Boring, vapid and just plain phony. The film follows a crew of young, mostly white trash teens and twenty-somethings as they travel the middle of the US selling magazines, but mostly riding in a large van smoking cigarettes or pot and nodding along to hip-hop (note to Andrea Arnold: people who wear Confederate flag bikinis generally don't listen to much hip-hop). The plot follows newbie Sasha Lane, who joins because she instantly crushes on the alpha male of the group, played by Shia LaBeouf. They are led by Riley Keough, who is sleeping with LaBeouf and is wary of Lane. There's little plot, pretty much the same thing over and over with Lane and LaBeouf eventually hooking up. Somehow it drags on for nearly three hours. The music licensing has to have cost a fortune. Lane, LaBeouf and Keough aren't bad, but none of the hundred other characters on this trip ever comes off as resembling actual human beings. Like you think with twenty people stuffed together in a van for hours on end a couple of them might have a conversation, but you'd be wrong. What this is all supposed to be saying about America or honey I have no idea.

Star (Sasha Lane) has to dumpster dive to feed her young siblings while fighting off the advances of the man in the house. She is taken with Jake (Shia LaBeouf). She leaves the kids with their partying mom and follows his group of traveling youths led by Krystal (Riley Keough). She calls her a real American Honey. Ostensibly, they sell magazine subscriptions door to door but in reality, they get the money any which way.

Newcomer Sasha Lane has a real presence about her. Shia LaBeouf is fully harnessing his instability. The young cast brings a sense of authentic intensity with the pumping music. I would have liked an older actor for the Riley Keough Pied Piper character. It would add to the creepy sexual tension in the power dynamics. Although, there is value to a scantily clad Riley. As for the story, the movie is a little long and rambling at times. Tighter writing would ratchet up the natural intensity of the performances. This movie is a nice revelation. It could have been a real standout of the year if the editing bay is employed more.

"American Honey" is an American English-language movie from this year (2016) and it is the newest work by Academy Award winner Andrea Arnold, who is the writer and director here. As short as her Oscar-winning work may have been, as long is this one, namely easily longer than 2.5 hours and not too far away from the 180-minute mark. It is the breakthrough work for actress Sasha Lane who appears in (almost?) every scene of this extremely long work. Her co-cast includes performances by Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough, much more experienced actors, but Lane holds her own somewhat decently and it is pretty convincing for such a long film that she almost carries on her own from start to finish. Still I must say I was not really as impressed as some others by what she showed here. It is not a character that was written in a way that it requires great acting. It really relies more on authenticity and Lane probably has a lot of that, at least in here. This film is definitely a writer's piece as Arnold somehow managed to make a film that long where so little really happens.

As for Lane, I myself found her always a bit resembling the actress who plays Nurse Carla on "Scrubs". But that's just a random snippet of information that comes to my mind. Here we have the story of a young woman who decides to follow a bunch of other young salesmen on a trip across the United States. The film is all about making ends meet while having a life that satisfies you. Independence (financial as well as emotional) is a core issue in here. One problem I had with the film is that Arnold obviously really tried a lot to make the main character likable, but honestly I see very few likable traits about her. She leaves two small children randomly from one moment to the next. She is promiscuous. And there is more. Sure Arnold tried to make up for it with a phone call later on when she asks about the kids or showing the inner struggle of the main character before and while she accepts the immoral offer etc. And basically every supporting character is depicted in a fairly negative light. Be it the lying equally promiscuous salesman played by LaBoeuf, the nerdy Star Wars girl who seems to have lost it completely, the bitchy employer of the gang (Keough) or other characters. Nobody is presented in a positive light like the main character, but for me personally I cannot say I ended up liking her or hoping that she would find happiness. But still, on a much more positive note, Arnold definitely managed to make the material work here. It was impressive how this film almost never dragged and had no lengths at all with this runtime. This is quite an achievement. And this is also, besides the nice atmospheric touch, the film's authenticity (it all felt very real),LaBeouf's strong performance, the main reason why I give this movie a thumbs up. Definitely recommended.