American Honey: an electrifying love letter to the adventuresome restlessness of American youth
American pop culture often simultaneously depicts youth as the best of times and the worst of people. In this light, Andrea Arnold’s coming-of-age road movie “American Honey,” starring newcomer Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf, isn’t for the settled-down, over-30 crowd. But, for the 21st century’s lost children, it’s one exhilarating journey down untraveled roads.
The film introduces its protagonist, an Oklahoma teenager named Star (Lane), as she dumpster dives for food to feed her her dysfunctional, impoverished family. When a van carrying an eclectic team of societal outcasts selling magazine subscriptions rolls into town, Star uses these free spirit Neverlanders as her escape ticket. Seduced by the slick yet sexy Jake (LaBeouf), Star’s new life of constant motion and daily hustling is not “easy,” but it sure beats the dead-end life she leaves behind.
Lane delivers a sparkling debut performance: A human firecracker of equal parts on-her-feet resourcefulness and gripping vulnerability, her boundless energy levels carry the story’s lengthy trajectory. LaBeouf gives an Oscar-worthy, career-best performance as Jake. His charisma elevates Jake’s already sleek charm as a fast-talking businessman. In spite of significantly less screen time, Riley Keough intimidates as Krystal, the magazine crew’s icy manager. Though little is learned about the rest of the crew, their interactions with one another display a blood-bond spirit of camaraderie.
Arnold shoots the film like a documentary, which gives the scenes, their pacing, and their cinematography a raw, improvisatory fluidity. It’s beautiful because it feels real, knows it’s alive and captures a moment, in the moment. The film also has one of the year’s most zeitgeisty playlists, one that allows the rebelliousness to break through the screen’s fourth wall and reverberate through the speakers. The Calvin Harris/Rihanna hit “We Found Love” begs to be danced along to, up and down the rows of cinema seats.
Just as the stars in the night sky are infinite, so are the dreams of the young. In “American Honey,” life is a highway that belongs to the misfits, where freedom is the reason to live.
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