Honey Don’t is a low-budget movie from writer/director Ethan Coen, which centres around Private Eye Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley – The Substance), who’s investigating a young woman’s disappearance, and someone who called her the day before she died in a tragic car accident.
Meanwhile, our erstwhile heroine sleeps around a lot, and her Gaydar must be on fire, since EVERY woman she meets is a lesbian, including unconvential cop MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza, brilliantly off-the-wall, as usual).
Elsewhere, Detective Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day – The Super Mario Bros Movie) is forever trying to crack on to Honey, thus getting nowhere, and as usual, Mr Day is rather on the annoying side!
There’s also a drug which goes wrong involving a young man called Hector, working for Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans – Materialists), who’s such a dodgy sort that he’s make even Billy Graham look straight!
As an aside, when Honey goes over to her sister Heidi’s (Kristen Connolly – The Cabin In The Woods) house to see her family, the kids are playing a Super Mario-type game on the TV, but it says “Game Over” while they’re using the controllers(!)
However, given the family link, when one slovenly tosser later calls her a “cunt”, she replies angrily, “No, *AUNT*!” (bit of a Curb Your Enthusiasm reference, there).
Overall, don’t expect too much to make sense, since Honey Don’t – taking its name from a ’50s song – is a mad action comedy, especially when the bullets start flying. But while I did enjoy this, at 89 minutes, it feels a lot more like the opening two-parter to a net Netflix drama than a theatrical experience.
Additional: It was only while writing this review that I was reminded that not only did 2024’s Drive-Away Dolls also star Ms Qualley, but that so many people involved in that also made this, since you can buy both screenplays in one book, under the title “Honey Don’t! & Drive-Away Dykes“, the latter being the original title for that work; and that this is the second in a “lesbian B-movie trilogy”.
What was most confusing though, is that for a film which is in 1.85:1 (and I’d seen the trailer beforehand, so that’s the ratio I was expecting), since it was showing on a 2.39:1 screen, it immediately started in what was effectively a windowboxed 2.39:1 image for the opening scene, then part-way through the opening credits, it changed to 1.85:1. Drive-Away Dolls didn’t do that.
However, this was AFTER I’d gone back to the front of the cinema where tickets are scanned, as it looked like another cockup where they’ve not treated a 2.39:1 film correctly and left it stuck in the middle of the screen. As I asked them to look into it, I went back to the screen and… saw it was now 1.85:1. So, went back quickly, and said it was a false alarm, and that the director is to blame…. same with Mark Anthony Green, who put 90% of the otherwise excellent Opus in 2.39:1, with the last ten minutes in 1.85:1, meaning the huge majority of the film was windowboxed, which looked completely bloody ridiculous!
What are these directors thinking?!!
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.
Honey Don’t is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 89 minutes
Release date: September 5th 2025
Studio: Focus Features
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1; 2.39:1 (first scene)
cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Ethan Coen
Producers: Tim Bevan, Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke, Eric Fellner, Robert Graf
Screenplay: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Music: Carter Burwell
Cast:
Honey O’Donahue: Margaret Qualley
MG Falcone: Aubrey Plaza
Reverend Drew Devlin: Chris Evans
Chère: Lera Abova
Hector: Jacnier
Spider (Honey’s Assistant): Gabby Beans
Corinne: Talia Ryder
Marty Metakawitch: Charlie Day
Heidi O’Donahue: Kristen Connolly
Shuggie: Josh Pafchek
Gary (piano bar): Don Swayze
Elle (piano bar): Lena Hall
Mickie: Alexander Carstoiu
Honey’s Father: Kale Browne
Colligan: Christian Antidormi
Mr. Siegfried: Billy Eichner
Mrs. Novotny: Kinna McInroe
Mia Novotny: Kara Petersen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.