I ignored my doctor’s advice yesterday — I’m so fed up with being trapped in my house that I decided I was going to put my knees to work and go for a careful, slow, easy walk. I did, and I feel fine, except that I’m more tired than I would have been three months ago. This is my new regimen: I do the series of light exercises my physical therapist recommended, then I take off on a short walk. I might as well; the alternative is that I sit at home for the next six months and then maybe I’ll get surgery.
I walked all the way to the Morris theater, then sat for 2 hours, and then walked back. Yay me!
I went to the movie, Honey Don’t. I knew nothing about it ahead of time, other than that it was directed by Ethan Coen, which was good enough for me. I was surprised to discover that, if I had to describe it in only two words, it was Lesbian Noir. Margaret Qualley was a tough talking detective, Honey O’Donahue, who wouldn’t put up with any nonsense and whose two goals were to find the murderer and to get laid…which she did. The clientele at our local theater usually favors movies about Jesus, but I think if any of them accidentally saw this one, they’d have a heart attack and thereby improve the climate of the town.
There were a few men starring in the movie, but they weren’t exactly sterling role models. Chris Evans was a sleazy preacher, drug dealer, and corrupt exploiter of his congregation. Charlie Day was a cop with the usual Charlie Day personality, always hitting on the detective hero and getting shot down. The women were all strong and forceful and working for good…and for fun in bed. All very noirish, but with the genders swapped.
It was…OK. It had the usual Coen touches of turning dark situations comedic, good dialogue, and the characters (and acting) were all good. Where it failed, though, was in the plotting. It was getting interesting, when abruptly one of the lead characters had a dramatic personality change, with no build up, to be revealed as the killer, and then bang-bang the story was resolved, mostly, and we end with Honey picking up a mysterious woman on a motorcycle. Other story lines just ended. It felt like the director decided they had some good sex scenes, never mind the detective story, let’s wrap it up and go home.
It was an hour and a half long, but it desperately need another half-hour of story somewhere in there.
Anyway, I got my exercise in, and that’s all I really wanted. A little movie on top of it would have been nice.
Did the movie feature any two male characters talking about something other than a woman?
Good question. It did have some male characters talking about murdering witnesses including a woman, and it did have a male character jabbering about dating a women, so no, not really. The women did talk about men a few times, but like they were furniture.
I’m glad you did that. I’m glad it worked out well. Keep it up (carefully). In my opinion, giving up and being completely sedentary will do more damage than your reasonable exercise.
I watched it last week and had largely the same feeling at the end. I turned to my partner and just said, I’m not really sure I know what that was about. 30 minutes more please. Now I’m wondering if it landed on the cutting room floor for some reason.
Happy for you and your walk.
“Chris Evans was a sleazy preacher, drug dealer, and corrupt exploiter of his congregation.” Was he also playing a Republican politician?
Good for you, PZ! Keep walking.
On the Britbox app of our cable tv, we can get Acorn, PBS Masterpiece, and other British sources.
We do most of our viewing on Britbox lately.
PZ, You would love the series called “Frankie Drake, Private Detective”.
It could also be described as Lesbian Noir. The show is set in 1920’s Toronto, and the main character sounds much like the one in the film that you describe.
We also enjoyed “Miss Fischer’s Murder Mysteries”. The main character is a brave and enlightened flapper in 1920’s Australia.
We’re currently watching the 22 seasons of “The Murdoch Mysteries”. The first season began in 1895, in Toronto.
We’ve watched long enough now that the shows are set in the early twentieth century. The writers had no fear of exploring issues that resonate with the issues that we face today. The ensemble cast is awesome.
Have any of our commenters here from the UK watched and enjoyed these series?
PT exercises and a walk! That’s positive. I’m not sure about sitting 2 hours in the dark in a movie theater.
Perhaps the end is setting up the sequel. From what I just read “Honey Don’t” is a follow on to “Drive-Away Dolls”. Sequels are very popular in Hollywood these days.