‘Honey, Don’t!’ Doesn’t Care Whether You Like It

The hotly anticipated sequel in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s planned trio of trashy lesbian B-movies, Honey Don’t! comes to us as a perfect balance of fun, filth, and freak.

We follow the admittedly mediocre private detective Honey O’Donaughe (Margaret Qualley) as she tries to make sense of the death of a prospective client in a car crash, the suspiciously clean local reverend with a cult-like following (Chris Evans), and how her teenage niece (Talia Ryder) managed to get tangled up in it all, while attempting to get her new fling, deliciously butch cop MG (Aubrey Plaza) to help her out.

Honey Don’t! takes place in Bakersfield, California, the sun-bleached, stunted town adding to the sense of discontent that runs through the film. Between Honey’s preference for her office Rolodex and the mild destitution of middle America, the audience is left feeling somewhat out-of-time, despite the film dating itself with references to Covid and a fun MAGA gag.

Plot is certainly not one of the movie’s strongest suites, but between the eclectic characters and punchy dialogue, I was having too much fun to care. Qualley absolutely shone as the charming, tenacious Honey, and I would follow Plaza just about anywhere at this point. You could tell they were having fun filming, and their natural chemistry sparkled on screen.

I’m as eager to deconstruct the male gaze in films as the next person, but critique online of the sex scenes falling victim to it fell a bit flat for me. The sex Honey and MG have was certainly graphic (Plaza reportedly dipped her fingers in coconut oil for the scene at the bar), loud, and somewhat lewd, but why shouldn’t it be? Good lesbian sex scenes in film and television are too often hyper-emotional and tender, but that wouldn’t have fit the camp and playful aesthetics of Honey Don’t. Besides, I’m always a big fan of explicit (and hygienic!) sex toy representation in media.

The ending which, although it isn’t rushed, feels somewhat abrupt, neglects to tie up some of loose ends the audience was left holding after the big reveal, but this story was never going to end happily. This movie is fun, make no mistake, but its characters aren’t immune to the trauma of other humans.

Sometimes movies are allowed to be silly! No one was expecting Coen to and Cooke to deliver a high-concept thriller, and while it didn’t quite live up to its predecessor Drive Away Dolls, Honey Don’t! was an breath of fresh air for lesbian cinema. The way the film gently pushed the limits of the audience’s comfort was really enjoyable, and the fact that it refused to bend to what people thought it should made me like it even more.

Honey Don’t! is in cinemas now.