7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
Starring: Sasha Lane, Riley Keough, Shia LaBeouf, Raymond Coalson, Chad Cox (IX)Drama | 100% |
Coming of age | 23% |
Romance | 18% |
Teen | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Have you ever been accosted and/or seduced (in a consumerist way, that is) by someone at your front door “offering” to sell you magazine subscriptions? Case in point: my wife and I were doing some yard work in our front yard last summer when a kind of weirdly jolly looking young African American man came traipsing down my street calling out (and I swear I’m not making this up), “I’m black but I don’t attack.” It was a rather interesting “sales pitch”, one that immediately caught my wife’s ear, leading her (against my curmudgeonly wishes) to engage the fellow in conversation. By the time he had finished with what sounded like a pretty harrowing life story, including the recent shooting death of his brother in Chicago, there was a clear result: $189 in magazine subscriptions my wife purchased from the gentleman, despite my “suggestion” that these rags could easily be subscribed to online for probably $20, tops. That said, I really couldn’t argue with the salesman’s approach or, indeed, his tale of rising above circumstance to try to make something of himself (I had no doubt that the stories of his troubled background he was telling us were the absolute truth, but maybe I was hornswoggled by his pitch as much as my wife was, just not to the point I was willing to fork over my hard earned cash to him). There was still a bit of a multi-level marketing aspect to some of what he told us about how his particular subscription company worked, since he wanted to sell enough to become a “supervisor”, allowing him to mentor a whole flock of similarly enthusiastic magazine hawkers. American Honey may not have any rhyming African Americans in its coterie of magazine salespeople, and indeed its ambience might uncharitably be called “white trash” in terms of both the salesforce and at least some of the potential customers, but it’s an admittedly odd and occasionally touching story of a young woman named Star (Sasha Lane) who, much like the salesman my wife and I met, is trying to overcome debilitating circumstances to make something of her life. It’s notable that the film, despite an almost three hour running time (one which probably easily could have been halved to no real narrative detriment), may not provide any ultimate answers as to what, if anything, Star does end up making of herself.
American Honey is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Liongate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. That "old style" Academy aspect ratio may be the first thing that draws the interest of videophiles, but the IMDb discloses that this is a "hybrid" offering of sorts, combining both digital capture with good, old fashioned celluloid. The result is surprisingly homogeneous looking, with no overtly huge differences in image quality. Arnold exploits a kind of verité ambience (something that old style aspect ratio may help to subliminally evoke), and she offers a lot of handheld moments which, if not "jiggly cam" to the extreme we've been exposed to at times, still tend to make sequences seem soft, if only because the frame is cut loose from any moorings and the imagery dots and weaves. With stationary cameras and especially with regard to some of the natural elements Arnold chooses to focus on, sharpness, clarity and fine detail are often excellent. Speaking of focus, Arnold and/or DP Robbie Ryan can be a little loose with focus pulling at times, often preferring backgrounds to remain sharp while foreground objects are on the blurry side, something else that tends to contribute to a soft feeling presentation at times. While the palette hasn't been aggressively color graded, there are slight shadings at times, including some deep blues (see screenshot 19) and what I'd almost terms as an olive ambience (see screenshot 4). While the film is lengthy, this BD-50 disc doesn't really have much in the way of supplements to take up valuable real estate, and there aren't any problematic compression issues of any note.
American Honey's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix erupts with some considerable force when any of a number of source cues are utilized (a couple of which can probably be accused of being too "on the nose" in terms of the action they accompany). Immersion is also achieved courtesy of the many outdoor scenes with attendant ambient environmental effects, often when Star and Jake are out trying to sell some magazines. There's a certain "Hawksian" approach toward dialogue here, with a kind of relaxed, simultaneous unfolding of several people speaking at the same time, and as such prioritization can be occasionally challenging, at least that is if you're trying to hear what one person in particular is saying. Otherwise, though, especially in quieter dialogue scenes involving Star and Jake, things are rendered very cleanly and precisely, with no problems whatsoever.
Many years ago when I reviewed a relatively little remembered film called Winter's Bone, I lauded a newcomer named Jennifer Lawrence as a probable Oscar nominee for this role (which she turned out to be), as well as a potential "major new star." I'm tempted to prognosticate similarly with regard to Sasha Lane, though I'm not sure this film will resonate with some Academy voters the same way it has with artier crowds at Cannes, where it, like several previous Andrea Arnold efforts, won the Prix du Jury. (I hope the film's marketing gurus and/or the Academy don't "demote" Lane to Supporting Actress status in order to hopefully guarantee a nomination, for American Honey is undoubtedly Lane's film from beginning to end in what is inarguably a lead performance.) While American Honey itself is too long by at least an hour, its languid pace actually helps to point out the aimlessness of some of these young lives, and the film has a desperate lived in quality that's quite unique. But Lane is the main reason to invest the time required to view this film, and it's perfectly appropriate that she's playing a character named Star. Technical merits are strong, and with caveats noted, American Honey comes Recommended.
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