This film is currently unavailable
American Honey
Andrea Arnold dazzles with a sun-soaked and tune-filled epic about door-to-door teenage magazine sellers (led by Shia LeBeouf) traversing the American highways.
Director: Andrea Arnold
Overview
Andrea Arnold dazzles with a sun-soaked and tune-filled epic following door-to-door teenage magazine sellers as they traverse the American highways. Rhianna’s ‘We Found Love (in a Hopeless Place)’ blares from the Walmart tannoy when Star (Sasha Lane) and Jake (Shia LaBeouf) lock eyes. She’s transfixed by his raffish good looks and charisma. So when he asks her to join his ragtag band of teenage travelling magazine sellers, she briefly hesitates – only at the thought of leaving her half-siblings with their deadbeat mother and her drunkard boyfriend.
In American Honey, Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, Red Road) creates a lyrical story set on America’s highways, with echoes of Malick and Van Sant. But the British director brings an outsider’s delight to observing the people. Whether it’s Star, Jake, one of the oft-revolving mag crew, or their reclusive boss Krystal (Riley Keough, here, an imperious presence with porn-star glamour), Arnold clearly loves her characters’ contradictory rough-edged tenderness. And as in her early short Wasp, she sharply observes the socio-economic divides of the country. In an expansive three hours, American Honey offers scale and space to get to know its central character, the intimacy fostered by Arnold and her long-time cinematographer Robbie Ryan with their regular 4:3 camera ratio. And what a central character: Lane’s Star is spellbinding at the heart of the film – sensual, defiant, forming unexpected allegiances with the strangers she meets on the road, and offering an almost transcendental moment of hope in the movie’s exquisite last shot. American Honey is as epic as Steinbeck’s portraits of America, but ultimately more full of joy – and with a seriously banging soundtrack.
Related
Girls Will Be Girls Girls Will Be Girls
Drama 2024 119 mins Director: Shuchi Talati
Teenage romance simmers in a strict Himalayan boarding school in this sublime coming-of-age tale. Winner of the 2024 Sundance audience prize.
The Goldman Case The Goldman Case
Drama 2023 116 mins Director: Cédric Kahn
Gripping courtroom drama based on the explosive 1976 murder trial of French political activist, Pierre Goldman.
In Camera In Camera
Drama 2024 95 mins Director: Naqqash Khalid
A struggling actor faces relentless knockbacks in Naqqash Khalid’s sharp-witted comment on race and identity in the film industry.
Kneecap Kneecap
Drama 2024 105 mins Director: Rich Peppiatt
Fantastically outlandish biopic about the anarchic Belfast rap trio and their fight to save the Irish language.
The Light between Oceans The Light between Oceans
Drama 2016 132 mins Director: Derek Cianfrance
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander star in Derek Cianfrance’s sweeping romance about a lighthouse keeper, his wife, and the baby they rescue from a drifting boat.
Tracks Tracks
Biopic 2014 113 mins Director: John Curran
Mia Wasikowska stars in this inspirational true story about one woman’s extraordinary odyssey through the Australian Outback.
45 Years 45 Years
Drama 2015 95 mins Director: Andrew Haigh
One of the most acclaimed British features of recent years, starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as a couple rocked by news from the past.
52 Tuesdays 52 Tuesdays
Drama 2013 110 mins Director: Sophie Hyde
A mother undergoing a gender transition meets his estranged daughter every Tuesday, changing gradually each time they meet. An intelligent indie hit about modern identity.
99 Homes 99 Homes
Drama 2014 112 mins Director: Ramin Bahrani
With precision and pertinence, Ramin Bahrani’s drama reveals the human cost of the 21st-century economic crisis.
Akenfield Akenfield
Drama 1975 98 mins Director: Peter Hall
Peter Hall’s extraordinary, long-unseen work of sublime poetic realism traces three generations of one Suffolk family and their lives in the farming industry.
All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front
War 1930 133 mins Director: Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone's pioneering, Oscar®-winning film is one of the most powerful films about the consequences of war
American Gangster American Gangster
Crime 2007 157 mins Director: Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott’s heavyweight crime drama follows the rise and fall of drug-runner Frank Lucas, commandingly portrayed by Denzel Washington.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Crime 2022 104 mins Director: Daniel Goldhaber
A group of environmental activists plan the sabotage of an oil pipeline in this taut thriller.
Night Courier (Mandoob) Night Courier (Mandoob)
Comedy 2023 112 mins Director: Ali Kalthami
A desperate delivery driver gets caught up in the dark underworld of Riyadh in Ali Kalthami’s gripping, pitch-black satire.
The Ballymurphy Precedent The Ballymurphy Precedent
Documentary 2018 108 mins Director: Callum Macrae
John Pilger's film on the conflict in Northern Ireland is a skilful mix of investigative journalism, documentary storytelling and reflections on contemporary history.
Utopia Utopia
Documentary 2013 111 mins Director: John Pilger and Alan Lowery
John Pilger's portrayal of the oldest continuous human culture is also an investigation into a suppressed colonial past, and rapacious present.
The Coming War on China The Coming War on China
Documentary 2016 113 mins Director: John Pilger
John Pilger’s prescient 60th film for ITV is both a warning and an inspiring story of resistance.
Girls Will Be Girls Girls Will Be Girls
Drama 2024 119 mins Director: Shuchi Talati
Teenage romance simmers in a strict Himalayan boarding school in this sublime coming-of-age tale. Winner of the 2024 Sundance audience prize.
The Goldman Case The Goldman Case
Drama 2023 116 mins Director: Cédric Kahn
Gripping courtroom drama based on the explosive 1976 murder trial of French political activist, Pierre Goldman.