- Actors: Shia LeBeouf, Sasha Lane
- Format: NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Region: Region A/1
- Rated: R
- Studio: Lionsgate
- Release Date: December 27, 2016
- Run Time: 162 minutes
I’m struggling
with an analysis of American Honey,
because the very things that make individual moments endlessly captivating
throughout the lengthy 162 run-time are also the largest weakness of the
overall film. Nearly everything about the American road trip made by a British
filmmaker is fittingly contradictory, including the fact that the main function
of the film is to expose an unseen side of middle-America, despite being made
by an outsider. This also gives this film a sense of contrived realism, a
depiction of America
imagined by someone with limited experience and a propensity for focusing on
the bleak and the transient.
British
filmmaker Andrea Arnold has previously enjoyed reveling in the squalor of lower
class British society, most notably with the similarly light on plot
coming-of-age narrative, Fish Tank.
Though the country and characters may have changed, American Honey seems to prove that Arnold’s interests have shifted little. We
are introduced to our protagonist, Star (Sasha Lane), existing in such a
depressingly cliché-riddled situation that her escape is welcomed just for a
change in the narrative. Dumpster diving to feed her appropriately dirty-faced
younger siblings and forced to endure the sexual advances of her step-father of
sorts, Star skips town to work with a traveling magazine crew.
This group of
social misfits and emotionally damaged teens go door-to-door in each town,
selling magazine subscriptions by any lie necessary. They are led by a cold-hearted
entrepreneur (Riley Keough, granddaughter of Elvis Presley) not much older than
Star, though she is drawn to the group by the top seller, Jake (Shia LaBeouf).
As much as this film tries to be about the realism of their situation and each
Midwestern location that they visit, it is essentially just a clumsy romance
between Star and Jake, endless scenes of hooking up and petty jealousies. All
of the rest of the scenes are basically just setting up the atmosphere, which
includes endless shots of the crew driving from location to location while
listening to their favorite songs and smoking weed.
With the film’s
dedication to realism, I have no doubt that the cast actually spent much of
their time filming actually getting drunk and high onscreen. So we are
essentially just watching a group of immature amateur actors being paid to
engage in self destructive behavior on the road trip that was the film shoot.
This footage may have seemed like a really entertaining idea for those under
the influence of these substances, but it quickly becomes redundant and
increasingly contrived within a nearly 3-hour run-time. Each moment of realism
is countered by the feeling that cinéma vérité is just a replacement for an
actual screenplay or a clear message to be made by the material. I didn’t mind
the aimlessness of the narrative until reaching the conclusion of the film and
realizing that the filmmaker had no more sense of where the story was headed
than I did.
Even if the journey was compelling,
the end result was ultimately a letdown once it was clear that there was never
a clear destination. Rather than concluding, the narrative just seems to end.
It is one thing to allow your actors (or non-actors, as is mostly the case with
this film) the freedom to improvise, but American
Honey allows this method to take over the film to the point of
overindulgence. There could easily be an hour of footage trimmed just by
removing scenes of the young adults singing along to heavy-bass rap songs and
getting intoxicated. The problem is that would also likely destroy the only
thing original about the movie, as well as making it a stronger film.
I suppose I should also at least
mention LaBeouf’s performance, which is purposefully showy, to the point that
he put himself in the hospital while chewing the scenery. This is not the
breakout performance that many may have claimed, and I don’t find his decision
to play a character with a rat’s tale and numerous tattoos all that daring when
surrounded by a bunch of non-professional actors who are clearly playing
follow-the-leader with the only movie star on set. This film belongs much more
to Lane (found on a beach during spring break), who plays into the contrived
situations with as much conviction as can ever be expected from an amateur
actor. If nothing else, Arnold
has proved capable of telling female-centered coming-of-age tales, even if they
are often too over-preoccupied with attempting to sensationalize the melodrama
of each situation.
Despite the process being far more
significant than the end result, there are surprisingly no making-of
featurettes or behind-the-scenes footage of the filmmaking process. Perhaps
they wanted to refrain from allowing audiences to see that there process mostly
involved intoxication and improvisation, explaining the film’s lack of focus
being sacrificed for raw and aimless energy. The only special feature included
is interviews with Lane and Keough about the film.
*** The Blu-ray release comes with a Digital HD
copy, though it is currently not available through Ultraviolet, as advertised.
This problem may be resolved soon, but as of 12/27/16, this is what I know: The
Blu-ray includes the usual code for adding to your digital library, but the
code doesn’t work since they have yet to add the film into their system. I
contacted Ultraviolet to let them know that this title was not available and
the code entered brings up an error as a result. I didn’t let Ultraviolet know
that I am a critic who has been sent the release by the studio itself for
review purposes, because I wanted to see how they would treat the average
consumer.
It turns out they treat them like
common thieves. When I politely informed them of the missing films (several of the
releases from the past few weeks are missing from their catelogue), they asked
me to send them a receipt of purchase, proving I had actually bought the films.
What’s even more frustrating than the implication of this request is the fact
that it does nothing to address the real problem. Code or no code, receipt or
no receipt, it does nothing to change the fact that the films are not even
entered into the Ultraviolet system to begin with. I don’t know if the studios
using this system are aware of the problems, but consumers should know what
they are paying for, and as of 12/27/16 it is not a digital copy.
Entertainment Value:
7.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6.5/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Special Features: 4/10
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