Taglines: Travel across the vast emptiness of the American dream.
Star (Sasha Lane) is a teenager living in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She takes care of two younger children while being sexually assaulted by their father (Johnny Pierce II). While trying to hitchhike home she spies a car full of teenagers and makes eye contact with Jake (Shia LaBeouf), one of the boys.
She follows them to a local K-Mart, and returns Jake’s phone after it falls out of his pocket. He kisses her on the cheek and tells her to come with him to Kansas, where he will offer her a job. Star declines but Jake nevertheless tells her to meet them in the parking lot of the local Motel 6.
Star changes her mind. Packing her belongings, she takes the children she watches to the club where their mother (Chasity Hunsaker) dances, telling her it is her turn to care for them. Though the mother refuses, Star runs away from the club and sleeps outside the van of the strangers till morning.
Jake is delighted that she came. She is interviewed by Krystal, who runs the entire crew, and who hires her after she establishes that Star is 18, no one will miss her, and that Star promises to work hard. In the car on the way to Kansas, Star meets the other members of the crew including Pagan (Arielle Holmes) who is obsessed with Star Wars, in particular Darth Vader, and death. The crew breaks up into groups of two to sell magazines door to door. Since Star is new, she is paired with Jake, the veteran of the group. Star finds it difficult to sell as Jake lies to a potential customer (Laura Kirk) in order to make sales. She also distracts Jake by flirting and eventually kissing him.
Krystal calls Star in, and tells her that Jake has posted his lowest sales ever. She has Jake put tanning lotion on her body as Star watches. Star promises to improve. The following day, annoyed by Jake, Star vows to outsell him. She is picked up by three strangers in cowboy hats who offer to help her, thinking she is being harassed by Jake.
They bring her to their home and offer to buy several magazines if she drinks the worm at the bottom of a bottle of mezcal. Star does, and makes the sale. Jake however, fearing the worst, arrives and threatens the men with a gun before stealing their car. Initially angry at Jake, Star is later touched that he came to find her and the two have sex. When they return to the hotel for the evening, Jake tells her not to mention their relationship, and then gives the money Star earned to Krystal.
For a while things between Jake and Star are tense, and Krystal threatens to drop her on the side of the road if she keeps causing trouble. The crew ends up living temporarily in a rundown house, and Jake and Star renew their relationship. She asks him what his dreams are, and he shows her his private stash of cash and gold, items he’s stolen from the houses he visits, which he intends to use to buy a home.
Krystal dumps the girls off where oil workers are about to go to work in the morning. Star climbs in the back of their truck and tries to sell them magazines, but one of the oil workers tells her he’ll pay her five hundred dollars to go on a date with him. Star asks for a thousand, and prostitutes herself for the money. After the man drops her off she hears him being attacked. Shortly after, a bloodied Jake asks her if she was hurt by the man and later asks if she slept with him. He throws a fit, smashing the belongings in the house before running off.
American Honey is a 2016 British-American road film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film is based on the country song American Honey by Lady Antebellum. The film stars Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough. The film follows Star (Lane), a teenage girl from a troubled home, who runs away with a traveling sales crew who drive across the American Midwest selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Principal photography began in May 2015 with filming taking place in several states across America; it’s Arnold’s first film to be set and filmed outside the United Kingdom.
The film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. The film received positive reviews, with Lane’s performance receiving critical praise and accolades along with LaBeouf and Keough. The film was released in the United States on 30 September 2016, by A24 and in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2016 by Focus Features. For the 70th BAFTA Awards, American Honey received a nomination for Best British Film.
American Honey
Directed by: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough, Raymond Coalson, Chad McKenzie Cox, Verronikah Ezell, Arielle Holmes, Garry Howell, Crystal B. Ice, McCaul Lombardi, Shawna Rae Moseley, Dakota Powers, Isaiah Stone, Kenneth Kory Tucker, Christopher David Wright, Will Patton
Screenplay by: Andrea Arnold
Production Design by: Kelly McGehee
Cinematography by: Robbie Ryan
Film Editing by: Joe Bini
Costume Design by: Alex Bovaird
Set Decoration by: Graham Wichman
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout, drug/alcohol abuse-all involving teens.
Studio: A24, Universal Pictures, Focus Features
Release Date: September 30, 2016
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