Actress Margaret Qualley nearly tames the basest instincts of one half of a talented sibling filmmaking team as Ethan Coen co-writes and directs the offbeat dark comedy mystery Honey Don’t! (C+). What a difference a partner in crime makes, as Ethan trades his brotherly collaborator to instead riff with former editor, now co-writer Tricia Cooke; and from the pulp friction of a detective neo-noir and lesbian romance spawns an unexpected lovechild. The movie is often a battle between the director’s own clever conceits and some dubious daydreams, and impulse control is rarely the victor. Still, Qualley towers above it all in a commanding role as an idiosyncratic private eye investigating crimes connected to a hack minister (an outrageously funny Chris Evans) while simultaneously romancing a police officer (deadpan dreamy Aubrey Plaza). The film, set in a sun-drenched milieu, has its share of spry surprises but doesn’t add up to a cohesive whole. It’s like a mid-season TV episode story got served instead of the impressive pilot.
From discordant opening sequences to a transcendent finale, the Spike Lee’s latest operates in an auspicious plane as “most improved Joint.” Highest 2 Lowest (B-), playing in select theatres before streaming on Apple+, is Lee’s neo-noir remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 High and Low, and Lee makes the story completely his own with contemporary themes about public image, wealth and morality. The director appears to have a lot on his mind, including how to spend one’s time making art and impacting society; there are artifacts throughout the protagonist’s home and world showcasing the giants of history on whose shoulders its characters stand. The plot is centered on a charismatic but stoic music mogul played by Denzel Washington, with small parts for his wife (Ilfenesh Hadera) and his chauffeur/henchman (Jeffrey Wright), who get much less to do. Together this trio confronts double-crosses in ways that feel at first overly melodramatic and ultimately cathartic. The ensemble also includes music artists ASAP Rocky and Ice Spice creating original characters plus basketballer Rick Fox, actors Rosie Perez and Anthony Ramos and pianist Eddie Palmieri inexplicably playing themselves. The film’s first act leans too much into subversive symbolism with sparse characters posed and juxtaposed against a towering NYC/Brooklyn borderland and an all-too-perfect family underscored by a fussy score. The Howard Drossin music massively improves and makes better sense as the film moves into more kinetic action; it’s soon downright rousing. There’s lots to recommend for viewers who hang in there for the full parable, not the least of which is another towering and nuanced performance by Washington. The parts of the film which are twisty are nifty; other lumpy portions work in circulative spurts. It’s esoteric, genre-defying and largely entertaining with a narrative examining modern anxieties and legacy.
