Weekend Mullings: Honey Don't! | Eden

I think we, as a nation, need to do everything we can to get the Coen brothers back making movies together. Not entirely sure how to do that, and perhaps that's the bottom of the list of things that we, as a nation, should be focused on, but it's definitely on that list!

Honey Don't! is the second collaboration between Ethan Coen and his wife Tricia Cooke, in what they say will be a trilogy of "lesbian b-movies," the first being last year's Drive-Away Dolls, a movie I found to be exceedingly stupid, and most of the time, not the good kind of stupid.  

Honey Don't is a tad more serious, though it's still filled with stupid people doing stupid things, but at least this time it's centered on someone smart: Honey O'Donahue (Margaret Qualley), a private detective in Bakersfield investigating a car crash that may actually be a murder. (The recent The Naked Gun, another stupid movie, but one that is mainly the good kind of stupid, also starts out with a suspicious car crash. It's a trend!) 

I'm still not sure I understand the central mystery, but it involves a sketchy preacher played by Chris Evans, who spends the majority of the film engaged in various sex acts; probably some drugs, and a French cartel; and a local cop (Aubrey Plaza) who hooks up with Honey.

Of the two, I think I liked Honey more than Dolls, just because I liked the character of Honey O'Donahue, and the central mystery, even if I never completely understood it, kept me engaged. If Ethan Coen needs to get a third one of these out of his system, fine. But I don't think we, as a nation, deserve any more than that. We've been through enough.

Ron Howard's Eden is based on a true story that was also covered in the 2013 documentary The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, and the events seem like the perfect set-ups for wildly entertaining movies. I hope that movie shows up one day!

Of the two in existence, Howard's Eden at least has the advantage of casting beautiful people, and the freedom to fudge things where needed, to up the drama. But this tale of 1920's European bohemians leaving it all behind to live on a deserted island, who then have to deal with the annoyances of each other, resulting in possible murder, starring the likes of Jude Law, Ana De Armis, Sydney Sweeney, and Vanessa Kirby, turns into a dull and humorless slog at the hands of Ron Howard. But if you've ever wondered what Jude Law would look like without any teeth, this is the movie for you!