‘Honey Don't!' review: With this off-kilter Margaret Qualley mystery, a lone Coen brother strikes a strange tone
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Starring Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans and Charlie Day. Written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. Directed by Ethan Coen. 89 minutes. Opens Friday at theatres everywhere.
'Have you ever thought about the grand design?' asks an employer of his hapless underling in 1985's 'Crimewave.' The slapstick noir, directed by Sam Raimi, was co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen, fresh off the success of their debut, 'Blood Simple,' one year earlier. For the most part, 'Crimewave' has been written out of all three filmmakers' careers in the decades since (for good reason — it is torturously unfunny), but this winking prompt is a handy entry point into the Coen corpus.
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Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Toronto Sun
Andie MacDowell's actress daughter tries to set her up with Groundhog Day co-star Bill Murray
Margaret Qualley poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Honey Dont!'' at the 78th international film festival in Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 24, 2025. Photo by Scott A Garfitt / AFP Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Andie's a dandy. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account So says Andie MacDowell's daughter, Margaret Qualley, who is trying to set up her mom with her Groundhog Day co-star, Bill Murray. Qualley, the 30-year-old Honey Don't! Star, revealed on a recent episode of The Tonight Show that she crossed paths with Murray backstage 'just now' and offered to connect him with her mom after learning that they live in the same city. 'Literally tonight. Bill Murray, he pops into my backstage dressing room,' Qualley remarked to host Jimmy Fallon last Thursday, per Entertainment Weekly. 'Just now. This is breaking news.' Qualley, who is featured in the Happy Gilmore 2 movie and is married to musician and producer Jack Antonoff, said that she and Murray bonded backstage over the Piggly Wiggy shirt that he was wearing. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Andie MacDowell poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Case 137' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 15, 2025. Natacha Pisarenko. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 'Then cut to I found out he's living in Charleston. My mom's living in Charleston,' Qualley said. The actress paused when someone in the audience 'ooh'd' over the development. 'I know! OK, you know what, I'm gonna give you the tea.' Qualley then revealed that, during their chat, Murray said that he and MacDowell 'didn't get along so good' while they were filming Groundhog Day . 'He was like, 'You know, she took a long time to get her hair done and she didn't know her lines this one time,'' Qualley said. 'And I was like, 'Yeah, well, I heard a different story, sir.'' Qualley was not deterred. 'He's living in Charleston. She's living in Charleston. They've got this kind of rage towards each other, but maybe he's trying to make amends,' she said. 'And I'm like, she's single, he's single, they're both crazy, let's get it together!' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Bill Murray at The Phoenician Masterstroke movie premiere in Berlin. Qualley said that she's already started with a plan. 'I said come circle back and get my number if he wants me to connect (him) with my mom,' Qualley said. 'And if he's got any sense at all, he'd be the luckiest guy in the world! We'll see!' Read More Both MacDowell and Murray have been married in the past. Murray was previously married to wife Margaret Kelly from 1981 to 1996. He later tied the knot with Groundhog Day costume designer Jennifer Butler, whom he remained with from 1997 until 2008. MacDowell was married to Paul J. Qualley, with whom she had three children — including Margaret — from 1986 until 1999. She was later married to entrepreneur Rhett Hartzog in 2001, before they ultimately went their separate ways in 2004. RECOMMENDED VIDEO Toronto Blue Jays NHL World Sunshine Girls Canada
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
‘Honey Don't!' review: With this off-kilter Margaret Qualley mystery, a lone Coen brother strikes a strange tone
Honey Don't! 2.5 stars (out of 4) Starring Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans and Charlie Day. Written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. Directed by Ethan Coen. 89 minutes. Opens Friday at theatres everywhere. 'Have you ever thought about the grand design?' asks an employer of his hapless underling in 1985's 'Crimewave.' The slapstick noir, directed by Sam Raimi, was co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen, fresh off the success of their debut, 'Blood Simple,' one year earlier. For the most part, 'Crimewave' has been written out of all three filmmakers' careers in the decades since (for good reason — it is torturously unfunny), but this winking prompt is a handy entry point into the Coen corpus.
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
Ethan Coen's queer caper Honey Don't! warns its audience right off the bat
Honey Don't! Directed by Ethan Coen Written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke Starring Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans Classification 14A; 88 minutes Opens in select theatres Aug. 22 Honey Don't!, the second installment of filmmaking duo (and decades-long partners) Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke's self-declared 'lesbian B-movie trilogy' trades the absurd psychedelic goofiness of its predecessor Drive-Away Dolls, for a mishmash of neo-noir tropes. The two films are the first that Coen has made without his long-time directing partner and brother Joel Coen, and are an intentionally playful homage to genre filmmaking of decades past. While Coen officially helms the trilogy as the sole credited director (with a third outing – aptly titled Go Beavers – already in development), Cooke and Coen have worked together to materialize their cinematic triptych for the last 20 years. Cooke, who is queer, serves as the films' writer and producer alongside Coen, and pulls triple duty as editor, drawing heavily from her own experience to build out the trilogy's story worlds. Honey Don't! features relatively less B-movie silliness than Drive-Away Dolls, but remains nevertheless interested in the seedy hypocrisies of small-town U.S.A. Drive-Away Dolls star Margaret Qualley returns, this time playing Honey O'Donahue, a confident femme fatale and private detective tasked with investigating a series of murders tied to a local church, led by the enigmatic Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans). Like Coen and Cooke's first entry in the trilogy, Honey Don't! has a clear and knowingly light sense of politics. And like Qualley's first character in the series, O'Donahue is unapologetic about her sexuality, roving from woman to woman with unfettered ease – quick to offer razor-sharp rebuffs of the unrelenting sexual advances from the men around her. She possesses a cool born of both grit and 1940s-style glamour, underscored by the film's compelling cinematographic staging of her character. O'Donahue suffers, however, from a wooden and flat characterization by Qualley, whose deep-voiced and steely-eyed materialization of the role feels like a poor imitation of a screwball-meets-noir lead. While the sharp war of words she trades with male characters such as local detective Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day) offer some of the film's best moments, her double entendre-laden interactions with women – most notably local cop MG Falcone (played by an equally off-balance Aubrey Plaza) – lack in much-needed substance beyond their racy tête-à-tête. Where quick, idiosyncratic dialogue has been a strength and hallmark of Coen's work in the past, here the characters speak to each other in a way that too often feels deeply put-on. In one scene, the masculine-leaning MG flirtatiously calls out to Honey, who is clad in black pumps and Cuban heel stockings, saying, 'Love those click-clacking heels!' It's a moment that should be light and playful (and wonderfully queer) in its self-referentiality, but instead feels heavy with the weight of leaden caricature. Where Dolls playfully unfolded the wacky cause-and-effect logic of its narrative over the course of its runtime, Honey Don't! stumbles in trying to effect the same kind of clever entanglements. The film takes almost half of its duration to establish its main action, and seems to trip over the central event rather than build up to it. It's a story that is more interested in self-signaling as a pulp-style mood board than offering another coyly arranged narrative foundation. Honey Don't! also woefully underuses its best cast members and plot points. Chris Evans, in contrast to the film's leads, strikes a dialed-in, over-the-top tone as a misogynistic messiah who preaches the virtues of the good book while exploiting the most vulnerable of his parishioners. His storyline sorely lacks development, and when combined with the film's undercooked whodunnit revelation, it makes for a truncated mishmash of narrative elements that don't add up to much. While equally light fare, at least Drive-Away Dolls gave us a lesbian caper film grounded in self-aware absurdity and sustained energetic performances. Honey Don't! attempts another go at a mock, low-brow outing reimagined through a queer lens, but suffers irrevocably from an uncompelling mystery, patterned by a series of gags that leads nowhere. It is a throwaway film in a trilogy that is already too sparse in substance to sustain such unorganized plotting and characters that feel more like poor imitation than winking homages.
