Following a tremendous 2024 that saw her appear in Drive-Away Dolls, Kinds of Kindness, and The Substance, all eyes have been on Margaret Qualley. At just 30 years old, she’s proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, and while her 2025 has been equally spectacular thanks to Blue Moon and Happy Gilmore 2, it appears as if things have hit a brick wall for the young superstar thanks to her new movie, Honey Don’t!
Debuting on Rotten Tomatoes with just a 42% rating based on the reviews of 33 critics thus far, the film sees Qualley reunite with Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke for yet another neo-noir dark comedy thriller. Playing private detective Honey O’Donahue, the detective flick sees Qualley delve into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church in Bakersfield, California. It sounds like an interesting premise, but, sadly, it’s one that falls flat, according to critic Avi Offer, who called it “a painfully unfunny, vapid and asinine dark comedy with a plot that’s increasingly silly and preposterous.” Robert Kojder from Flicking Myth added:
“Not only is Honey Don’t! bereft of big laughs, there are too many ideas going on that don’t always fit into the narrative or aren’t given enough time to breathe and amount to anything.”
Also starring Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans, Honey Don’t! made its premiere at the Midnight Screenings section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and at the time, critic Giovanni Lago mentioned that while the film “sounds like an absolute blast” on paper, he questioned: “So why is it more often than not a dullish conformity of Coen’s style struggling to fuse into this exercise in genre filmmaking?” Why, indeed. Many other critics noted that the film is more style than substance, opting instead to focus on its B-movie aesthetic and flashy visuals rather than tell a compelling story.
The News Isn’t All Bad for ‘Honey Don’t!’
While the majority of early reviews for Honey Don’t! have been nothing short of scathing, not everyone sees it as a failure. Lindsey Bahr from The Associated Press wrote in her review that she appreciated the film’s short runtime of 89 minutes, adding that it’s “gory, unapologetically sexual, quippy and dark.” MovieWeb’s own Julian Roman was another who enjoyed Cohen’s latest, writing in his review:
“The trio [Coen, Cooke, and Qualley] follow-up last year’s Drive-Away Dolls with a knockdown-funny lesbian B-movie romp that sizzles in every salacious frame. Honey Don’t! follows a badass and beautiful private investigator as she tries to uncover several perplexing mysteries in dusty Bakersfield, California, leading to surprising developments in a complex narrative that doesn’t spoon-feed you every answer.”
Of course, with a debut score of just 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, things don’t look too promising for Honey Don’t! thus far. Perhaps as more reviews pour in, that might change, but so far the consensus seems to be that this is one that’s best to wait for on streaming. That being said, if you want to take your chances on the big screen, Honey Don’t! hits theaters later this week on August 22, 2025, from Focus Features.
Release Date
August 22, 2025
Runtime
90 Minutes
Director
Ethan Coen
Writers
Tricia Cooke, Ethan Coen
Producers
Eric Fellner, Robert Graf
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