Cinema’honey Don’t! ‘: Margaret Qualley enters the canon of cinema detectives

Through the dark streets of Bakersfield, California, a woman needs to move on – a woman who is not dark, who is not corrupted (well, a little, as she admits) nor is she afraid. It is the heroin; She is everything. She is Honey O’Donahue and, interpreted by Margaret Qualley in Honey Don’t! – A title borrowed from the Carl Perkins From 1957, which also works as an order that the character herself usually ignores – this particular detective is the perfect example of the protagonist idealized by Raymond Chandler. Only haute couture and chromosomes have changed.

QUALYY It is, by far, the best element of the rereading of Ethan Coen About the Noir Mystery genre, and it is impossible to exaggerate how much its performance can drive the film over structural failures and dead -end narrative deviations. Honey It is a recognizable archetype, a classic type of Pulp fiction, cut over decades of old publications, killed pocket books, and double movie sessions. Normally, these “white knights” of rent are men, almost always heterosexual – and although the idea of ​​a discharged researcher in a case full of corpses and turns is no longer exactly revived in 2025, Honey O’Donahue It still sounds like an anomaly. But QUALYYcoming from The substancenever interprets her as such: she is just an extremely competent private dick, equally susceptible to femmes fatales and seductive women, who hates to be made of silly. The balance that QUALYY It finds between the Comedy Screwball and the classic Noir is what makes the movie work much better than technically should.

As with any good noir, it all starts with a corpse. The victim of a car accident in the middle of the desert is a young woman who had contacted O’Donahue Days earlier and even had a meeting scheduled with her that same afternoon. The detective Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day) – That, say, is not exactly the bright lamp of the sign – is ready to classify the case as suicide. But Honey Suspected murder. As we have seen a mysterious French woman (Read ABOVA) remove a ring from the victim’s hand before the police arrived, we were on the side of Honey.

The jewel, with a peculiar symbol, connects the potential client to a local church, the Four-Way Templecommanded by Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evansassuming its “luxury asshole” phase in the cinema). The religious leader has very questionable ideas about sex and salvation, especially with regard to women in his congregation. In addition, he is involved in some suspicious businesses, which yields occasional shootings and sequences of ironic violence that directly refer to brothers’ filmography Coen: Crimes, pathetic figures, empty -looking psychopaths and a distorted America that looks like a feverish delirium. Ethan continues this tradition now alongside its co-writer, publisher and wife, Tricia Cooke – Double responsible for Drive-Away Dolls (2024), another gender subversion starring QUALYY. Compared to that road mess, Honey Don’t! It looks like a smart thriller.

Coen and Cooke – Which identifies as a queer – describe these two films as part of a kind of “Lesbian movie trilogy”, a conscious attempt to insert desire and queer experiences in the so -called high -level “trash cinema”. A third feature is already under development. If Drive-Away Dolls It looked like a misaligned mixture of Coen-Conde Chaos and LGBTQ+Eroticism, Honey Don’t! Hits a lot more in tone: a sunny, sootic noir cocktail, subversion of pulp clichés and dark humor that, even messy, is more satisfactory. This approach is even more organic when MG FALCONE (Aubrey Plaza) enters the scene – a police officer from the same police station Metakawitchwhich is enchanted by the sound of the “stinging jumps” Honey. The attraction is mutual and explosive.

What is surprising is that sex scenes between them do not fall into free appeal or vulgarity, the result of the delicate work of actresses and genuine chemistry between them. Plaza still delivers a striking after-sex speech, revealing details of your past to Honey And for the public, in addition to reinforcing that both carry deep trauma and complicated relationships with abusive paternal figures. By the way, almost all female characters in the movie live under the shadow of toxic men: perverted shepherds, absent parents, violent boyfriends, brutal criminals. Until Martyone of the most friendly guys in the feature, Honey with annoying insistence. “I like women,” she repeats several times. “You always say that!” He replies, laughing, without the slightest notion of the discomfort he causes. Neither the charisma of Charlie Day It can soften this sensation.

But everything goes back to QUALYYthe main reason for watching Honey Don’t! and forgive your flaws. The actress has been building a solid career: she has stole scenes from Brad Pitt in Once upon a time… Hollywoodtransformed brief appearances into movies like Poor creatures in memorable moments and gave unexpected depth to the miniseries Maid. In The substanceeven without the dramatic baggage of Demi Mooreyour work is essential for the impact of the movie.

Here, however, the marriage between actress and character is rare. We are used to seeing the protagonists of neo-noirs trying to recreate the mannerisms of Humphrey Bogart or Lauren Bacall; No one, so far, had merged these two iconic figures in one and yet made it totally unique. It is a perfect combination of talent and paper. Cooke I already said that she and Coen want to keep writing to QUALYYbut they do not plan new adventures of HONEY O’DONOGHUE At the moment. I hope you change your mind. The last desire of cinema may be more franchises, but an entire trilogy dedicated to this sensual, ironic and relentless detective would be more than welcome.

+++ Read more: Margaret Qualley releases music from the ‘Honey Don’t!’ Soundtrack; listen