Review
AMERICAN HONEY – Review
While most of us have already unpacked from our Summer travels, pushing those suitcases to the back of the closet, the movies make road trips a year-round activity, and a source for many screen stories. There are travel tales from Hollywood’s Golden Age, like IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and, of course, SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. And when the young rebels took over in the late 60’s and 70’s we got more classics like EASY RIDER and SCARECROW . Now it’s time to “hit the bricks” once more, with a considerably younger set of travelers. But it’s no vacation, they’re working hard, playing hard, and driving hard. Their lives are far from sweet in AMERICAN HONEY.
The heroine of HONEY is almost twenty year-old Star (Sasha Lane). We first see her “dumpster diving” along with her boyfriend’s grade school-aged son and daughter. As they lug their “haul” down the street, she notices a van full of loud, energetic teens pull into the parking lot of a department store. She and the kids follow them in where Star catches the eye of the group’s cute, charismatic leader Jake (Shia La Beouf). They flirt from a distance until the store’s security ejects the rowdy group. She sees that Jake has dropped his cell phone and rushes out to return it to him. A grateful Jake suggest that she meet up with them the next morning outside a nearby motel if she wants to make a lot of money. First she takes the kids back to the ramshackle house she shares with her drunken beau. Once he passes out, Star sneaks away with the tots to the dance saloon, and leaves them with their not-too-happy mother. Star runs through the fields and across the highway till she finds the van parked at the motel. She curls up beside it and drifts off to sleep until she’s awakened by Jake and his pals. He explains that they travel from town to town, selling magazine subscriptions for a 20% commission. Jake introduces her to their supervisor, company rep Krystal (Riley Keough). After sizing up Star she pairs her with Jake as they roam the neighborhoods, pounding on doors, and hoping to “schmooze” the locals. They meet back at the motel that night, turn in their order books to Krystal, pile into the rooms (gals in one, guys in another), and pile into the van early the next morning, on to another town or state. This becomes Star’s life as she makes new friends in the van, while engaging in a tumultuous romance with the enigmatic Jake.
In her feature film, and supposedly her acting, debut Lane has a raw unpolished quality. She conveys the anxious, impatient nature of a woman hoping to escape her dire, dismal existence. At times we have a difficult time knowing what she wants, much like her character. Does Star want Jake, or is he only an escape route? Pathetic, petulant, defiant, needy, Lane hits all those notes, often during a single line of dialogue. Luckily she plays off of screen veteran (in this film he really is!) LaBeouf, who as Star’s obsession, is difficult to read. At times he pulls Star in, then abruptly pushes her aside, afraid of getting too close, too emotionally invested. Is she more to him than a new recruit? LaBeouf also shows us the huckster side of Jake as he teaches Star the ropes. he’s the chameleon, ever-changing in order to con his “mark”, to score the sale. Through his expressive eyes we see the gears shifting in his head as he scrambles to make just the right pitch, and when to go in for the “kill”. He’s fierce and proud, only buckling under to his boss Krystal, played with dead-eyed evil by the scene-stealing Keough. With her heavily shadowed eyelids always at half-mast, she looks for any weakness to exploit. We wonder what she’s up to (beside watching cable TV and chain-smoking), holed up in her motel room after sending her minions on their mission. Even if she weren’t wearing a bikini top with confederate flags cupping her breasts, Keough shows us that this lady is bad news, part pimp, part wicked step-mother, all trouble. Krystal’s a memorable movie villainess.
Unfortunately the efforts of the cast are mired in a bloated, unwieldy mess of a film that clocks in at nearly three hours, making us feel as though we’re trapped inside that van (pheww!) roaming endless dusty freeways. Perhaps writer/director Andrea Arnold wanted to make us feel a part of the characters’ nomadic existence, but the story’s repetitive nature pummels us into a stupor. It seems that every ten minutes or so there’s yet another hip-hop sing along with the camera bouncing from one screaming, bopping teen to another (makes you wonder if school bus drivers are paid nearly enough). There’s a compelling drama to be made with these cast-offs and dreamers, but this self-indulgent (editing!) morass squanders the subject’s potential. Little quirks are given to the other sellers (one loves Star wars, another keeps a squirrel as a pet, and another likes to show off the pet, ahem, in his pants), but before we get to know them it’s time for another rap number. Outside the bus, we get repeated scenes of Star jumping into dangerous situations. She’ll hop into anyone’s vehicle (most five year-olds know better), perhaps to generate tension as we await her possible assault. The monotony gives us lots of time to ponder. Star and her pals are near destitute (recall her pulling expired food out of the trash), but they have endless funds for cigarettes, booze, weed, tattoos, hair dye, and piercings. And who buys magazines any more (this is mentioned fleetingly)? Well Jake does say that they’re really selling themselves (see the vastly superior PAPER MOON and THE FLIM-FLAM MAN), but who, living today, would invite them into their homes? In one posh place, some tween girls gyrate and grind on the patio for Jake’s titillation as the parent is oblivious. Perhaps we’re meant to think of this gang as pure free-spirits, maybe this accounts for the pretentious wildlife interlude during the film’s mercifully last moments (after a recent Oscar winner, it’s just ridiculous). Younger audiences may find this “cool crew” endearing, but the oppressive, mind-numbing length and meandering story make AMERICAN HONEY a sour, rancid endurance test.
1 Out of 5
0 comments