Review of American Honey (2016) by Eddy H — 04 Nov 2016

Andrea Arnold is the brilliant British film maker who is responsible for modern greats such as Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights. At the age of 55, she still continues to add her own unique spin to film making. In American Honey the whole 2 hour 43 minutes running time is shot in a documentary like style, with the use of no tri pods at all and all hand held footage.

The film takes place in modern America and follows a 21 year old misfit girl named Star. When on the verge of becoming homeless; tired of being sexually assaulted by her father, she makes a life changing decision to follow her lust for Jake (Shia LaBeouf) who she meets in a K-mart and hits the road with him and his gang. The gang are actually sellers of magazine subscriptions ranging from travel to porn, and are living a frantic life for survival after all running away from home. Their lives are filled with fighting, drugs and alcohol.

American Honey holds a very youthful feel to it. Ultimately, it is an account of around twelve mentally unstable mid twenty year olds voyaging across America, trying to make a quick buck in which they will later hand over to their boss Krystal to spend on a flashy convertible and king sized hotel rooms while the rest of the gang live out of the back of a van and beaten up hostels. The characters seem to all be intriguing and troubled, each in their own right. The two main characters Star and Jake seem to be running from something more complex than a 'bad upbringing', but more because they don?t agree with the everyday conventions of typical society. While some of the characters just seem to be thoroughly enjoying life and living it how they feel acceptable; which is drinking until you pass out.

The character which stood out from the rest was defiantly Star (who was played by the debut actress Sasha Lane). She seemed very hard witted and very elegant in comparison to the rest of the group she followed. She laughed at their drinking, shrugged at their jokes and even questioned others way of thinking. But ultimately, the lack of financial security played its toll on her and she resorted to prostitution toward the end of the film. She never seems to like the work she signed up for, she seems to be sort of just there. Maybe there for the new experience's travelling brings to ones life or maybe because she just wanted to escape her harsh situations with her father. She appears to be a rough diamond and takes a licking to apparent bad boy Jake who takes her under his wing and teaches her the ins and outs of door to door selling. He teaches her how to lie about family members passing away and even the building of a new canteen in a made up university, all in an attempt for a quick buck. The sexual tension between these two characters, drives the film into a whole new direction, it becomes a film about two love hopefuls who need to be together at what ever the cost; even if that does mean stealing twelve thousand dollars worth of jewellery.

One of the key parts of the film is the music. The music contains a lot of rap from artists such as YG and Cabbage. This very much appeals to a younger more up-to-date audience but, the older viewers are suddenly transported into modern America through the deep bass of these songs. The unique part of the music is that there is no non-diegetic music played by artists it is all solely diegetic, which gives the audience the feel as if they are actually listening to the music with the characters at the same time they are doing so. Enhanced by the hand held camera movements throughout and its documentary style. Suddenly, the film is an emotional road trip for the viewer in which is being experienced next with the gang themselves. Ultimately, while watching this film I felt like the 13th member of the crew, just without any dialogue. This is the first time a film has mesmerised me like this and has left me in awe of the cinematography.

All in all American Honey is a modern classic, even for an independent film. If you want to be transported to America and travel 13 states in the process, this is the film for you! For all film lovers this is a must see as it is unlike anything you have ever seen before. For what seems like a very straight forward story line, moulds into something riddled with complexity and allows every viewer to hold a different meaning of the film.