American Honey (2016)

Drama

Director: Andrea Arnold
Writer: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough, McCaul Lombardi

A beautiful American-British coming-of-age indie road movie from writer-director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank).

Star is a unfettered 18-year-old who escapes her abusive father after meeting and joining a mysterious young man named Jake (Shia LeBeouf) who offers her a job. In the company of a group of hard-partying youngsters with troubled lives, she travels across Midwestern and Southern America, selling magazines subscriptions door-to-door. As Jake begins to pass his selling skills onto her, their relationship builds as the two begin to fall in love despite the difficulties between them.

Despite not having a particularly a deep and action-filled narrative, American Honey, which runs nearly three hours, manages to be energetic, intoxicating and unpredictable, with a soundtrack that threatens to never leave your head. And lead actress Sasha Lane, who won several awards for her impeccable acting, but also the performances of the mostly non-professional but highly-effective supporting cast, make this indie gem a pretty captivating and entertaining experience.

Plot summary from IMDb: Star, a teenage girl with nothing to lose, joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits.

Awards: 12 wins & 32 nominations.
Runtime: 163 min
R