The Pursuit, Invention and Sale of American Future
American Honey (2016), Andrea Arnold’s first American film, employs a simple, linear story about young travelling magazine sellers to hold a mirror up to American social inequality and strati cation. The film focuses on the poor people of the American South characterised by particular aesthetic, moral and behavioural values that pop culture often tackles through reductionism and stereotypes. In this case, the director uses cinematography, mise-en-scène, and quick, rhythmic editing to capture the youth, love, and ambition of the portrayed people in a positive way, which is additionally emphasised through the central topics of travelling and driving, which propel the story forward. On the other hand, American Honey is a different kind of a ‘’road movie’’, one where the road does not really lead to any special destination, which itself symbolically points to the inherent aimlessness and liminality of the people under consideration.
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