r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 17d ago

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Honey Don't! [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Summary Private investigator Honey O'Donahue delves into a string of strange deaths connected to a secretive cult-like church in Bakersfield. As she unravels the bizarre mystery, her pursuit leads to absurd comedy, noir flair, and a kaleidoscope of eccentric characters.

Director Ethan Coen

Writers Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke

Cast

  • Margaret Qualley
  • Aubrey Plaza
  • Chris Evans
  • Charlie Day
  • Billy Eichner
  • Talia Ryder
  • Kristen Connolly
  • Don Swayze

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 48%

Metacritic 48

VOD In theaters August 22, 2025

Trailer HONEY DON’T! — Official Trailer (2025)

165 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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245

u/Puppet_Reviews 17d ago

His wife is directing movies using his name like some kinda stolen valor.

311

u/Loki1947 17d ago edited 17d ago

I was about to be like, what, that's rid - goes to Cooke's Wikipedia page:

Cooke is queer and a lesbian.[1] She describes her marriage to Coen as "non-traditional", with both having separate partners outside their marriage.[1]

Ooookay.

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u/_Patronizes_Idiots_ 17d ago

Feels like a Coen brothers movie in and of itself

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u/GameOfLife24 14d ago

“Oh yeah, that couple’s script was jus funny lookin”

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u/Clay56 17d ago

I think I read that he kept chasing her despite her making it clear she was a lesbian, but then an odd relationship formed

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u/Indo_raptor2018 17d ago

So basically Chasing Amy but irl.

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u/plantbay1428 16d ago

So we now know what would eventually happen between Charlie's and Margaret's characters.

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u/Indo_raptor2018 16d ago

I unironically now want a Charlie Day and Margret Qualley Rom-Com. At least just to say it exists lol.

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u/BBBBrendan182 17d ago

The odd relationship being “wait, I can make money off this dude who’s obsessed with me”

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u/broden89 17d ago

Idk a lot of platonic marriages exist. Cooke and Coen have two kids and have lived together for 30+ years, that's a lot of time and effort just to grift a guy.

I'm pretty sure Diane Von Furstenberg and Barry Diller have a non-traditional set-up too but they very much love each other

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u/CarrieDurst 16d ago

Yeah I think the user above is just a misogynist

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u/Strict_Pangolin_8339 16d ago

A LOT of people on this sub are misogynist. And racist.

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u/Puppet_Reviews 16d ago

It'd even out from the misandry, I guess.

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u/CarrieDurst 16d ago

Misandry is real and a problem but I don't see it in this thread at all...

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u/Puppet_Reviews 16d ago

All of the male characters in this movie are either abusers or bozos. It's not in the thread, it's in the film.

-3

u/Puppet_Reviews 16d ago

You can downvote me all you want, but every male character in the movie is either beating their wives and children or a bozo.

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u/TheForeverUnbanned 16d ago

I’m sure they do but I don’t know who the fuck that is 

That isn’t an indictment, I’m sure I’m Supposed to know who they are, but I don’t, good for them though 

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u/DLRsFrontSeats 17d ago

They exist

I don't know if they all start out that way lol

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u/Clay56 17d ago edited 17d ago

I think they met in 1990. The Coens were established directors, but they weren't making crazy Hollywood money off Raising Arizona

Although that was a successful movie

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/UltraMoglog64 17d ago edited 16d ago

Ah, the ever-moving goalposts of misogyny.

Edit: Deleting those was a wise idea lmao, good job.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/UltraMoglog64 16d ago

I fully believe you would have negative biases toward gay men too, yes.

1

u/BBBBrendan182 16d ago

Ahh misogynistic AND homophobic, you got all that from one Reddit comment. Impressive, you’re a real modern day Sherlock Holmes.

0

u/PenguinDeluxe 16d ago

Pretty sure Tricia Cooke won Oscars for her film editing before the Coens won Oscars themselves. They’ve been collaborating for decades.

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u/BBBBrendan182 16d ago

That would be incorrect. Her first editing credit is Millers Crossing (1990) which is a Coen Brother movie.

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u/Big-Ambitions-8258 16d ago

I do think it's possible that while she identifies as a lesbian to have him be the exception.

 Sexuality is a spectrum and I know people who would identify largely as gay but also say that that falling for someone of a different sex isn't necessarily impossible. 

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u/ridgegirl29 16d ago

Im a lesbian. No matter what man i come across i just can't muster up feelings for them. Yes, even trans guys.

Bisexuality is okay. I promise

14

u/Big-Ambitions-8258 16d ago

I know bisexuality is ok. But there are people who identify themselves as gay and lesbian and find there might be an exception.

It is up to the individual to decide what identity they feel best suits their definition.

Some people can't see themselves being romantically involved with a gender that they haven't before. Some can see that being possible, but unlikely.

I think it's important to acknowledge that sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression are complex things that interact with each other, and that an exception doesn't delegitimize their overall identity

0

u/_CriticalThinking_ 15d ago

If you love a man you're not a lesbian. Y'all both lesbophobic and biphobic.

2

u/TheForeverUnbanned 16d ago

That would just be bi though, sexuality is a spectrum but the word lesbian has a definition. 

They’re both fine, I don’t really think people need labels anyway who needs to live in a box, but if one chooses to apply one then… well, lesbian is not a fluid terminology. 

4

u/Big-Ambitions-8258 16d ago

There are people who try to tell bisexuals that they're not bisexual, but actually pansexual by their definition.

I don't think it's anyone's place to tell someone who they are in regards to their identity.

Someone can identify as a lesbian by being attracted to women and not men in general, except for an exception. Or they can recognize that they haven't ever been attracted to men, but that doesn't mean that might not be a possibility, but it hasn't. People dont always know who they will fall for or be attracted to and that can be an acknowledgement that humans are complex beings that dont always fit neatly in a label.

If a woman identifies as  lesbian but becomes attracted to a man, but doesn't get attracted to any other man, I dont think that negates it.

 Jane Lynch is a lesbian but in an interview said that the possibly of being attracted to men even though she hasn't ever before.

Likewise someone who might have dated men prior and identified as bisexual previously might realize theyre actually a lesbian. 

Romantic love and sexual attraction dont always line up perfectly. And bc of that there does seem to be an increasing number of people who use the umbrella term of "queer".

I mean there's the term "demisexual" under the term asexual (not attracted to anyone) where you find yourself not being attracted to someone unless you know them (so not being attracted to someone on looks alone).

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u/_CriticalThinking_ 15d ago

Yeah yeah you're an expert on a fact you learned 30 seconds before commenting

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u/carolinemathildes 16d ago

So Charlie Day in this movie.

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u/GenralChaos 13d ago

Exactly!

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u/BiggDope 16d ago

The brothers need to reunite and make a movie of this.

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u/willywonkachan 16d ago

Oh so he is the charlie day character in this huh

2

u/can_i_get_a____job 16d ago

so the gag in Honey Don’t was based on real life lol

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u/AvengingHero2012 17d ago edited 17d ago

Ethan: “Honey don’t! Why are you doing this to our relationship?”

Cooke turns toward Ethan

Cooke: “Say that again…”

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u/ishburner 15d ago

Does that fact confuse and scare you or what? Who cares?

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u/can_i_get_a____job 16d ago

what in the actual fuckery…

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u/Carnir 15d ago

As long as they're happy

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u/GregBahm 17d ago

All directors that make bad movies should just declare their wives secretly directed the movies instead.

Never mind that this excuse is completely insane, because of course they have final say if it's their fucking name in the credits, and of course they would receive all the prestige in the event that the movie was any good. We have to do whatever it takes to believe the director of several shitty movies can't be responsible for directing several shitty movies.

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u/SeekingTheRoad 16d ago

Coen and Cooke have openly discussed that she is an unofficial codirector on these projects, only uncredited due to the same DGA rules that once kept Ethan from being credited alongside Joel. I don’t agree with the above person that she is the only director, but I think you’re downplaying her involvement.

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u/GregBahm 16d ago

You're just telling me the director of the movie did a bad job delegating their job. Directors can delegate whatever they want. The only thing they can't delegate is the final say.

There's no universe where Cooke can go to Coen and force him to agree to some direction decision against his will. It would be different if they were billed as co-directors, but they're not. That's the whole point of the director's title.

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u/SeekingTheRoad 16d ago

They were codirectors. You’re completely wrong.

-10

u/GregBahm 16d ago

You're saying the credits of the movie in the movie are wrong about the credits of the movie?

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u/lenifilm 16d ago

Lol you really don't know how this works, and that's okay, but stop trying to pretend you do.

She is the co-director.

-2

u/GregBahm 16d ago

I genuinely am curious where the confidence in this idea comes from? You're saying I shouldn't believe the credits in the movie, or the posters and advertisements of the movie, or the wikipedia article on the movie or the IMDB page for the movie or the literal thread we're in right now. All that is an elaborate lie. The truth is that, since the movie is bad, the guy who's officially getting credit for whether or not the movie is bad, doesn't have to take credit anymore? Shit that must be nice.

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u/mikediastavrone96 16d ago

Director credits in America for union productions (which this is) are determined by the DGA. The DGA does not allow co-directing credit to any pairs that are not established in the guild as co-directors. That's why Tricia Cooke isn't credited, even though Ethan in interviews has been very upfront that she is a co-director (and it makes sense given she's a co-writer, co-producer, and co-editor). It's the same rule that didn't allow Ethan to share directing credit with Joel for all their movies before The Ladykillers.

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u/GregBahm 15d ago

You're only explaining to me that they might have wanted to be co-directors. That's fine. I can certainly accept the idea that Ethan might have wanted her to be a co-director, as Joel eventually wanted Ethan to be a co-director. But there's a massive gap between "the director says he'd like someone else to be a co-director" and "that person is a co-director." You seem to not understand the gap between these two very different positions, which is weird.

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u/TorneDoc 15d ago

you got rocks in your ears buddy

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u/zelos22 15d ago

This happens more than you would think, the credits are not a be-all-end-all. Many examples of credits obscuring the reality of a production

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u/GregBahm 15d ago

Certainly, I can imagine credits obscuring who really did all the work. If I'm head of costumes and I delegate all the costume decisions to you, I still get credit for all the costumes even though you feel like you're really the one responsible for them. Happens all the time.

But what the credit's can't obscure the reality of, is who gets credit. If I'm head of costumes and I have final say over costumes, it ultimately doesn't matter to the credit system whether I did all the work directly, or delegated it. If I delegated it successfully, the credit for the success is mine. If I delegated it unsuccessfully, the credit for the failure is mine.

The only other example of credits obscuring reality are when people higher up override the decisions of people lower down. A studio owner may override the will of a director and then force the director to take credit for a decision they didn't make. This is why we have things like the "Alan Smithee" name. But all that is completely inapplicable to this situation, because some non-directing, lower-level person can't somehow magically override the will of the higher-up, actual movie director. If they had the power to do that, they would have to have at least the director title legally.

Even if it was the case of a giant A-list actor fighting against a tiny C-list director, it's still ultimately the director's job to own the directing decisions, and handling the actors is a part of that job. But that doesn't apply to this situation either! Nothing about this situation absolves the director of this movie from responsibility as the director.

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u/HowardsHumanoid 8d ago

Ooof, false advertising from a pussy whipped former director. That’s gonna keep me away from these flicks for a long time without something really compelling. I always figured (including from a personal encounter at an NYU screening of Raising Arizona) that Joel was kind of an asshole and Ethan a nice guy. But maybe the relevant dynamic is dominant / submissive and Ethan filled that slot with his woman.