[yasr_overall_rating]
A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits.
“You just have to figure out what they want you to be and be that.” That is the one of the most relevant lines uttered in the 162 glorious minuets that is “American Honey.” Figuring out what they want, figuring out what you want is the crux of this film with the added storyline of love.
The story doesn’t pull any punches during its entirety and that includes the beginning with the camera zoomed in on our heroine, Star (played by the incredible newcomer Sasha Lane),clawing through the trash within a dirty supermarket dumpster looking for food to feed her two pre-teen counterparts, who have seemingly been dumped on her by a non-existent family that she used to have. The film is filled to the brim with moments like that, a peek behind the curtain of life. A view into the gritty world that we choose to ignore daily. One that Arnold has chosen to accentuate with the modern view of a Bro-merica that a millennial could see from a mile away. Deep bass lines hit your ear, just as they do Star’s as she thumbs for a ride and her gaze meets the gaze of Jake (played to perfection by a ratty Shia LaBeouf), the wild, eccentric, free spirit that matches her own. This opens the stage for one of the craziest love-hate relationships between two characters as well as one of the best scores of a film that is as art-house as “American Honey.” Not because the songs are classy or well-written but because they match our characters as well as their surroundings and just the culture that is found within the film. It is all mainstream music, heavy on the rap, from Juicy J to Rihanna and Lee Brice, but it dictates a level of familiarity that is unmatched by any other film within this realm.
As far as tight-knit, the story does suffer a bit from simplicity. Star Joins a ragtag group of like-minded teens trying to scrape out a living by selling magazine subscriptions. They travel town to town all across the nation which allows Arnold to show you the gritty America that she wants you to see. The America that is real, not one depicted as clean and accomplished. What the film lacks in story depth it makes up for with fast quips and great acting as well as a cultural aspect that is unmatched. Soul searching is heavy within the film and for the younger viewers (which undeniably this film will skew towards), it is a bullseye on what their current thought process is. “American Honey” may be elegant to some, a docu-type to others, and far-fetched to another group, but in the end, its storyline, in some way, is relatable to everyone who sees it.
Opens in Dallas Friday, October 14th
