American Honey

American Honey is a 2016 road drama film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film stars Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough. American Honey follows Star (Lane), a young girl from a troubled home, who runs away with a traveling sales crew who drive across the American Midwest selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Principal photography began in May 2015 with filming taking place in several states across America. It is Arnold's first film to be set and filmed outside the United Kingdom. The film was selected to compete for the at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. American Honey received positive reviews, with Lane's performance receiving critical praise and accolades along with those of LaBeouf and Keough. The film was released in the U.S. on 30 September 2016, by A24 and in the UK on 14 October 2016 by Universal Pictures. For the 70th BAFTA Awards, American Honey received a nomination for Best British Film. Plot Star is living in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She lives a painful life, caring for two children that aren't hers and living with their sexually abusive father, Nathan. While trying to hitchhike home one day, she spies a van full of young people and makes eye contact with Jake, one of the boys in the group. Star follows them to a local Kmart and sees Jake dance to "We Found Love" on top of the registers before being forced out of the store. Star returns Jake's phone, as it had fallen out of his pocket, and he offers her a job as part of their magazine sales crew, telling her to come with him to Kansas City. Star declines but Jake nevertheless tells her to meet them in the parking lot of the local Motel 6 the next morning. Packing her belongings while Nathan is in another room, Star secretly escapes and takes the children to the club where their stepmother Misty dances. Star confronts Misty and tells her it's her turn to care for the kids, and though Misty refuses, Star runs away from the club to the motel and sleeps outside the crew's van until morning.