American Honey

[Erkki]

Just watched American Honey and it is surprisingly good, I expected less due to seeming lukewarm initial reception by critics. It also surprises by not ending up quite as depressing as I thought it would be after seeing the trailer and the start of the movie. There are some dark moments, but also light ones, and to me it at least fealt like it didn't end up predicting a neverending vicious cycle of poverty. Actually maybe this is the theme of Andrea Arnold's movies - that the negative cycles can be broken. She's really becoming one of my favourite directors besides Jim Jarmusch and Kelly Reichardt.

[Chris]

On 2/4/2017 at 6:07 AM, Erkki said:

Just watched American Honey and it is surprisingly good, I expected less due to seeming lukewarm initial reception by critics. It also surprises by not ending up quite as depressing as I thought it would be after seeing the trailer and the start of the movie. There are some dark moments, but also light ones, and to me it at least fealt like it didn't end up predicting a neverending vicious cycle of poverty. Actually maybe this is the theme of Andrea Arnold's movies - that the negative cycles can be broken. She's really becoming one of my favourite directors besides Jim Jarmusch and Kelly Reichardt.

 

We saw this movie in the theater and loved it. I haven't seen any of Andrea Arnold's other work (excited to watch her Wuthering Heights adaptation, as we just read it for the Idle Book Club), but her voice as a director was really powerful in this film and I would like to watch more. I agree that the film is ultimately positive, despite all the darkness and dysfunction depicted, and addresses both the very real structural and systemic forces surrounding poverty, as well as the ability to transcend them to some extent.

[Erkki]

I'm about to see Wuthering Heights soon, but I can easily recommend Red Road and Fish Tank. I especially love the main character in Fish Tank.