Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: HONEY DON’T [Cannes Film Festival 2025 - Cannes, France]
Making a cult film shouldn't be about trying to make a cult film. Ethan Coen, one half of the Coen Brothers, like his brother, eventually decided to do films on his own. However, in a different way than his brother Joel, they are two halves of one whole...and without the other, something is missing. "Honey Don't," a noir thriller stuck on the edge of Bakersfield follows Honey (Margaret Qualley, doing her damnedest) as a great heroine to be made as a PI in a backwards town. However the case she is running is nowhere near the absurdity it needs to be. It tries but almost focuses in the wrong direction. "The Big Lebowski" knew that Bunny was not the right element and made fun of it. The key was the misdirect right in front of you. Honey likes girls and wants to make sure everyone knows it. Her back and forth with policeman Charlie Day works in this way...because of the inherent irony. However the crux point of the film, which is her tryst with Aubrey Plaza's MG, seems to lack not much more than lust in its progression.
On the other side Chris Evans, plays a preacher who has his seedy side. The problem is that there is nothing engaging about most of these characters save Honey. The investgation of the death in the film's introduction makes one feel like something really cool should happen...but it really doesn't. The other issue is that invariably the film does lack a certain musical pace and visual style. Despite anything,when you watch a Wes Anderson film, you know. This shouldn't be held against Coen. He is trying and also working on making original material. His brother's recent directorial effort "The Tragedy Of MacBeth" after "True Grit" are remakes and yet in their own perspective. The thing is that their films (The Coens) always played on a certain genre, whether they were doing a drama or comedy. This one knows its tone but it doesn't really go enough to any point. The big climax should have been the pursuit to take the farce even higher...otherwise it just feels like an episodic and would have worked much better as a series.
Plaza's spark is missing here but that might have been just playing slightly against type. Evans just wants to play but there is not much control to it. The French fatale is the best part of the film and yet she is used too sparingly. It is her play against Honey that holds the most potential. The movie reaches its fever pitch in a confined space and again in a darker hole in a back end town without much fanfare. While this likely was to allow a Hot Spot/Wild At Heart beauty, it doesn't feel dangerous. A film like this needs to be flagrant and dangerous or otherwise it has to be utterly and completely out there. At an hour and a half, it is weird that it would have run out of steam. Honey has a lot of possibility in here but her instinct in picking relationships is so badly off insomuch as she wants to be altruistic. "Honey Don't" is mired in its own intention. The material is supposed to B-style exploitation but one also really has to love the genre or ramp up its absurdity (think Austin Powers) to make the world of it really work. Hi in "Raising Arizona" just wanted to be a good father. But it was Ed that gave him the will to live. Honey doesn't need the same thing but she needs something more than what drives her. C+
By Tim Wassberg
