It appears that, sadly, Ethan Coen is still down bad. After trying to steal Rose Glass’s lightning with Drive-Away Dolls last year (Love Lies Bleeding accepts no substitutes), Coen and his co-writer Tricia Cooke are back at the “lesbians in genre situations” motif they’d already strip-mined for HONEY DON’T! (hereafter stylized as in lower-case because that’s fucking annoying). Even worse, they’ve got a third one of these things planned, but hey, that’s what being one-half of the best filmmaking duo of the last twenty years will get you when it comes to a first-look Focus deal.
Margaret Qualley’s back in the saddle as the lead, a PI in one of those Coen small cities summoned up from the aether of the Middle American collective unconsciousness, who takes a professional interest in a local cult leader, played by Chris Evans. See, you don’t need ChatGPT to write you a Coen Brothers knock-off; one of them will just do it for you (the other, meanwhile, will make a kick-ass adaptation of Macbeth). Regardless, it’s got a good cast, as evidenced by the trailer that Focus dropped on Wednesday — Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, Gabby Beans, and the one and only Billy Eich- wait, Don Swayze’s in this? Holy fuck! We love Don Swayze!
Peep it:
Here’s a short synopsis for Honey Don’t!:
“‘HONEY DON’T!’ is a dark comedy about Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.”
Honey Don’t! will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May (where it will be showing out of competition in the Midnights category) before it makes its way to screens stateside on August 22. Take note of that release date — it’s right in the middle of Hot January. Hmm.