American Honey

A young girl, named Star, with no economic abilities, bears the heavy responsibility of raising her two younger siblings.

Hungry after living the life of a teenager she gets attracted to a group of young people at a supermarket with high spirit and a bad attitude. She leaves her siblings behind and joins the group who lives from day to day selling magazines to whomever they meet. The common denominator is the selling of magazines. How to do it? How to manipulate the potential buyer with different kind of stories up the sleeve that is supposed to impose sympathy? As Oliver Twist is lured into Fagins lair and is taught to pick pockets without knowing what he is doing so is Star initially. At the point where she understands the rules and laws of the group, she is involved in such a way that she accepts the game and takes some very big risks and further compromises her own moral values.

The force of the movie is the depiction of the life on the road, the interaction between our marginalized young people and slowly getting to know our protagonist, who in the beginning is the silent observer and little by little starts to unfold her personality.

I can see that the movie is being criticized for being very long and not having a story that develops from a start- to an endpoint. I agree that some of the scenes are prolonged to a point that seems unnecessary. Besides this I think that this movie is a perfect example of how the truth often lies in the detail. This means that we need to dwell in some of the scenes and that the artistic challenge is to let this happen in a way that gets the audience involved.

Again I must express my deepest respect for director Andrea Arnold who has the rare ability to show a milieu in such a convincing way that it at certain points seems as if you are not watching a movie but instead a documentary but without losing the storytelling.

Regards Simon

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With all the talk generated during the most recent presidential election about how out of touch one half of America is with the other, it takes a British filmmaker to give us a movie that brings the socioeconomic discrepancies between one part of America and another to light in a way that no other recent movie has.

The young drifters in this movie are amazed at Kansas City, never having seen so many tall buildings together in one place before. A conversation with an older, professional trucker reveals that a dream both characters share is seeing the ocean. One girl thinks people who make $100,000 a year are rich.

Wow, talk about a world away from where I live (Chicago) and where a salary of $100,000 makes owning a home barely affordable. For awhile, "American Honey" is a compelling glimpse into the life of those who have long since been left behind by the American dream. But the film goes on far too long and is far too monotonous to remain compelling for its entire duration. We only really get to know one person in the movie, a young woman named Star who is running from the hopelessness of her situation to.....what, exactly? She doesn't know, and that's the point of the movie. But that point is made long before the movie itself ends, and without much character development (Star's character arc is awfully short for a nearly three-hour movie), I found my attention and interest wandering in the film's final half hour or so.

Grade: B

If you are a fan of Larry Clarks Kids then this is the film for you. It portrays a harsh reality that most people would rather not see. It's got that train wreck quality that won't let you turn away and at the same time has you horrified.

Sasha Lane as the protagonist Star gave a great performance. Her anger and sadness come to the surface even when she's silent. I've always liked Shia LaBeouf but I've usually felt like the films he's done don't interest me so I don't get to see his performances that much.

I realize that the film is long, but I think it's part of what makes this film special. It takes time to develop and meanders a bit in the process but again it's part of what makes the film seem so genuine. Though the premise of the story is a bit ridiculous in itself it's really just a vehicle to let us in on the behavior of these young people. What makes them tick. What kind of music they like. How they relate to each other.

Clearly this film isn't for everyone. You should have an idea what it is about before you partake in the investment of watching it. But if you are like me and enjoy the sociological aspect of feeling like you are eavesdropping on the life of these young people then it's a great film.

I'm not familiar with this director but now I'd like to see her other films. Hopefully her hand is on the pulse of a lot of different subsets of culture.

American Honey follows a young woman as she embarks on a road trip of sorts with a bunch of hippies as they try to swindle their lives away in hopes of living in the purest of utopias. It is an indie film through and through. Everything from the story to the look reeks of an independent production which really intrigued me from the minute American Honey started. Despite this everlasting and enthralling feeling of watching pure art in the way of the indie eye as seen through director Andrea Arnold, I can't help but shake the feeling that this film could have been more. To start off, there really isn't anything terrible or bad about the film outside of its indulging and bloated running time of close to 3 hours. The acting is great, the cinematography is amazing, the soundtrack is arguably perfect and the story (while being paper thin) is acceptable. The biggest enemy the film has is itself. The editing is probably my biggest issue with the film because it ends up damaging the story through this overbearing and extremely indulgent pacing. At times, there are moments where the film is unrelenting. You can't wait to see what happens next. Then there are other moments that move so slow that you question whether or not to get up and stretch your legs. It ends up being a very frustrating film to watch because anyone can see that there is an undeniable masterpiece underneath the running time. A timeless story of youth and innocence is lost in a barrage of fire pit songs, drug fueled rage and useless character traits that end up being lost or muddled in, what felt like, an assembly cut of the film. Despite this, Andrea Arnold has a very keen eye and a natural ability to make her characters feel real even if the film is as boring as the average person. Whether or not this is what Andrea Arnold was going for, I have no idea. Overall, American Honey is a film that will most certainly test the patience of its audience but those who are fans of Arnold's Fish Tank, or just simply fans of character studies or coming of age stories, American Honey will certainly leave you feeling satisfied.

Featuring a cast riddled with amateur actors (aside from Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough (granddaughter of Elvis Presley) "American Honey" is more than just another Cannes Film Festival calling card for writer/director Andrea Arnold, it is a gritty, startling master-class example of "slice of life" direction, the likes of 2016's "Manchester by the Sea" or "King Jack".

Synopsis: A teenage girl, living in extreme poverty, is recruited into a traveling sales crew filled with other teens in her same situation. The group travels cross-country, scamming people into buying magazine subscriptions by day and partying incredibly hard by night.

Arnold's hand-held camera work only helped immerse me into this lesser known subculture, watching these economically disadvantaged teens make sketchy life choices as they come of age inside a van sized commune of their peers. But it's the stellar performance from newcomer Sasha Lane which gives major credibility to this film and justifies some of its more minor flaws as well as the run-time. Much of the satisfaction I received from "American Honey" came from watching Lane's character evolve throughout.

Final Thought: There are a few misplaced lines of dialogue, which seem to force-feed a bit more than I would have liked, and at a nearly three hour run-time, this Indie will be perceived as an intimidating venture for some, but boy is it worth your time. The genuine atmosphere of "American Honey" speaks to this generation like not many movies do, and will stay with you for days after viewing.