British filmmaker Andrea Arnold dazzles with this 2016 coming-of-age film. American Honey is a dizzying, poetic portrayal of the nomadic American youth, and the realization of opportunity.
The film follows Star, played by American actress Sasha Lane, an 18-year-old teenager that flees her troubled home. She embarks on a never-ending road trip that leads her through her sexual awakening, first encounters with adulthood, money, and a real caring family…of sorts.
Arnold explores the move from teenage-hood into adulthood in a refreshing, visually stunning way. Instead of glamorizing the poor American youth, she represents the characters and emotions realistically, while still presenting a narrative that manages to seem almost dream-like, esoteric.
Arnold shows the group of teenagers and young adults in a realistic light, far from Hollywood’s glossy filter. She presents the characters as real humans, complete with acne, bad eating habits, periods, chipped nails, no makeup, and cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.
The portrayal is refreshing, as Hollywood norms all too often glamorize every aspect of American life.
This being said, another positive aspect in Arnold’s film, is the feminist way through which the film is shot, cast and presented.
According to research conducted by the British Film Institute in 2013, films directed by women took only 4.5 per cent of the $1.3 billion generated by the top British films made between 2001 and 2012.
The film industry, as with countless other industries, is dominated by men. The situation is just as drab in the United States for the film industry. In a 2015 Variety article by Brent Lang, Lang references a 2015 study conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film studies. The study found troubling statistics on the presence of women in the American film industry.
The study found that in 2014, 85 per cent of American films made were by male directors, and 92 per cent of films had male cinematographers.
The question has been posed before, but it should be posed here again: how can filmmakers accurately tell the stories of all people, if most of the stories are being told through a male lens?
Arnold, who has directed seven previous films, and won an Academy Award in 2005 for her short film, Wasp, is the perfect example of the point of view that is all too disparate in the global film industry.
In American Honey, Arnold normalizes women leaders, bloody tampons, and conventional, non-fantasy like sex. Basically, she normalizes things that are…well…normal.
You can catch American Honey in Montreal at Cinéma du Parc theatre.