A24 has become one of the most successful movie studios of the 21st century, despite their relatively recent entry into the distribution game. One of A24’s most successful focus areas is coming of age stories; movies like Waves, Room, Lady Bird, The Spectacular Now, Mid 90’s, Moonlight, And The Florida Project offered filmmakers a spotlight to explore the challenges of growing up in the midst of overwhelming circumstances. However, the studio’s most successful coming-of-age movie is one that many haven’t seen.
American Honey tells the wild story of teenage girl Star (Sasha Lane), who leaves her life with an abusive father to join a ragtag group of adolescent magazine salesmen who travel the country together. The group’s leader, Krystal (Riley Keough), is enigmatic and has some reservations about Star; however, charming hustler Jake (Shia Labeouf) is immediately attracted to Star and persuades her to join their team. On an adventure across the Midwest, Star must learn how to survive on her own, never knowing where their journey will take them.
American Honey debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and is one of A24’s longest films at 163 minutes. Skillfully directed by underrated filmmaker Andrea Arnold, American Honey deserves a place in the all-time canon of great coming-of-age stories.
Embrace emotional fluidity
Hollywood has historically moved away from telling LGBTQ+ stories on screen, and while studios have gradually embraced more diverse representations in recent years, there’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s often that those looking for proper LGBTQ+ representation have to look for indie films, and American Honey does a great job of showing sexual fluidity in a diverse group of characters. Star wonders what she wants from her experiences as she has been involved in many relationships throughout her journey. Because her life was completely controlled by her abusive father until then, she is finally allowed to experiment and make decisions for herself.
What makes American Honey is so exciting that the crew has no clear destination in mind; they just travel to the places where they can find work and stop in different cities to have different adventures. The film shows how quickly their plans can become dangerous. At one point, Star attends a pool party with a group of older men who find her attractive; worried that the group will take advantage of her, Jake bursts into the house armed with a gun and forces Star to leave. However, some of their misadventures are more humorous. It’s especially amusing to see Jake and Star annoy members of a tense religious community, who are appalled by their tattered clothing and colorful language.
Breakout performances
While Lane has subsequently taken on more prominent roles in projects like Hellboy, Loki, How to blow up a pipeline, And Hearts beat loud, American honey proved she could bear the weight of a nearly three-hour epic on her shoulders. Lane’s personable nature makes Star a compelling character that holds the audience’s attention for so long. Star has learned to hide her emotions out of fear due to her abusive living situation, so simply being around so many expressive young people is a wild change of pace for her. It’s interesting to see Star gradually opening up about some of the traumatic experiences in her life throughout the journey. She shows reluctance when Jake starts selling drugs to children, as her mother had died of an overdose.
LaBeouf has faced criticism throughout his career, but he’s a truly talented actor whose off-screen character has sadly received more attention than his performances; LaBeouf cannot be judged by it Transformers or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, because he has since done much more interesting work. Jake stands as one of his most complex characters. Jake is just an adventurer who isn’t always sure how to admit his sincerity; he doesn’t realize that his affairs can put a strain on Star if they are thinking about a serious relationship, and he’s only slowly understanding that she’s starting to feel in danger around him. The two have excellent chemistry during some of the more emotionally grueling sequences. Near the end of the film, Star agrees to trade sexual favors for money, and admits this to a shocked Jake. Jake’s heartbreaking response is one of the story’s most devastating moments.
Keough also does a great job with a character whose bluntness and demeanor might catch some off guard. Krystal establishes herself as the de facto decision maker of the group, rarely giving Jake or Star background information about her upbringing. It’s unclear what her motivations are, making the film worth rewatching soon to explore the subtle nuances Keough slips into her performance.
Stylistically and indulgent filmmaking
Arnold is a filmmaker unconcerned about conforming to strict narrative structures, which has won the admiration of film critics. Variety described it as “part dreamy millennial picaresque, part distorted tapestry of Americana and part beautifully illustrated iTunes musical” that is “constant, captivatingly active, spinning and sparking and exploding in cycles like a Fourth of July Catherine wheel.” However, American Honey is not an example of style over substance. The Hollywood Reporter said, “the film works best as a gripping character study, observing Star as she settles into her independence and figures out who she wants to be, framed by a vast physical landscape that stretches socioeconomically from privileged wealth to squalid poverty.”
American Honey just lets his characters live “in the moment” and spends time showing the little moments of beauty that linger in Star’s memory. Ultimately, coming of age presents itself as a series of small moments that form one’s identity; it is only at the end that the viewer feels they can understand Star as she celebrates and dances with fireworks in the background. Unfortunately, female filmmakers rarely get the chance to bring this kind of ambitious project to life, but hopefully more viewers will recognize it American Honey as one of the best coming-of-age movies of the 21st century.