Act or die! According to this principle, a group of young people are living around the United States trying to sell expensive magazine subscriptions. Forced by the cruel circumstances of their fallen families or in a desperate attempt to escape from the so-called "a mill for human flour" as Henry Miller writes, they seek salvation in the comfort of the small group and the bitter way of life. "American Honey" is a film about a dissolving heart, the warm colors that flow from every new throb in a world beyond its beauty. This is Star's story - a new light in the sky born from the cosmic dust of the stars that died before. Her birth, metamorphosis, her reconciliation with all irreconcilable contradictions, and the cure of the original wound. I liked this movie, I loved his spirit - something most of the modern cinema does not own. And what a strong spirit is this only. Above all, genuine, well-meaning, but not sentimental, demanding, grandiose and personal, disobedient, fragile, believing in the good but ready to steal, strike and cause damage; the spirit of youth of new age, our time, the spirit of people most of us do not know of which we are afraid; we are afraid of their incessant behavior, their hairstyles and tattoos, we are afraid of deceiving ourselves, not taking our wallet, not taking out a knife. What are these children, why do they live like this? This is America's child, the abandoned, who care for themselves.The film is inspired by an article in the New York Times and tracks a group of teenagers who sell door-to-door subscriptions to magazines. The group is led by the unbridled jerk Jake (Shaya Leboff), and starring Star (Sasha Lane), who has problems at home and has no desire to come back. Traveling, parties, crimes and unpredictable love are coming. This is not an ordinary story that you are looking at for the plot or the backs. This is an epic experience that needs to be experienced in a darkened room, in front of a big screen, and then you have to go around with friends over the night streets until your legs get hurt until you get sober out of the first rays of the sun.
Because "American Honey" can not be described. It's not some kind of interjection that you can put into the clumsy line of movies this year. It's not stuffing, you do not watch it to relax some afternoon. I'm not sure if it's a movie at all. As I wrote about "The Neon Demon," the time of a new art is coming, which will exaggerate its genre, the limitations imposed by the medium, an art that will be part of us in which one will lose a sense of time and place.All these tales to prepare you that "American Honey" is two hours and forty-three minutes long. Yes, a movie about young kids who ride a ripped bus and sell subscriptions to magazines can be so long and not disappoint. Because it was not done for the sake of its own, the reason is not in the director's incessant desire to place all the good footage he has shot. The reason is in the very approach that becomes clear from the first scenes. In Carroll Uwe Knausgore, "My Struggle: Book 2: A Man in Love", the role of art is above all to photograph, create accurate images at a time and place past, preserve our memories. There is no need for storylines and twists, postmodernist grumbling attempts that try to get you into a labyrinth you do not want to go out anyway. Even La La Land, which I so much liked, invariably suffers from the schemes that follow. No matter that the film is aware of them that it distorts them in a fascinating way, it will never have the same weight as "American Honey" simply because it mimics life rather than collecting it.
Star is sympathetic from the start. She is beautiful, smart and irreconcilable. She lives with two kids who are not getting the proper attention from their parents (later we see the mother dancing the country like some grotesque). We like it above all because of Sasha Lane, who plays herself. The authentic image is rotated alongside the unprofessional actress. Director Andrea Arnold saw the girl on a beach and immediately decided that Lane had the energy that fits the character. Similarly, Arnold finds Katie Jarvis of "Fish Tank" at a station. The method turns out to be more efficient, especially for films that focus so much on capturing a certain spirit. In the first frame, Star runs in a container to find an intact chicken and carefully throws it on the little kid who is her brother. But Star will abandon him, he and his sister seeing Jake as a chance to change, seeing a way out of his little world, which he has long swallowed and considered as insufficient. Shayya Lebof is slowly making his way and will soon become one of my favorite young actors. Even his scandalous breakouts and art performances seemed to have helped to reinforce him as a nice guy who was trying to get something real on the screen in a choked industry. Far from being the unbearable, shattering robots of Transformers, here Leboff is released and the result is amazing. "American Honey" reminds us why we need more films in which the actors get the freedom to build their image. Terrence Malick does that, but there the characters are like pawns in the orchestration of a wide metaphysical field. Here the emphasis is on what each of them carries within itself. Rebellion, aggression, naivety, the beauty of the unspoiled young soul, and the signs of the violence she has suffered. The rest of the kids are no less interesting. There is so much that it almost unlikely that Arnold has made each of them clearly visible without being reduced to the cliché image of a loser, assassin, whore, junkie, or something of the kind. All are complex images that you get to the middle of the movie. Besides the short scenes in which some of them do some fuss, there are many non-dialogue moments that just show states. Even if you are in the bus and watch them without being aware. The whole movie has this feeling as if there were no cameras on the set, as though we should be grateful that someone without a shot had these children shot. In fact, "American Honey" is just that - a lucky chance.
I'm so tired of Hollywood's violent attempts to diversify its production. From bringing black actors into inappropriate roles, to the constant fury that women are not fairly represented in the industry. More black movies, more female movies. Although they concern undeniably ill topics, they are absolute nonsense that will not produce good results. When something violently gave birth to something beautiful and valuable. Strong women are recognized and inspired by people like Andrea Arnold ("Red Road", "Fish Tank"), who are filming good movies. Because that's the main thing - doing good movies, so it's a way, not just because you're there. In American Honey, female filmmaking is felt in some key moments. Above all, Star's attitude toward the bruised Jake. She does not need his help, she does well on her own, even because of his intrusions, the situation is unnecessarily lingering. Other important scenes are those in which sexual expectations are not satisfied. One of the best scenes is when Starr agrees for $ 1,000 to spend the evening with an oil well worker. The mix of sensations is something that can rarely be noticed. Terrifying, sad, sad and gentle. There is humanity, mutual understanding and respect. Arnold plays with excitement and does not allow Star to have a feature. Perhaps only in an early stage that serves to show the abominable attitude that the girl is running from. I can compare the film with the "Easy Rider" or with the art of the wrestlers, I can also pass it through the prism of social commentary, to label it as a contemporary critique of American capitalist society, but sometimes it is all too much and too boring. You do not need any cultural preparation to feel the essence of American Honey. It's a movie about a star, about her rebirth, the way to herself, and the warm breeze of youth, gathering life as a drop of honey.