
Movie Times Ep. 19 American Honey

British director Andrea Arnold’s vision of contemporary middle America is young, fragile, hopeful, precarious, and achingly lovely. American Honey joins the long illustrious list of “American ___” movies (Beauty, Psycho, Gigolo, Pie), and tells the story of Star, an 18-year-old girl with nothing to lose, who joins a ragtag crew of teenagers that roam the country in a white van to sell magazines (of all things) door to door. Shia LaBeouf plays Jake, Star’s love interest and co-dreamer, and — honestly — his performance is so good that you’ll forget he has a foot-long braided rat tail. This movie — and the ways in which it portrays people living in poverty as so much more than bleak cases — moved us.