Ethan Coen's 2025 film, Honey Don't!, feels like an old-school B-movie due to its rustic aesthetic and generally shallow dialogue and characters, all intentional. The plot revolves around a private investigator named Honey O'Donahue, who becomes embroiled in a dangerous serial murder plot when a potential client dies in a mysterious car accident in Bakersfield, California. Overall, Honey Don't! lacks much depth or excitement, but it still manages to be a charming film thanks to its touch of dark humor and excellent performances.
Honey Don't! opens with a woman climbing down a steep, rocky hillside to reach the site of a recent car accident, rushing to tame the scene before the police arrive. As recorded sermons from a local church still play on the sound system of the crashed and overturned car, the woman approaches and grabs the driver, who appears to be dead. He then removes a ring from the finger of the deceased driver, who is also a woman, and quickly leaves the scene with it, riding away on his motorcycle. Elsewhere, in Bakersfield, a woman named Honey wakes up to a phone call about a car accident and immediately goes to the scene to take a look.
Director: Ethan Coen
Writers: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Stars: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans
Honey O'Donahue is a private investigator by profession, and coincidentally, the woman who died in the accident, Mia Novotny, was her potential client. Mia had visited Honey's office the day before and wanted to hire her for some unknown reason, but because the detective didn't consider her seriously, her sudden death becomes a very mysterious matter for Honey. She takes a quick look at the corpse while chatting with the local homicide detective, Marty Metakawich, who keeps trying to flirt with her, as always. Despite being a lesbian and having revealed her identity to Marty, the detective doesn't believe her and continues to think it's just a crazy lie she told to reject his advances.
Soon, Honey heads to Mia's house and speaks with her parents, who are more interested in proving their financial situation than helping her with information about their daughter. The couple, like the police, is convinced that Mia must have died in a car accident. However, Honey suspects something fishy because the woman approached her about her case earlier, and she becomes even more intrigued to find a connection between Mia and a local cult-like church called the Temple of the Four Ways. So, the private detective continues to investigate the case, especially the church's leader, Reverend Drew Devlin, while a series of events in her personal life occur simultaneously.
Shortly after Mia Novotny's death, Honey has a new potential client in her office, Mr. Siegfried, who comes to her for help with an extremely private matter. Siegfried believes her husband is unfaithful and therefore wants Honey to gather evidence to prove the adultery. However, Honey finds no interest in these cases, considering that clients who come to her for help with their cheating partners or spouses are already at a disadvantage. In almost all of these situations, people consult a detective only when they perceive something significantly off about their partners, which in itself is an indication that they might be having an affair.
Therefore, Honey advises Siegfried not to waste money trying to prove what he already knows and refuses to help him, despite the fact that she technically loses potential income due to the decision. Unbeknownst to her, Honey becomes even further involved with the Temple of the Four Paths and its criminal practices in this way. Mr. Siegfried's unfaithful husband turns out to be a regular buyer of the drugs secretly produced and sold by the leader of the Temple of the Four Paths, Reverend Drew Devlin.
One night, he goes to an upscale club to meet a date, confirming that he was indeed being unfaithful. He is interrupted by a young man who comes to deliver the drugs, but refuses to leave without receiving the money he is owed. Furthermore, he hadn't made his previous payments, so Devlin had given the delivery man, Hector, clear instructions not to return without the money. Therefore, Hector insists that the customer pay, but openly states that he doesn't have the money at the moment, but that he can pay indirectly through sexual favors.
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