Movie Review: American Honey

American Honey

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 The movie knows that selling these is hopelessly outdated, as do the kids selling them.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.

Classic Movie Review: Wasp (2003)

Wasp (2003)
Directed by: Andrea Arnold.
Written by: Andrea Arnold.
Starring: Natalie Press (Zoë), Danny Dyer (Dave), Jodie Mitchell (Kelly), Molly Griffiths (Sinead), Kaitlyn Raynor (Leanne), Danny Daley (Kai).

Considering that many filmmakers start by making shorts, the history of directors winning an Oscar for a Live Action, Short and going on to find success in features isn’t actually very good. In recent years, only two stand out – 2003’s winner Martin McDonagh, who went from winning for Six Shooter to making In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths and 2004’s winner, Andrea Arnold, who won for the brilliant short Wasp – before making features such as the creepy Red Road (2006), the brilliant Fish Tank (2009) and the rather daring Wuthering Heights (2011). She has become a director to look forward to – as she has an interesting eye, and an unique outlook at class, gender, and in Wuthering Heights, race.

Wasp is a masterful short – perfect at its length (25 minutes) as it presents the viewer with a complete portrait of a young, irresponsible mother and her children. Zoe (Natalie Press – a year before her minor breakout in My Summer of Love), is a young mother with four children – three girls the oldest being about 9, the youngest being about 3, and a baby son in a stroller. She loves her kids – but has no real idea how to raise them, no money, and seemingly no support – either from the father of the kids or her own family. She is basically alone, poor, with four kids – and more than a little bit of a temper, as we see in an early scene where she and another mother get in a rather profane argument about her kids.

Things take a turn in Wasp when she runs into Dave (Danny Dyer), a man she used to know. The two talk and flirt – and Zoe lies to him, saying she’s only babysitting the kids. Dave invites her to come down to the pub that night – and she agrees. She cannot find a babysitter, so she brings the kids along – but not wanting Dave to know they are hers, leaves them in the alleyway outside, with nothing but a pop and some chips to tide them over. Later in the movie, a brief exchange with another woman in the pub, will explain why she didn’t just leave them at home – she’s down that before, and gotten into trouble.

Tragedy threatens to strike throughout Wasp, as we see the kids race around outside the pub, pushing the stroller too fast, while at the same time growing increasingly hungry. The film gets its title from a wasp that shows up in the final few minutes – flying into the baby’s mouth. The scenes of the children are intercut with the scenes of Zoe inside the pub, playing pool, drinking, and flirting with Dave.

It would be easy to condemn Zoe for her behavior – which is abhorrent, of course – but Arnold shows her in if not a sympathetic light, than at least a human one. You don’t approve of her actions, but you at the very least understand them, and Zoe becomes more human as the movie progresses. The same goes for Dave, who at first strikes you as a kind of grown up frat boy – but in the end does something at least kind. Whether it will last or not, I don’t know, but he isn’t quite the shallow asshole we first expect when Zoe walks into the bar and he calls a “one of them modern birds, so you can buy the first round”. He’s simply oblivious to her situation.

In many ways, Wasp is a forerunner to Arnold’s brilliant film Fish Tank – which was about a teenage girl (Katie Jarvis, who delivered such a great performance, and yet I haven’t seen her since) and her sexual relationship with her mother’s boyfriend (Michael Fassbender). Both films are about class, and how the main characters – young women, trapped in a cycle of poverty – see themselves. Fish Tank may be the more hopeful of the films – the main character there at least recognizes she needs to get out, and has the opportunity to do so – but despite the kind way Wasp ends, it offers little hope. Zoe still has four kids, and little if any support. She’s trapped, her kids are trapped, and none of them deserve it – but there it is.

What Wasp shows about Arnold is a few things – one is her ability to show the people trapped in these lives without moralizing, judging or talking down to them, or provoking liberal guilt in the audience. There are stretches in all or Arnold’s work with little to no dialogue – her visuals (aided greatly by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who made his first collaboration with Arnold here, and has shot all her films since. Arnold doesn’t underline the falsely juice up the suspense here – she doesn’t manipulate the audience with the children in peril situation as much as she could.

I haven’t seen Arnold’s other shorts – Milk and Dog – but I’m going to look for them now. And I’m happy that she’s apparently making another feature this year – 4 years after Wuthering Heights. We need more directors like Andrea Arnold – and Wasp is a good place to start if you haven’t yet discovered her.

Movie Review: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Directed by: Andrea Arnold.

Written by: Andrea Arnold & Olivia Hetreed based on the novel by Emily Bronte.

Starring: Kaya Scodelario (Catherine Earnshaw), James Howson (Heathcliff), Lee Shaw (Hindley Earnshaw), Nichola Burley (Isabella Linton), Amy Wren (Frances Earnshaw), Oliver Milburn (Mr. Linton), Steve Evets (Joseph), James Northcote (Edgar Linton), Paul Hilton (Mr. Earnshaw), Shannon Beer (Young Catherine Earnshaw), Solomon Glave (Young Heathcliff).

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is one the best known novels in the English language, and according to IMDB, this most recent film is the 15^th screen adaptation of it. So, if you’re going to make another adaptation, you damn well better have something new to add. Luckily for audiences, that is precisely what Andrea Arnold brings to this enduring story – something new. This is a rawer, more primal, more animalistic adaptation that I have seen before, and it adds a racial element to the story that works remarkably well.

The movie tells the story completely from Heathcliff’s point of view – and Arnold casts first Solomon Glave and then James Howston – both black – to play the role of the orphan who is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw as one of his own. Growing up, he falls in love with Cathy (first Shannon Beer than Kaya Scodelario), and she with him. But Heathcliff runs afoul of brother Hindley (this time the reason is clearly racial as when Mr. Earnshaw says to Hindley “I thought you would treat him like a brother”, he responds “He’s not my brother, he’s just a nigger”), so when Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes master of Wuthering Heights, the family estate, he makes Heathcliff into a servant (in this version, essentially a slave) instead of a member of the family. But despite what happens between them, Heathcliff and Catherine remain in love – the fact they are kept apart destroys them, and everyone around them.

That is the same story that every adaptation of the book tells – and like many of them, this one stops at the half way point of the novel (which is just as well – I never really liked all the stuff about an aging Heathcliff, and the kids from the first half growing up). But this version of Wuthering Heights feels much more animalistic, more primal than the previous versions. Heathcliff is more up front with his animosity than ever before (he uses some decidedly no period language to express himself).  But the relationships are much more physical than before – the beatings Heathcliff takes are more brutal, Cathy literally licking his wounds for him, Hindley and his wife screwing like animals outside. This, and the multiple shots of animals, draws connections between the people and the animals. And this underlines the inherent cruelty at the heart of the story. Wuthering Heights is a story about cruelty, as Hindley is cruel to Heathcliff and to a certain extent so is Cathy, who drives him away. But when Heathcliff returns, now richer than the rest of the people he left behind, he becomes even crueller – especially how he treats poor, dumb Isabella, just to get back at the man who married Cathy. These are all horrible people – perhaps they would not be if society hadn’t kept Heathcliff and Cathy apart.

The performances in the movie are excellent. James Howson and Solomon Glave do an excellent job of making Heathcliff`s anger feel real. He’s more dangerous than in past versions, more vindictive. Glave is mostly silent in his half of the movie, always lurking and listening to what everyone is saying. Just as good is Kaya Scodelario and Shannon Beer as the two versions of Cathy. Beer and Glave have a much more physical connection to each other. Howson and Scodelario have to keep their distance from each other, but their pleasantries are packed with meaning and heartbreak.

Co-written and directed by Andrea Arnold, Wuthering Heights is more proof that she is one of the most interesting young directors working right now. Her debut film, the thriller Red Lights, was great until the conclusion, and her follow-up, Fish Tank, was an excellent depiction of a seduction of a teenager by an older man. In Wuthering Heights, she uses hand held camera work – with a narrower aspect ratio than normal (1:1.37) that makes the film feel more immediate and real. Arnold has done something quite special with her Wuthering Heights – she has made one of the most well-known stories feel new and different.

Movie Review: Fish Tank

Fish Tank ****
Directed By: Andrea Arnold.

Written By: Andrea Arnold.
Starring: Katie Jarvis (Mia), Michael Fassbender (Connor), Harry Treadaway (Kyle), Kierston Wareing (Joanne), Jason Maza (Liam), Charlotte Collins (Sophie).

Mia is 15 years old, lives in the projects and dreams of being a dancer. But Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank is anything but yet another inspiring story of a young girl who comes from nothing to make something of herself. By the end of the movie, she is just as lost as she was at the beginning – perhaps more so given everything that happens to her during the course of the film.

Katie Jarvis plays Mia in an honest, moving performance. Her seemingly one friend has abandoned her at the start to hang out with a more popular group of girl dancers. So Mia is left by herself to practice – which is does in an abandoned apartment. I am far from a dance expert, but I have watched a lot of So You Think You Can Dance, and my advice to Mia would be to get some actual training, as while she’s good, she is hardly ready for a dance career. But Mia would probably just tell me to fuck off if I suggested that to her. That’s the kind of girl she is.

Or is it? Mia puts on a tough exterior, because she pretty much has to. Her mother Joanne (Kierston Warring) is a drunk and doesn’t pay her any attention whatsoever unless there are other people around. Mia has pretty much dropped out of school and spends her days practicing her dancing, and walking around. It’s on one of these walks that she comes across a horse chained up. She tries to free the horse, but is confronted by the owners – three brothers not much older than she is. The confrontation quickly turns scary, and Mia runs away, but eventually she goes back. The one brother there, Kyle (Harry Treadaway) isn’t as macho without his brothers around. He and Mia actually hit it off.

It is around this time that Connor (Michael Fassbender) enters Mia’s life. He is another in her mother’s seemingly never ending parade of boyfriends (Mia and Sophie’s father, or fathers, are never mentioned), but unlike any other adult in Mia’s life, he takes an interest in her. He is kind and nice to her – encouraging her to make a demo to send in for an ad for female dancers that she sees. We suspect, and I bet Connor does as well, that the ad is for strippers but Mia believes this could be her break. But although Connor is nice to her, he is perhaps too nice. He looks at her a little too long and although he doesn’t cross the line (at least not at first) physically with Mia, there is certainly a flirtation between the two of them, and a physical closeness.

I couldn’t help but think of another recent movie, An Education, while watching Fish Tank. Both films detail the relationship between a young girl and an older man, and although they are set nearly 50 years apart, they hit many similar notes. Both girls are too naïve to see what is really going on, and allow themselves to let their guard down and be hurt. Both girls see a way out in the man, who represents what they think they want. Whereas An Education ends on a happy note, Fish Tank leaves things uncertain. Is Mia going to be okay, or not? We are not sure.

The performances in the movie are wonderful. Jarvis is perfect as a young woman who wants to be an adult, but cannot quite figure out how. She is both tough and vulnerable, and no matter what direction the screenplay takes her in, she is wonderful. She is equally good at dialogue, and those quiet scenes where he expressive eyes do the talking for her. Michael Fassbender has quickly become one of my favorite actors (this is the fourth time I’ve seen him this year after Hunger, Eden Lake and Inglorious Basterds), and this is probably his best performance to date. Outwardly friendly, there is something about his eyes we do not entirely trust. In the scene where he finally does cross a line, he plays masterfully. In a just world, both of these actors would get Oscar nominations this year.

Andrea Arnold has quietly become one of the most interesting filmmakers around. With her short film, Wasp, she won an Oscar. In her two features, Red Road and now Fish Tank, she shows an easy command of the medium and delivers movies that have a mystery to them, and still remain heartfelt. There are few movies this year that feel more touchingly real than Fish Tank.