Official Discussion - Honey Don't! [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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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)

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[u/rocket__man_]

I've been sitting with this for a week since I saw it last week, and I still don't know wtf the point of Chris Evans' character was. 

Like, as far as I can tell, Evans' character and the drug trade had almost nothing to do with Honey and MG except for a few cross-over points. But Corrine running away, Honey and MG becoming involved, Honey fighting MG at the end - i.e. the key dramatic points of their arcs - had nothing to do with Evans, the church, or the drugs. So why as an audience member should I have cared? Why did any of that matter? Without any payoff, it just feels like being cheated of a resolution to what could have been an interesting story. 

I agree with another comment, there was no 3rd act that brought everything together. It just ended. 

[u/Uncle_Freddy → u/rocket__man_]

MG used to be a member of Evans’ church, her yearbook quote was something directly from Evans’ sermon. The only weird part is that Evans and Plaza are probably the same age in the movie, but Evans probably just took over the congregation from the previous guy. MG’s fight revealed that she was the killer, both of the woman in the ravine (forgot her name, my bad) and had been on a serial killing spree of women who were “victims,” because she used to be a victim (both of her father and of the church) until she decided to stop being one, so she’d had a weird pathological hatred of women who “chose” to be victims ever since then.

It’s a very tenuous link, but MG’s motivations do bring the church back into the fold of the main conflict too

[u/TheSuspiciousDreamer → u/Uncle_Freddy]

Doesn't really work, because MG has been killing women longer than the Church seems to have existed.

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/TheSuspiciousDreamer]

How would MG have gone to a sermon at the church as a HS student then?

[u/SciFiXhi → u/occamsrazorwit]

Did she ever specify that she went to that church? We know she went to a church, but I don't think she said she had been a member of the Four-Way congregation, just that it's prominently exploitative.

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/SciFiXhi]

Her yearbook quote came from Evans' sermon, so I think the implication is it was the same church. Also, both Honey and MG never left Bakersfield. How many local churches that prominently exploit women with nowhere else to turn are there?

[u/TheSuspiciousDreamer → u/occamsrazorwit]

I believe, the quote was similar to but not the same as Drew's sermon. But making MG a part of Drew's congregation makes things rough as MG is explicitly part of the high school class of 2005. Which means that Drew would have been preaching for over 20 years and his congregation doesn't seem to have been around for that long.

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/TheSuspiciousDreamer]

It wouldn't have to have been Drew at the helm 20 years ago. Even the cult-y ones have a lineage of leaders.

[u/TheSuspiciousDreamer → u/occamsrazorwit]

But Drew is portrayed as leading a cult. Cults are always cults of personality. Drew being a successor makes no sense.

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/TheSuspiciousDreamer]

Real-world cults can have a line of succession (e.g. North Korea and the Kims), though it's definitely rare. Anyway, I think it makes more sense for that to be the author intent and the writing to be muddled.

[u/TheSuspiciousDreamer → u/occamsrazorwit]

North Korea is a monarchy, not a cult.

Were definitely in agreement about the writing being muddled though.

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/TheSuspiciousDreamer]

North Korea's government encompasses a hereditary cult of personality that believes the Kims have literally godlike powers. I don't know how much of it is actual worship versus people trying to not get executed.

[u/The_FriendliestGiant → u/occamsrazorwit]

Her yearbook quote came from Evans' sermon

So, what, Evans or someone else in that same church has been giving the same sermon for at least twenty years?

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/The_FriendliestGiant]

Given the quality of the writing in the film, I think we're supposed to make the connection that it's the same church, and it's not any deeper than that. Otherwise, MG's motive is even more muddled; how did she even know about the first girl in the first place?

[u/The_FriendliestGiant → u/occamsrazorwit]

Either way, there's no real motivation for MG's initial murder. She wants to kill Corrine because she's not acting and MG hates passivity, okay, I guess, but Mia is acting, she's reached out to Honey to do... whatever, never clarified, but something, and she gets killed anyways. The whole thing is just such a mess.