American Honey

American Honey

A necessary part of being young is movement. Where are we going? What are we doing once we get there? There’s a restlessness to those blurry teenage years that can’t be photographed a feeling of always moving toward an unknown future. It often involves what we want to do versus what we’re ready for, as expressed in the song from Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” that gives the film its title: “Steady as a preacher/Free as a weed/Couldn’t wait to get goin’/But wasn’t quite ready to leave.”

This European master’s first movie set in America may be filled with hyper-stylized images of Middle America—guys in cowboy hats grilling meat by a pool, oil fields on fire at night, a trucker listening to The Boss, an extravagant teenage girl’s birthday party—but it tells a story of youth above all else. Reckless, fearless, joyous, always-moving youth.

We meet Star (Sasha Lane) in a dumpster, looking for food. Immediately, she sees a group of teenagers in a nearby mega-store and senses an opportunity to escape her sad home life. These people who smile too much and jump around and dance especially the flirtatious Jake (Shia LaBeouf) seem like they could give Star her ticket out. Where they’re headed doesn’t matter so much; it’s more important that they’re going somewhere else than here.

She learns from Jake that he is one of the leaders of this gang who sell magazines door to door across the country; really it’s just enough magazine selling to get some food and lodging so they can keep selling them. They live day to day partying and drinking and singing as they make their way across America.

There aren’t many traditional narrative elements to “American Honey.” Riley Keough’s Krystal is kind of the bad guy a tough chick who collects the cash and makes the assignments for the magazine sales team. And there’s a love story, of course, between Star and Jake, although it’s not what we would call a romance by any stretch. This isn’t a plot-driven film; it tends to follow Star on adventures in the magazine sales trade that bring her back to the group after random encounters across the country.

And this is a movie in which people communicate emotion more through action and music than dialogue. When they’re happy, they dance Arnold’s film is filled with pop songs, many of which play all the way through. When they sing along, they’re expressing the sense of community they’ve created and which they so desperately need. There’s a key moment near the end when everyone starts softly singing along to the same tune, almost one line at a time until they’re all together many voices joined in song.

Arnold shoots “American Honey” in her typical full-frame 1.33:1 style and it creates a visually fascinating aesthetic. You’d think that would hurt a movie that could’ve so easily taken advantage of the widescreen vistas of the heartland, but it works because we stay with our characters instead of wandering the landscape with our eyes. It’s a privacy; a feeling that we’re in the van with Star and the gang, on this trip with them. Often, too, Arnold and cinematographer Robbie Ryan shoot their teenagers from below, casting them larger than life against the blue sky.

Most of what appears to be supporting cast seems to be non-professionals who are improvising much of their dialogue, and they’re all natural and engaging which is surely another testament to Arnold’s direction. The find here is Lane, who makes her feature debut confidently, never feeling like she’s performing as much as living in the moment. LaBeouf has a ragged energy; you get the sense he’s worked with a few Stars along the way (and while Arnold never explicitly gives him a detailed back story, one senses that LaBeouf created one). Jake is confident but also needs people like Krystal eventually Star for reassurance as he probably feels his younger days slipping away. It’s rich stuff.

Ultimately, though, “American Honey” is about motion a van full of kids speeding down a freeway somewhere in middle America. Even when they stop at one place long enough to sleep for an evening or two when they have to sit around at some motel they use it as an opportunity to dance in its parking lot. Remember those years when you couldn’t sit still?

When hormones mixed with ambition mixed with just wanting to see what was around the next corner mixed with whatever else keeps us moving? Andrea Arnold captures that teenage spirit better than anyone has in years; this is no yesterday, there’s no today, it’s all tomorrow.

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