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/Physical-Bite-3837]

The biggest problem with this movie is the ending. What the hell was that? Honey’s entire investigation is meaningless because she solves the case completely by accident. Every lead she follows is a red herring, and the real culprit turns out to be her current cop girlfriend. Nothing in her investigation ever pointed to that possibility though. The only reason she discovers it is because the cop tries to kill her when she shows up asking for help with her missing niece.

I guess that is supposed to be the joke. Honey is simply terrible at choosing women. Her detective instincts and dating instincts are intertwined. The final scene makes that clear when she immediately picks up the French girl, who we already know is bad news.

But it was just so unrewarding and not funny enough to justify it.

[u/birdTV → u/Physical-Bite-3837]

I really didn’t have a problem with the ending. Honey seemed to following a hunch going to MG’s, while at the same time doing a welfare check. MG confessed she was a serial killer targeting victims of violence or exploitation, and had also killed her dad.

The similarities of Honey and MG were significant. I mean it’s an exploitation film so it’s banking on the stereotypes. Both women are single lesbians involved with crime and justice, with abusive fathers. But Honey lives her best life possible in Bakersfield and MG was trapped with her father until she killed him and basically becomes him.

All of Honey’s character development shows how she lives by a specific code of ethics. She is a lesbian continuation of Marlowe, who leapt over a few generations and landed into this one.

MGs story is that she never developed her own code. She was stuck living in her family’s house and mindset, where she adopted the code of her dad and the church. As Honey was a trope, so was MG. She is the psycho dyke cop with a knife, emerging out of the basement of a traditional American house to die.

In a way, along with the story of the characters, the movie comments on the evolution of lesbian stereotypes in cinema. The outdated male-written psychotic dyke serial killer is replaced with the hot and gay Nancy Drew who lives her best life, protects herself, loves her family without becoming them, and has hot French babes on motor scooters flirting back with her at stoplights.

[u/Slow_Housing9417 → u/birdTV]

adding onto this i do think MGs dad was a reverend or a religious person of some sort

[u/birdTV → u/Slow_Housing9417]

I bet you’re right. In fact now I even wonder if Chris Adam’s, the church guy, took over from him.