Category: Streaming Suggestions

Originally published on May 14, 2016. American Honey is now available through Amazon Prime’s Instant Streaming Service. Overview: A teenage girl joins a group of travelling magazine salespeople; A24/Focus Features; 2016; 162 Minutes. The Crew: Andrea Arnold’s 162-minute road trip movie is an absolute joyride through the American Midwest, brimming with the spontaneity and energy of modern youth. American Honey follows Star, portrayed with a naked vulnerability from newcomer Sasha Lane. With no responsible parents and two siblings under her care, she finds an easy escape as a member of a door-to-door magazine sales troupe. She becomes smitten with Jake, the star-salesman who recruited her and another extremely committed performance from Shia Laboeuf. The rest of the ensemble cast bears generally unknown faces (with the possible exception of Arielle Holmes, who appears after her breakthrough in last year’s Heaven Knows What). The crew don somewhat despicable personas yet their arrogance and unruliness are spun by Arnold into a noble and charismatic camaraderie. With an ear-pounding and contemporary yet somehow still nostalgia-inducing score of pop, EDM, and occasional country songs, the film always feels electric and wild. And despite all the ruckus and all of the obviously terrible decisions the characters make, Arnold never displays a desire to pass judgment with her film. Instead, with sympathetic frames caught by warm hues, she chooses to be intimate, sort of validating the oft-criticized millennial lifestyle. The...