Honey
2024 · 11m · USA
Directed by Doron Max Hagay
Genres: comedy, drama, romance
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, tender
A couple's failing relationship takes an unexpected turn when they invite a drunk woman from their doorstep into their home, and her chaotic presence sparks a quiet reconnection between them.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Hundred-dollar two-day no-lighting shoot using a drunk stranger as a relationship catalyst — that's a real indie object, and the constraint-as-method always interests me. Could be slight, but in the good way.
Hagay's $100 two-day no-lighting exercise is precisely the kind of mumblecore-adjacent production discipline that Joe Swanberg made legible, and Rooftop Films confirms the form. Minor but charming.
10:33 made for approximately $100 over two days with no lighting setups — that constraint either forces a documentary-natural intimacy that suits a domestic three-hander, or shows. 30.6K views suggests it works, and the chaotic-stranger-as-relationship-catalyst is a credible Cassavetes-y mechanism.
Reviews
Honey feels like a breath of fresh air – offering a story of a relationship rekindling, and from such an unexpected source.
Emily Allan as the drunk woman truly steals the show, perfectly embodying the exaggerated confidence of inebriation, and still delivers the film's most touching moment.
Festivals
- Rooftop Films 2024
- New Orleans Film Festival 2024
- Cucalorus Film Festival 2024