The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2021, and Ethan has directed Drive Away Dolls, and now his latest Honey Don’t with his star from his last film Margaret Qualley. Is it as good if not better than their last film? That remains to be seen.

Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) is a private investigator in and around Bakersfield, CA. She got a call the day before this story started from a woman who ended up dying in a car crash. At first, the detective who showed up on the scene, Marty Matakawick (Charlie Day), thought it was a straightforward car crash, Qualley’s character thinks otherwise. She starts her own investigation into the crash, and it leads to a church called Four Ways and its shady pastor, Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans). Together with the help of a police officer, MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), who became her close friend, she gets in too deep and way over her head. This situation is more complicated than she thought.

The Coens have a unique style when they write and direct together. Without his brother Joel by his side, Ethan relied on a script from Tricia Cooke, his spouse instead. An equally close partnership in his filmmaking career. These have crafted a film noir in a modern context known as a neo-noir. It’s modern-day noir for those not familiar with the term. Despite the film not taking place at night or being Black & White, it still has all the same tropes a noir has. A private investigator, a suspicious death, and a subsequent investigation.Those are the main ingredients here as well, except it also has a lezbian subtext to it instead of a straightforward relationship that other noirs have had. This made this noir very different from others I’ve seen in the past.

One of the interesting things about this story was the setting. Bakersfield,  CA, is a specific location that is very distinct in nature. Albuquerque, New Mexico, was the stand-in, and the two areas do have similar aesthetics about them. They both are located basically adjacent to a desert. New Mexico has become a hotbed of filming activity for Hollywood. Like Georgia, they’ve given the film studios tax breaks for filming there. Bakersfield as a whole has a small town western feel, and that vibe is exactly what Coen was going for. He wanted a sleepy location like this, which worked perfectly for the story Cooke wrote, and he’s directing. This location worked great for a little small neo-noir like this movie is.

Besides the cast members I’ve mentioned, which are pretty good in their performances, there are a few more that made an impact on me. The first one is a young girl, Corinne (Talia Ryder, Never Rarely Sometimes Always), who is the niece of the Qualley character. She gave me some interesting vibes. Josh Pafchek played a goon for the Evans character. He was only in a few scenes, but he made me laugh. Last but not least, Lera Abova, whom I wasn’t familiar with before seeing her in this film. I was mesmerized by her. She was a complete revelation to me. I literally couldn’t take my eye off her. Part of that was the fact that she spoke with a French accent, which I could barely understand. Right from the first moment I saw her, I was transfixed by her beauty and the way she held herself. I can’t wait to see her again very soon. 

The thing about a noir, whether it’s a neo-noir or not, is the main character. The viewers have to care for that person. In this case, it’s Qualley’s character. Her journey through the film. As soon as she strutted up the steps of her office, I knew I cared about her. The way that Day’s character spoke about her and the way she said “You Know I Like Girls” and Day’s character says “You Always Say That” I instantly was fascinated by her in the context of this movie. Cooke/Coen were going for Humphrey Bogart vibes in “The Big Sleep” as Phillip Marlowe. I’d swear my life on that. They achieved that goal for me. Qualley has played various weird or odd characters in the past, but this is the most straightforward character of the bunch. Maybe it’s the way she was written, but I instantly cared about everything she did in this film. That’s a great quality to have in a leading character. 

Now, onto the so-called protagonists of the film. The bad guys of this story are a bit obvious and not very obvious.  So I won’t spoil one of them because I want that to be found out while people are watching the movie. In the trailer, Evans’ character runs a shady church, cult/church, whatever you want to call it. So that’s not giving anything away. On the other hand, he, as you’d probably imagine, is a bit of a creep. He’s way more than a creep that he’s been in the past in films like Knives Out or The Gray Man. He’s a bit of a misogynist and a pretty downright nasty guy despite being a pastor. When did being a pastor stop other creepy men in the past who aren’t in a film, though? Once again, Evans is trying to play against type. He wants to desperately get away from the Steve Rogers/ Captain America typecasting he thinks he’s gotten. This will definitely help people think negatively of him for sure. I tend to think he needs to do more roles like those in The Materialists and Gifted, though, but I may be the minority there, though.

Honey Don’t! was definitely a step up for the married pair Coen and Cooke. They captured the feeling of classic film noir. I loved so much growing up and still do to this day. I got the vibe of one of my favorite Humphrey Bogart quite noticeably. The cast all the way across the board were very entertaining to watch. With Qualley, Evans, Abova, and Ryder being the standouts for me. I genuinely enjoyed this cast and the characters they played in this film. The location gave off a perfect vibe of a neo-noir, and I loved that. Even the Blue convertible Qualley’s character drove was on point. I’m a sucker for a good noir or neo-noir for that matter, and this one was that for sure. It gave me chills because it was such a throwback to the 40s and 50s. I really enjoyed every aspect of this film.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen