Some films set my writer's brain on fire. Andrea Arnold’s 2016 film, American Honey, is one of them. I’ve seen it about five times, and I find something else to fixate on with each viewing. It might have something to do with the fact that this movie is a story about class and making money—topics I’m forever fascinated with that I talk about in this newsletter and the novel Im currently working on.
For this first installment of Order Up!, here is why I suggest a viewing of American Honey and what you can take from it if you are looking for some writing inspiration.
What it’s about
American Honey follows Star (Sasha Lane), a young girl from a troubled home in Oklahoma, who runs away with a traveling sales crew who drive across the American Midwest selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Invited to join by Jake (rat-tailed Shia LaBeouf) in the local Kmart parking lot, Star leaves her abusive father behind as the crew heads to Kansas City. Along the way, this band of misfits party hard and experience a sense of freedom and belonging with each other they have never known before. This is very much a film about the pursuit of the American dream, the perils of young love, and the lengths we will go to get money during hardships.
Quick Bites
One of the most unique things about this film is the casting. Andrea Arnold wanted to use "real faces" in the film, so she scouted for talent nationwide at beaches, county fairs, and even Walmart parking lots. She discovered Sasha Lane on a Florida beach during spring break. The cast and crew really drove all over middle America on a road trip while filming their own, and the authenticity of that comes through in the way the characters dress, speak, and commune together.
The music, which plays a huge role in this film's overall vibe and tension, was selected by what the cast, again mostly untrained actors, were listening to. Their radio, in a sense, is its own character, getting the tone and motivating the characters. It adds to that claustrophobic feeling of following these people around in a van from town to town.
I love this line in an article about the film in The Guardian:
“On the road, the crew get wasted and Star learns to lie and to trade. Arnold shoots up close into a claustrophobic moshpit of young flesh, almost as if we’re watching pagan rituals. You smell the skunk, the hungover breath. Inside, the stoner talk suffocates.”
The film can feel suffocating in many ways, but also in its 2 hours and 43 minutes run time. I’ve heard many people say they lost interest in the middle, but I think I understand Arnold's intentions. This isn’t just a young love story. (It’s more toxic than love, by the way) This is a way of life for these people who don’t have an end in sight. The constant driving, the selling to uninterested people, and the grind to make ends meet are very real for these characters, and I think Arnold wanted us to feel that discomfort as much as we could. A claustrophobia exists in being as desperate to escape your situation as Star is.
“Arnold does something different. She gives her characters the space to break out of the confines of lives marked by poverty and abuse. She shoots so close that they expand. She shows us the US in all its complicated neglect. These kids ask each other about their dreams because no one has asked them before. The American dream does not belong to them but here, in the parts of the States over which we fly, for an instant they soar. “
Watch this movie if are looking for inspiration for:
A strong and naive female protagonist
Compelling power dynamics
Authentic dialogue between teenagers
Pretty and captivating cinematography (I don’t know about you, but certain shots in film can give me a new idea for a scene, something for my narrator to focus her attention on, or maybe a new way of looking at a space I’m trying to write more authentically)
Group dynamics and rituals
Finding beauty in the mess
Favorite song from the soundtrack
Music is a pivotal part of my writing process, especially when I’m listening while going for a drive. This song has been a part of many of my novel thinking and plotting sessions.
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