Andrea Arnold likes writing movies about poor young people trying to achieve their even small dreams. Despite their misguided worldview, Arnold’s British characters contain some level of charm through their optimism and moment by moment enjoyment of life. American Honey is Arnold’s take on America’s version of these people: door to door magazine salesteens. Plus Arnold pulls the brilliant casting coup of the year by making Shia LaBeouf, Mr. perceived narcissist himself, the face of these people. Well played.
Star (Sasha Lane) is trapped in a garbage situation. Living with people who use her for her body or to babysit (so they can drink), she just wants to start living for herself. She finds one with a group of youngins (millennials…ugh, I hate even saying it) in a KMart parking lot in Oklahoma. These kids sell magazines door to door, driving state to state doing so. They are led by queen bee Krystal (Riley Keough), the sales team manager who provides the lodging and transportation. Krystal’s top salesman is Jake (LaBeouf), the magnetic figure Star is instantly drawn to when she agrees to this job. Jake begins to draw Star into this world, a world of instant gratification, pure exhilaration, and yes, a dash of vapidness and vanity.
American Honey will leave you with something to think about, for sure. There are lots of ideas in this movie that left me pondering for a little bit, like James Franco rapping in cornrows. This view of middle America’s income inequality is finally getting some legs in the media, but not very often. American Honey show’s the ingenuity and optimism of the people at the bottom: people forgotten and scorned by society. These people appear to have 2 options: conform or go to prison. Not only do they find a third option, fend for themselves, but that third option gives them a purpose they didn’t know they had, and they revel in it. Yes, this option is sleazy, but who was teaching them right from wrong? No one. So while we may see from afar how empty and unfulfilling and futile the magazine ponzi scheme is, I certainly felt an empathy for these misguided entrepreneurs and their simple dreams, listening to disturbing amounts of misogynistic gangster rap. As a study of modern America, American Honey has very strong insights on income inequality, living in a bubble, short sighted behavior, and the evils of capitalism that will make you think for an hour or 2.
Unfortunately, after hour 7 of American Honey, I just stopped caring. At nearly 3 hours of watching Shia LaBeouf act narcissistic, I just keep wishing Megatron would show up and murder him. The little triangle between Jake, Krystal, and Star is actually very effective for a while, with power and race throwing wrinkles into the equation. But like Spring Breakers, endless scene repetition between those 3 just simply ran out of things to say about them. We just keep getting the same character beats after a while: Star is naive and cares, Krystal is a bitch, and LaBeouf needs to put his penis in something every 5 seconds, which is frustrating because the first half of this movie makes great efforts to layer them. Even more infuriating is that American Honey has a built in way to pad screen time. There are 8-10 kids in this van with Star, Jake, and Krystal. Yes, some of them get lines here and there and cute little personalities, but the specter of the three leads black holes the rest of the cast. Yes, the non Shia Labeouf kid who pulls out his penis every 4 seconds (Shia displays SOME restraint) doesn’t need more of a backstory. But some of those other kids get teased a stellar background that we never get. Maybe that’s the point, but at 3 hours, I wanted something other than the 3 leads.
Here’s the thing too: the leads are actually PRETTY good. Sasha Lane plays Star like an honest simpleton, eagerly going along because she has nothing better to do. She handles the excessive closeups well, imbuing her character with confidence, anger, confusion, or sensuality when she needs to. Riley Keough assumes the James Franco role of a bottom feeder with power. Keough is great at conveying command through silence, scaring me on more than one occasion. Keough also uses her body as a power play, turning the magnetic Jake into a neutered pet. Which brings us to Mr. LaBeouf. Haters gonna hate, but the dude shows here again why he gets top billing in movies. Jake is the most complex character, being a magnetic draw who’s pretty unhinged and succumbs to power. Can you see why LaBoeuf might be good in a part like that?
American Honey would have been near perfect for me at 2 hours long. Andrea Arnold has a very good insight into the world of forgotten people with nothing, giving them a voice to say what they have to say. While we can sit and judge her characters, it’s near impossible not to feel for these kids and wonder where they could get if they had a proper guide, instead of one that wears a super tight Confederate flag bikini.