Review by C.J. Bunce
From the movie trailer it sure seemed like director Sophie Tabet’s first feature film Stone Cold Fox looked something like Ethan Coen’s throwback crime flick Honey Don’t! It turns out they actually have much in common–both are ambitious stories, both with the look and style of something not modern. Both don’t hide their attempts at capturing something worth retelling from the grindhouse movie genre (if that’s possible). Both are intended to be dark crime comedies. Both feature a similarly balanced lead cast. Stone Cold Fox stars Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Totally Killer, Red One) as title heroine Fox, with Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones, Veronica Mars, Orphan Black: Echoes) as a small-time gang boss, and Kiefer Sutherland (24, A Few Good Men, The Lost Boys) as a small-town bad cop.
But one is too much, the other too little.
The events of Stone Cold Fox take place in 1986 and find Shipka as a runaway trying to break her sister out of a commune. Honey Don’t! stars Margaret Qualley (The Nice Guys, IO, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) as title heroine Honey, a private investigator in a nonspecific noir setting who works with a disinterested cop played by Aubrey Plaza to take down a vile, manipulative preacher played by Chris Evans. Stone Cold Fox is watchable, but it has a one-note script that doesn’t maximize the use of its lead women. Honey Don’t! relies on a cold, almost Wes Anderson-stylized cinematography and an obnoxious volume of sex scenes that lack any sparks.
If there’s any success found here, it’s in the less-experienced Sophie Tabet re-creating something nobody else thought to try to re-create in her movie. The plot of Stone Cold Fox mimics many a throwaway sexploitation movie plot from the 1970s to 1980s, just another violence-filled story of a hopeless victim of circumstance trying to simply survive. The diference is back then the role would have been performed by Pam Grier. Stone Cold Fox is more PG romance than the R-Rated exploitative faire of Honey Don’t!
As for Honey Don’t!, its plot is convoluted with too many side characters taking away from the screentime of the leads, its dialogue is flat, and somehow these actors who have shined in other roles are stripped of their emotions. It has the grindhouse genre requisite sex and violence but without a dose of romance or emotion–so maybe both are what they aim to be. Neither lead duo has chemistry. Fox harnesses similar appeal alone to that of Samara Weaving’s similarly troubled heroine in Eenie Meanie. Crime boss Ritter is more washed-up madam than moll, grooming Shipka’s Fox so maybe its wise that together sparks don’t fly. But there’s no reason why Qualley’s stilted talking P.I. and Plaza’s lifeless cop lack even a hint of chemistry. It’s difficult to pin down what Ethan Coen was trying for with his choices.
Stone Cold Fox sees Shipka’s character providing voiceover narration. It’s not the stuff of noir movies, but something that makes her endearing–yet it’s also silly when coupled with sporadic vintage marquee titles restating character names big and loud in case you missed them. What kneecaps Tabet’s movie is a late-breaking, almost “after school special”-type drama component unveiled as a surprise at the end: It turns out for Fox that there can be no redemption, no salvation, no recovery. (Hey, this is a throwaway action movie, not a life-lesson drama!) Tabet tries to temper this with a quick fix at the end and a literal wink at the camera, but you just know Fox is going to fall and probably not be around a year from now. Honey on the other hand is probably still sitting in her hot office waiting for a client.
As for the two male leads, Kiefer Sutherland is actually just fine, delivering that kind of washed-up cop who thinks he owns the town and can cheat his way through the day unnoticed. But Chris Evans lately seems to gravitate toward the worst possible villain characters and this may be his worst. Does anyone really want to see Evans as a preacher manipulating parishioners into having sex?
Unfortunately both movies are worth taking a pass on. Maybe give an extra point to Stone Cold Fox for an ambition effort that just doesn’t stick its landing. Both movies are trying to catch the mystique of a Quentin Tarantino throwback. But there’s no excuse for someone like Coen with Honey Don’t!’s talented leads and a production that looks like he had access to some money to drive a better script and result.
Save these movies for where they belong, that B-movie grindhouse slot Friday or Saturday nights at 2 a.m. after you’ve watched everything else. Stone Cold Fox is now streaming on Netflix. Honey Don’t! is now streaming on Peacock.
