Festivals - Cannes 2025 : Ethan Coen Closes the Festival with Honey Don’t!, a Queer, Blood-Soaked Detective Comedy That Brings the House Down

By Mulder, Cannes, Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes, 23 may 2025

May 23 2025, the die-hard Cannes crowd got exactly what they came for and more: a raucous, high-octane, delightfully twisted midnight screening of Honey Don’t!, the latest wild ride from Ethan Coen. As the clock struck 12:30 a.m. (after a characteristically Cannes-style delay), the room was already charged with anticipation. By the time the credits rolled, the audience was on its feet, erupting in a six-minute standing ovation for a film that blends blood, queerness, and Coen-brand absurdity into a 90-minute blast of cinematic mischief. The cheering wasn’t just polite; it was a visceral reaction to a movie that’s as brash and unpredictable as the festival itself. Coen, ever dry-witted, took the mic after the ovation and summed it up with perfect timing: “That’s a fun way to end the festival. Oh, and short, for a movie that started after midnight. Very humane.”

Honey Don’t! isn’t just a cheeky late-night experiment—it’s the second chapter in what’s being lovingly dubbed the “lesbian B-movie trilogy” from Coen and his wife and co-writer/editor Tricia Cooke. Following 2024’s Drive-Away Dolls, this new entry pushes the envelope even further, creating a rich and chaotic universe of queer noir, sexual tension, and southern-fried sleaze that somehow manages to feel fresh and fearless. Cooke herself set the tone post-screening by declaring, More queer cinema all the time!, a sentiment that rippled through the theater like gospel. These films aren’t just about representation—they’re celebrations of it, unapologetically loud and proudly weird, with a wink to grindhouse traditions and a nod to Coen’s legacy of genre-bending brilliance.

Honey Don’t! also carried emotional weight at Cannes. This was Aubrey Plaza’s first public appearance since the heartbreaking loss of her husband Jeff Baena earlier this year. Her arrival at the Palais drew immediate applause and heartfelt shouts from the crowd, including one audience member yelling, “I love you Aubrey!” with a sincerity that cut through the festival glitz. She stood beside her co-star Margaret Qualley, who looked radiant and composed—especially with her husband, music producer Jack Antonoff, in tow. Antonoff, clearly proud and energized, encouraged the audience to keep clapping as Qualley bashfully giggled during the ovation. Their creative partnership also bled into the film itself: Antonoff collaborated with Coen on three songs performed by Qualley in the film, one of which oozes Lana Del Rey vibes and fits the film’s sultry tone like a glove.

The story itself is pure midnight madness: Margaret Qualley plays Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private detective investigating a string of bizarre deaths connected to a shady church. She’s smooth, stealthy, and decidedly cooler than Qualley’s usual offbeat charm—something she noted herself in a pre-Cannes interview with i-D, saying she had to rein in her “natural Scooby-Doo” instincts to portray someone more mysterious and composed. Plaza plays a tough local cop who has a steamy, complicated affair with Honey, until a tragic turn involving her niece sends the narrative spiraling into chaos. And then there’s Chris Evans—who missed the Cannes premiere but dominates the screen—as a magnetic, villainous preacher whose megawatt smile hides far darker motives. Rounding out the cast are scene-stealers Charlie Day and Billy Eichner, injecting the already combustible film with even more manic energy.

Shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico between March and May 2024, Honey Don’t! looks and feels like the kind of movie that wasn’t just made—it was unleashed. There’s a sense of danger in the way it barrels forward, mixing slapstick and sexuality, satire and gore. Produced by Focus Features and Working Title Films, and distributed by Focus in the U.S. (with a release date of August 22, 2025), the film is already scheduled for a French release on September 3. Its Cannes premiere, slotted into the revered Midnight Screenings section, couldn’t have been more fitting. This isn’t a film meant to compete for the Palme—it’s a reminder of the wild spirit that made Cannes legendary in the first place. It’s sweaty, sexy, sharp, and wholly unafraid of its own camp potential.

What makes Honey Don’t! so special is how it marries trashy genre fun with genuine cinematic craft. Ari Wegner’s cinematography gives it a vivid, neon-drenched atmosphere that evokes late-night pulp comics, while Carter Burwell’s score adds unexpected emotional heft. The editing, by Coen and Cooke themselves, is razor-sharp, and the film moves with the confidence of a midnight classic-in-the-making. It’s not just a quirky detour for Ethan Coen—it’s a bold new phase. With Go Beavers, the third entry in the trilogy, already in the pipeline, it’s clear that this isn’t a one-off experiment. Coen and Cooke are building something that feels subversive and fun, like a punk rock mixtape of feminist noir and queer rebellion.

In the end, Honey Don’t! doesn’t just entertain—it ignites. It’s a festival closer that feels like a fever dream, the kind you wake up from laughing and quoting. And if there was ever a film that deserved to echo out into the Cannes night with howls of applause and cries of “Encore!”, it’s this one. Ethan Coen may have stepped away from the brotherly dynamic that made him famous, but with Honey Don’t!, he proves he hasn’t lost a step—in fact, he may have just found a whole new groove.

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Synopsis : 
Honey O'Donahue, a private detective in a small town, investigates a series of strange deaths linked to a mysterious church.

Honey Don't!
Directed by Ethan Coen
Written by Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Produced by Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke, Robert Graf, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Starring  Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, Chris Evans
Cinematography : Ari Wegner
Edited by Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Music by Carter Burwell
Production companies : Focus Features, Working Title Films
Distributed by Focus Features
Release dates ! May 24, 2025 (Cannes), August 22, 2025 (United States), September 3, 2025 (France)
Running time : 90 minutes

Photos : @fannyrlphotography