Cannes Saves Best For Last with Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t!
Margaret Qualley burns up the screen as a strong detective
The Cannes Film Festival saved one of their best films for last. In the event’s final slot, Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t! “received a 6.5-minute ovation in the wee hours of the morning,” writes Deadline.
The cast and crew of Honey Don't! attend its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Charlie Day, Aubrey Plaza, Margaret Qualley and Ethan Coen attend the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Aubrey Plaza at the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Charlie Day attend the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Margaret Qualley attends the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Charlie Day attends the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jack Antonoff attends the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke attend the Honey Don't! premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
With cast members—including Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Talia Ryder, and Charlie Day—as well as the film’s co-producer and co-writer, Tricia Cooke, on the red carpet, Coen told an enthusiastic crowd, “That’s a fun way to end the festival,” reports Variety. Most festival goers and critics were in whole-hearted agreement.
The official trailer for Honey Don't!
After collaborating on Drive-Away Dolls, Coen and Cooke are back with Honey Don’t!, a dark comedy about Honey O’Donahue (Qualley), a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church that also stars Plaza, Day, Billy Eichner, and Chris Evans. With Qualley taking on the role of the classic fast-talking noir gumshoe, the film, writes Radio Times, “refreshingly reverses gender roles.” Mashable asks, “Want something sexy, silly, and scandalous? Then you'll treasure Honey Don't!”
Tricia Cooke, Margaret Qualley, and Ethan Coen on the set of Honey Don't!
Critics found much to treasure in Qualley’s presence and performance. “A witty and cunning actor who knows how to bend a scene to her rhythms,” writes Variety, “the unapologetic erotic pow of Qualley’s presence is part of what’s going to make her a very, very big movie star.” Screen Daily writes, “It’s a performance that’s both sly and grounded, buoyed by Qualley’s piercing, seen-it-all glare.” Rolling Stone put Honey Don’t! on their list of “13 best movies at Cannes 2025” largely because of “the way Qualley turns this private investigator into an update of an old noir staple that’s equal parts screwball and hardboiled. It’s some of the best work she’s ever done, and we’d gladly watch a whole other trilogy just devoted to this sultry, take-no-s--t sleuth.”
Honey Don’t! is in theaters August 22!