Review: American Honey (15)
It’s incredibly indulgent, to the point where any goodwill towards what she’s attempting starts to dissipate.
Perhaps she’s attempting to challenge audiences who’ll sit through a three-hour blockbuster movie, but balk at doing the same for an art film with naturalistic performances and a plot that’s closer to our actual lives. The fact that she’s cast Transformers star Shia LaBeouf suggests that might be part of her MO. Sadly, that doesn’t make it a great movie. Star (newcomer Sasha Lane), an 18-year-old woman we first see dumpster diving for food to feed her younger siblings. When she happens across a group of feral travellers led by the charismatic Jake (LeBeouf), she’s presented with a chance for escape – one she impulsively takes and which leads her on an odyssey across the US selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. What emerges is a sprawling coming-of-age film that deliberately tempers the romanticism of the landscape with the rawness of a life lived tethered to the bottom rung of the societal ladder. It’s as brilliant and compelling as it is maddening and repetitious.
By Alistair Harkness