Providing insight into a concept as ambiguous and loaded with meaning as the American Dream is no easy feat for a British director. But Academy Award winning Andrea Arnold pulls it off in her hypnotic new coming-of-age road movie American Honey, achieving a frenetic youthful energy which propels the viewer across the American Midwest and gives the younger generation a Jack Kerouac's On the Road experience of their very own.

 

The film opens with 18-year-old lead character Star, played by Sasha Lane, scavenging for food in a dustbin by the side of the road. She lives a miserable existence, looking after two young children who are not her own and being sexually abused by her father. When she meets Jake, played by Shia LaBeouf, he offers her a way out, persuading her to join their group of teenage runaways travelling across the country, selling magazine subscriptions and partying hedonistically as they go. What unfolds is a two-and-three-quarter hour celebration of youthful abandon, depicting desperate poverty while retaining moments of incredible warmth and exuberance.

 

Andrea Arnold is best know for her critically acclaimed British films Fish Tank and Red Road, as well as her Academy Award winning short Wasp. In a similar vein to her previous work, Arnold is unflinching in her portrayal of socially unjust conditions. As a foreigner to the US, she brings a kind of clarity of vision that only an outsider could possess while managing to avoid seeming sanctimonious or as though she's lecturing American viewers on the problems within their society.

 

The outstanding performance of newcomer Sasha Lane is the film's beating heart, a lead star with no previous acting experience spotted by Arnold sunbathing on a beach in Florida. In fact, the majority of the cast were tracked down in a similar way; drunk teenagers on spring break who caught Arnold's eye and were offered roles. The gamble involved in this kind of “street casting” paid off in spades, with a hyper-naturalistic-verging-on-documentary style eking into many of the group scenes. The chemistry between the two leads is compelling and totally believable, with LaBeouf giving his best performance in years.

 

The main substance of American Honey can be found in the form of the film's leader character Star, soft-hearted and sympathetic, she's been shaped but not hardened by the adversity she's faced. Her tenderness is expressed through her aversion to some of the Mag Crew's more deceptive sales-tactics, as well as a recurring motif in which she rescues trapped insects and sets them free. These naturalistic, dreamy moments recall the work of legendary director Terrence Malik and provide an excellent counterpoint to the film's punchy, adolescent spirit, which in turn echoes Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. These two rather distinct styles gel surprisingly well within the movie, giving it both the depth and the energy necessary to justify its lengthy running time.

 

The film's soundtrack is a purposefully eclectic mix of genres; with country, rap and classic rock all making an appearance. Arnold built close relationships with the young cast during the filming and urged them to play their own music on set, much of which she later used in the final cut. What makes that especially poignant within this film is that every song played is actually present in the scene, be it on a car radio, a shop's speakers or even a mobile phone. The soundtrack is therefore heard, reacted to and often sung along to by the cast themselves, acting as a part of the film's core so deeply linked to the narrative that it seems hard to imagine a version without it.

 

"We're shown the country that these kids know; that of seedy budget motels, bleak highways and impoverished suburbia"

 

The America which creates the backdrop to this film isn't one of natural beauty or famous cultural landmarks. Instead we're shown the country that these kids know; that of seedy budget motels, bleak highways and impoverished suburbia. Despite the lifelessness of the surroundings however, Arnold still manages to keep the cinematography far from ugly by employing her signature 4:3 camera ratio as opposed to the standard widescreen, thereby heightening many outdoor shots to include the large Midwestern skies. This provides a beautiful counterpoint to the small desolate towns below and speaks volumes in a film about young people chasing the dream of something bigger and better than what they know, especially in the case of the aptly named main character Star.

 

At different points in the film the two leads are asked if they have any dreams and both answer in a similarly perplexed way that they've never been asked that question before. Every one of the teens is a by-product of the same inherently unfair society they try to exploit through their dubious sales-tactics. The champagne-fuelled high-class lifestyle fetishised in the rap music they play seems like a distant fantasy beside the desperate poverty of the American Midwest and their own uncertain hand-to-mouth existence. Despite the fact that the pursuit of money manages to find its way into many of the film's dialogue scenes, it's far from the focus of the narrative. As director Andrea Arnold has stated, “These kids are supposedly selling magazines but they're really selling themselves.” Money merely acts as a means to an end, buying these young adults freedom from their poor, deprived origins and giving them a shot at a future of their own making. This is the American dream so wonderfully portrayed in American Honey, one of youthful joy and hope even in the face of desperate social discord.

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American Honey was released on DVD on 20 February in the UK.