Film review: American Honey (2016)

Director: Andrea Arnold

Written: Andrea Arnold

Starring: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf

American Honey tells the story of Star (Sasha Lane), a teenager from an impoverished background who finds herself traveling across America’s Midwest with a motley magazine sales crew.

American Honey certainly has a story to tell, it explores the struggling youth of America with unfiltered honesty. Sasha Lane presents raw talent as she makes a performance of someone who has been film acting for years, which makes this debut for her even more astounding. Shia LaBeouf plays Jake, with charm and charisma he becomes the crew’s most successful magazine salesman. American Honey relies on an improvised script and a young talented cast to drive the narrative forward, effectively focusing on the troubles of youth, poverty, sex and drugs. Lane and LaBeouf’s on screen chemistry is palpable as their characters develop a mutual attraction to one another, intimate scenes are presented with real and almost embarrassingly raw detail (so not one to watch with the parents).

So, seated in the middle row, screen 1 at the Curzon in Canterbury, I watched American Honey having read almost nothing at all previously about the film. With considerable curiosity I started to wonder ‘what makes this film different yet somewhat familiar?’, I couldn’t help but smile when it dawned on me. The film is shot in the academy ratio of 1.37, giving the screen a squarer frame, reminding me of the eye pleasing filters of Instagram, which is an appropriate and ingenious cinematic ploy to give the film an extra nod towards youth. The cinematography is fantastic so it’s unfortunate that the major pitfall to this film is in the editing, at almost 3 hours in length you find yourself worrying whether you’ve put enough money in the carpark meter. The semi-adlib script is a huge credit to American Honey however couple this with the running time it may make you wish for a conclusion about 30 minutes before it comes.

This film is far from avoidable however, it shines a bright light on some really important themes with wonderful direction, just make sure you’re comfortable and you’re not pressed for time.

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