In the weeks since I saw a press screening of “American Honey,” I’ve been back and forth about it. I found much to like about the movie, but had questions, too.
Does the film romanticize the down-and-out teenagers it portrays? Or does it exploit them? Did the director fall in love a little too much with her characters?
When I’m conflicted about a film, there’s one acid test, and it has to do with how time passes while the movie’s on. Maybe I’ll check my watch, or tap my foot impatiently, or possibly start thinking about how the Seahawks’ bye week will affect the games that follow.
Such things happen during bad movies. But during “American Honey,” I had no sense of time passing. I was completely immersed in the film’s unusual world.
This is especially notable because American Honey” clocks in at 163 minutes, and it sprawls in a seemingly random way. But I suspect there’s nothing random about it.
The film is written and directed by Andrea Arnold, whose films in her native Britain include “Fish Tank.” Here, she brings an outsider’s eye to a very specific underclass.
Our focal point is a girl called Star, played by non-professional newcomer Sasha Lane. Star says she’s 18, but looks younger.
Escaping an abusive home situation on something like a whim, Star joins a troupe of traveling youths who sell magazine subscriptions. They travel around the country in a van, ringing doorbells in nice neighborhoods and guilt-tripping locals with sad personal histories.
The ragtag group is made up of mostly very raw first-time actors. The boss of the group is the alarming Crystal, played by Riley Keough with steely fierceness (there’s no sign here of the amiable warmth of Keough’s grandfather, Elvis Presley).
Crystal’s right-hand man is Jake (an impressive Shia LaBeouf), a wickedly clever salesman. Star is lovestruck around Jake, but has her own stubborn integrity.
Songs animate this vagabond life, and the crew moves along. Star sees animals everywhere, as though craving a natural touch in the mechanized, fast-food world.
There’s little conventional rise and fall, because the movie is about young people living in an eternal present. But somehow Arnold finds a stride that hits an endless-summer groove.
I fell into this film’s rhythm, so that some of the more heavy-handed moments became just part of the flow. At times I suspected Arnold might not notice how obnoxious her youthful crew can be, or that the intense sex scenes might be more voyeuristic than illuminating.
Still, we are viewing things through Star’s eyes, and this is how she experiences them—which means we might see things as though for the first time, like the sparks floating off a bonfire or a lawn sprinkler crackling to life on a summer evening. “American Honey” reaches high, but it’s at its best when it’s close to the earth.
“American Honey” (3 ½ stars)
An intimate but sprawling account of a teen (Sasha Lane) escaping abuse for a vagabond life hawking magazine subscriptions in a crew of other youths. Andrea Arnold’s film seems shapeless, but somehow it creates a beguilingly new kind of coming-of-age movie. With Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough.
Rating: R, for nudity, language, violence
Showing: SIFF Uptown theater
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