We desperately need a Coen reunion.
“Honey Don’t,” Ethan Coen’s second solo effort, following “Drive-Away Dolls,” has crashed and burned with critics; pans coming from THR, IndieWire, The Wrap, Collider, Variety, Vulture, and Inverse.
This is the second instalment in a planned trilogy of lesbian-themed B-movies that Coen is co-writing and co-directing with his partner and wife, Tricia Cooke. Will he even be able to get the greenlight for the third movie?
“Honey Don’t” features a notable cast including Aubrey Plaza, Margaret Qualley, and Chris Evans. Qualley plays a private investigator who finds herself entangled with a cult based in Bakersfield, California, led by Evans’ magnetic leader. Evans portrays the religious leader. Plaza takes on the role of a pivotal “mystery woman.”
“Drive-Away Dolls” marked Ethan’s first narrative feature made without his brother Joel, who had previously ventured into solo directing with 2021’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Though there were signature Coen-style touches in Dolls, the film leaned more into absurdity and straightforward humor than what fans might expect from the brothers’ earlier collaborations.
With Joel planning another solo project, set to shoot this summer in Scotland, we’re probably a few years away before the brothers reunite on their rumored horror film.