Margaret Qualley Sizzles In Ethan Coen’s Noir

Cinema is a collaborative medium, and as such, there have been quite a few directing groups peppered all through movie historical past. As with all collaboration, there is not any assure that the band can be collectively ceaselessly, and generally the groups do certainly cut up up. The Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, underwent such a inventive breakup across the starting of this decade, with each males transferring on to make their very own motion pictures with out one another. Not like some inventive split-ups, nevertheless, the Coens post-breakup works could not be extra totally different from each other. The place Joel made 2021’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” an austere, intensely moody Shakespeare adaptation that recalled Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ethan teamed up together with his spouse Tricia Cooke to make “Drive-Away Dolls,” a mash-up of B-movie tropes (homaging the whole lot from “Badlands” to ’60s psychedelia flicks) that retained the Coens’ prior curiosity in dry humor and movie noir.

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Upon the discharge of “Dolls,” Coen said that he and Cooke have been planning a “lesbian B-movie trilogy,” and simply over a 12 months later, the second movie in that thematic trilogy has arrived: “Honey Do not!” Cheekily named for the 1956 Carl Perkins track (which has been re-recorded by dozens of artists akin to The Beatles and Wanda Jackson, the latter’s model turning up on this movie), the film is one other modern-day riff on basic noir, and one that’s unabashedly sapphic. But the place the long-gestating “Dolls” appeared a bit self-reflexive in its tone, recalling prior Coen brothers efforts like “The Huge Lebowski” and “Burn After Studying,” “Honey Do not!” feels far more distinctive. Certain, there are many non-sequiturs, some deadpan humor, and a few flashy shot compositions, however for essentially the most half, the movie is an intriguingly moodier, extra indie-flavored affair. It performs like if Allison Anders have been directing a Jim Jarmusch rewrite of a Shane Black script that was adapting an previous Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett novel. With this interesting method, Coen and Cooke make “Honey Do not!” an impressively gritty, attractive, and idiosyncratic noir, one which turns into much more partaking because of a cracking lead efficiency from Margaret Qualley.

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“Honey Do not!” begins with what appears like a splashy sequence on paper: an attractive, mysterious bombshell (Lera Abova), carrying leopard print the whole lot, approaches a automotive that is just lately crashed off the facet of a distant freeway, with the lifeless physique of the motive force, a younger lady, inside. Along with it not being clear whether or not this lady brought on the deadly accident or not, the thriller deepens when she removes a single ring from the lifeless lady’s hand, then goes and swims bare in a close-by lake earlier than heading off on her bike. The ring contains a specific sort of cross on it, which we quickly be taught is the emblem for a neighborhood church known as the 4-Approach Temple, run by Pastor Drew Devlin (Chris Evans). When native non-public investigator Honey O’Donahue (Qualley) is knowledgeable by her native police detective contact, Marty (Charlie Day), concerning the lady’s dying and realizes she’d tried to rent her a number of days earlier, she takes it upon herself to poke round city and see what shady dealings might need led to this premature demise.

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As basic noir as this setup for the story is, Coen and Cooke (who, like with “Drive-Away Dolls,” presumably co-directed this movie with out credit score as effectively) keep away from any sheen of glitz or glamour that one would possibly anticipate to see include it, particularly if this have been a Shane Black or Quentin Tarantino movie. As a substitute, the administrators determine to soak the whole atmosphere of the film in a stew of small-town desperation, an aesthetic which the film’s opening credit make plain, hiding the names of the filmmakers inside signage amidst the streets of Bakersfield, California (a intelligent little bit of graphic design which Coen admits was impressed by John Huston’s “Fats Metropolis” within the press notes) to the strains of “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” Maybe “desperation” is even too sturdy a phrase, because the characters do not feel so determined to flee Bakersfield as they do exhausted by it, having resigned themselves to their destiny years in the past. This temper of resignation solely makes the anti-heroines and creeps that populate the movie really feel nearer to on a regular basis shmoes, because it takes away even the underdog romance of the city noir and leaves the malaise and ennui. But “Honey Do not!” just isn’t a bleak movie, as this downtrodden setting makes the moments of offbeat wit, menace, and intrigue gleam that a lot brighter.

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The solar round which “Honey Do not!” orbits is Qualley, who proves as soon as once more what an immense expertise she is with this efficiency. After all the actress has a magnificence and magnetism possessed by many stars, but it is turning into clear with every look simply how a lot vary as a personality actress she has. It is laborious to choose two Qualley roles that appear alike; definitely, there’s a big gulf between the desirous to please, image-obsessed Sue of “The Substance” and the no-nonsense, take-her-or-leave-her perspective of Jamie in “Drive-Away Dolls.” Honey makes for one more character feather in Qualley’s filmography cap, with the actress exuding a exceptional mix of confidence and shrewdness. Certain, Honey is dressed like the ladies on covers of classic pulp crime novels: excessive heels, tight, colourful clothes, and so forth. But it is by no means overdone, with costume designer Peggy Schnitzer retaining Honey rooted in small-town fashions whereas wanting incredible.

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It is an method that compliments Coen and Cooke’s therapy of Honey’s character, which is extra grounded than not. It’d have been a simple crutch to offer Honey (and the opposite characters) a mouthful of tremendous stylized hard-boiled dialogue, but the writers thread the needle of retaining issues sounding life like however permitting it to nonetheless have a snap. All of the actors make a meal out of this method; Evans is as soon as once more having enjoyable enjoying a sleazeball, Day is an endearing combination of sexy and clueless, and Aubrey Plaza brings her particular left-of-center method to MG, a cop who turns into Honey’s lover. Nevertheless it’s Qualley who takes the reins of the movie so completely that it’d nonetheless be a pleasure to observe even when there have been nobody else in it.

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It is so great to have a style movie really feel this customized and be this unconcerned with serving an IP or crowd-pleasing that it may be straightforward to miss its shortcomings. Probably the most obvious of those is the truth that, regardless of believing itself to be a darkish comedy (and casting the likes of sitcom veterans Plaza, Day, and Billy Eichner), “Honey Do not!” is not all that hilarious. Certain, there are a handful of guffaws available, and it is potential {that a} rambunctious viewers might elevate the movie’s humorous issue. But the gags within the film usually tend to elicit a figuring out smile than a stomach snigger. That inventive selection which serves the film so effectively — Coen and Cooke dialing again on the requisite overcooked noir dialogue — has a flip facet to it in the way in which that the characters all come off witty and intelligent however not a lot as to get greater than a smile.

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It is not like Coen would not strive, as he offers Pastor Drew a hapless henchman (Josh Pafchek) who resembles the moronic toads seen in lots of a Coen brothers movie from “Elevating Arizona” to “Fargo,” and it’s amusing to see him and one other character make so many errors whereas trying to hold out successful. But Coen and Cooke appear hellbent on sustaining tight management over the film’s tone, and this implies we do not get the zany, just-slightly-out-of-control shenanigans of prior Coen brothers movies, and even the far more rambunctious “Dolls.” It is a small grievance, positive, however to place it in Coen brothers phrases, the movie appears caught in between “No Nation For Previous Males” and “Burn After Studying,” neither too bleak nor too cartoonish.

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General, nevertheless, what the film lacks in laughs it greater than makes up for with a hip savviness that pervades each body. The sexuality of the movie — which is predominantly lesbian— is simply as frank as in “Drive-Away Dolls,” however much less outrageous. The place “Dolls” handled sexual issues in a vogue much like a intercourse comedy (resulting from that subgenre being one of many many forms of exploitation motion pictures that movie performed round with), “Honey” is extra down-to-Earth. Even Pastor Drew’s continuous heterosexual dalliances, wacky as a few of them could be, have an sincere awkwardness to them. Honey and MG’s bodily consolation with one another extends to the movie itself: there’s one post-coital scene the place MG’s pierced nipple is uncovered for one lengthy, unbroken shot, however finally all idea of titillation fades into the background, letting us discover a related degree of intimacy and understanding with these ladies as they’re discovering with one another.

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Noir is a really malleable style; it is one which Coen has dabbled in quite a few instances earlier than, after all. But it is laborious to consider one other current noir movie that is this quietly but pervasively partaking, this downbeat but effortlessly cool. You’d have to return to the Seventies, with movies like Robert Altman’s “The Lengthy Goodbye,” or the Nineteen Nineties, with movies like “The Final Seduction,” or a decade in the past, with 2015’s criminally underseen “Too Late.” Luckily, Coen and Cooke have given us this decade’s instance of such a movie with “Honey Do not!,” a film which can appear slight at first look, however has a splendidly wealthy after impact, just like the scent of stale cigarette smoke ceaselessly trapped within the partitions of a rundown bar. Proper now, that is my favourite of Coen and Cooke’s as-yet-incomplete lesbian B-movie trilogy, and except they make one thing like “Lesbians in House” subsequent, I do not see it falling in my rating.

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/Movie Score: 7.5 out of 10

“Honey Do not!” opens in theaters on August 22, 2025.