Directed by: Andrea Arnold.
Written by: Andrea Arnold.
Starring: Sasha Lane (Star), Shia LaBeouf
(Jake), Riley Keough (Krystal), McCaul Lombardi (Corey), Arielle Holmes (Pagan),
Crystal Ice (Katness), Veronica Ezell (QT), Chad Cox (Billy), Garry Howell (Austin),
Kenneth Kory Tucker (Sean), Raymond Coalson (JJ), Isaiah Stone (Kalium), Dakota
Powers (Runt), Shawna Rae Moseley (Shaunte), Chris Wright (Riley), Summer
Hunsaker (Kelsey), Brody Hunsaker (Rubin), Johnny Pierce II (Nathan), Chasity
Hunsaker (Misty), Michael Hunsaker (Logan), Kaylin Mally (Destiny), Laura Kirk (Laura),
Will Patton (Backseat), Daran Shinn (Front Seat Cowboy), Sam Williamson (Driving
Cowboy), Bruce Gregory (Mitchell).
Donald
Trump is name checked early in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey – and while
Arnold would have no real clue that Trump would become a serious Presidential contender
when she shot the film (it was finished by May of this year, when it premiered
at Cannes) – I couldn’t help but think about Trump numerous times throughout
Arnold’s wonderful new film. The film takes place in the Midwest and South of
the United States – and centers on a group of young people from around America
(all of whom are, tellingly, white) who travel around in a large, white panel
van – being dropped off every day in residential neighborhoods trying to sell
magazine subscriptions. The movie knows that selling these is hopelessly
outdated, as do the kids selling them. What they are really trying to do however
is trying to guilt people into buying them. Often they are let off in well off neighborhoods
– places where they never see any kids like this on a day-to-day basis, and
perhaps they can alleviate some of the guilt they feel for being so well off by
paying $40 for a magazine subscription they do not want. In American Honey,
Arnold is showing the audience those left behind in America – and some of those
doing the leaving. And yet, as grim as that sounds, American Honey is alive in
a way few films are – the film is a sprawling Americana tapestry that is
beautiful to look at, contains a real love story, and is an iTunes musical
filled with joyous pop songs from the beginning to the end of 163 minute
runtime.
The
film centers on Star (the wonderful newcomer Sasha Lane), an 18 year old girl
who we first meet dumpster diving with her two younger siblings – feeling excited
when they score a full, uncooked chicken. She catches site of the van that will
play such a large role later in the film, and is drawn to it – dragging her
siblings across the street and into a Walmart, as the gaggle of young people
spill out of it. It’s in the store, that she locks eyes with Jake (Shia
LaBeouf) as he dances to Calvin Harris & Rihanna’s “We Found Love in a
Hopeless Place” in the checkout line. Jake asks her to come with them – and at
first she resists. We do see her home life though – a father (stepfather?) and
a creepy slow dance he forces upon her and we intuit he has forced even worse
things on her in the past, and a mother who hangs out in a bar – not a sad sack
on a barstool (although, she may well be drinking) – but line dancing – who looks
at Star as if she is the most selfish, ungrateful person in the world because
she no longer wants to watch her mother’s kids for her. With this at home, it’s
no wonder Star ends up in that van.
The
movie is short on plot – but that hardly matters. The various kids in the van
do become a sort of family to each other – and to Star – even though they never
really open up to each other. They are all, likely, somewhat like Star- coming
from broken, dysfunctional homes from around the country. They are selling
these magazines not really to get ahead – they don’t make a lot of money,
basically just enough to allow them to keep selling more magazines. The only
one making any money is Krystal (a wonderful Riley Keough) – their boss, who
rides around in a convertible instead of that van, and will do anything to
motivate more sales – fear, intimidation – even some lame encouragement.
The
emotional core of the movie is the connection between Star and Jake – one that
perhaps she takes more seriously than he does, at least at first. These are the
only two characters however, whoever do let their guard down with each other,
and actually do talk about “the future” (their dreams are so small, it’s
actually really sad, even as Star explains her with such hope). In their sex
scenes together, Arnold zooms in close – filling the screen with Star’s face,
perhaps only an eye – getting lost in that momentarily revelry and release.
Star is, in some ways, a very smart young woman – in other ways, she is very naïve.
She gets herself into a few situations over the course of the movie where you
cannot help but hold your breath and hope the worst doesn’t happen – going off
with a trio of middle aged “cowboys” in a convertible, jumping into the bed of
a pickup truck with oil workers, going on a “date” with one of them later that
night. Unlike many of the others in that van, she hasn’t become overly cynical
yet – when she meets a family that undeniably reminds her of her own (but,
perhaps even worse) – she gives up the pretense of a sales pitch, and instead
buys them groceries. Like Katie Jarvis, who delivered a brilliant performance
in Arnold’s Fish Tank back in 2009 (I really do want to see her in something
else again, she was excellent in Fish Tank) – Arnold has found an actor with no
previous experience, who is capable of holding the camera on her for almost the
entire runtime of this film. She is an expressive actress, without overdoing
it. She anchors the movie with her great work. Not to be outdone, LaBeouf is
clearly doing the best work of his career as well – on one level, she is little
else other than a huckster – a dirty, grimy, ponytailed version of a Glengarry
Glen Ross character, instantly sizing up what people want him to say, and
saying it. But there’s a little more to him than that – even if he doesn’t quite
realize that. LaBeouf is very good here.
American
Honey is a perfectly imperfect film. It’s the type of film that when you look
back at it, you cannot help but be amazed that Arnold gets away with everything
she does here – the number of sing-a-longs in the movie should be too many, including
a climatic one to Lady Antebellem’s American Honey, which should be too on the
nose. Yet remarkably, it does – the movie holds together – a grimy, dirty, road
trip to the heart of America, which is both joyous and depressing. That’s not
an easy thing to pull off – but Arnold does it here, reconfirming her status as
one of the most interesting directors working today.
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