#REVIEW Sweet as “American Honey”

Stars are really one of a kind. Sasha Lane stars in Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” as a free spirited, reckless teenager who is sick of mothering her mothers children, who are portrayed as children with literally nothing but garbage to eat. Wanting to break out, Star, Lane’s character, confronts her neglectful mother with her children at a bar, going for a bathroom break, only to run out and venture for new experiences. After meeting Shia LaBeouf’s Jake, Star was ready to embark on her new life as a door to door magazine sales person, minus kissing butt.

The film is the typical story of a teenage girl who is ready for a change in scenery and improvement. Star mentions that she’s never seen $400 in person, and that alone sets the tone of where she comes from and the grief she’s went through throughout her childhood. What’s untypical is the female ringleader Krystal (Riley Keough), which I thought was an amazing touch to the authority she had over the group of people who were door to door magazine sales representatives. Portraying female characters such as Krystal’s is usually a hard thing to present, but American Honey did a great job of diminishing the stigma around male/female parts, and stuck straight to what the story needed, which was two individuals with strong opinions butting heads on how to sell magazines and make a lot of money.

The soundtrack was as drawing as the film was with music from Juicy J, Rae Sremmurd, Raury, to Lady Antebellum and Bruce Springsteen. As the story goes on, Star falls in love with Jake, but there are obvious issues with Krystal. For a film that had the typical story of a girl who runs away for a better life, there was something compelling about Star’s journey and the road she takes to find true happiness and freedom, which for every American is the dream.

Elevation Pictures releases American Honey on Friday, Oct 7,  2016

[Review by Reem Chahrour]