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A frustrating rather pointless viewing experience

posted 4 years ago by CinemaDemon989 (1286)
5 replies | jump to latest

I actually really enjoyed the director's film Fish Tank. And I quickly knew within the first few minutes that it was the same director, based on the filming style.

Initially, from the start, I really thought this was going to be a good movie. It seemed like it was going somewhere. I had high hopes. But then at some point throughout the film, everything just fell so flat. It went completely downhill.

My first complaint would be the repetitiveness of everything. This movie just had constant tiring recurring themes. Riding in the van, getting drunk, Shia and that girl making out and having sex, etc. And many other repetitive things. It just got boring and predictable.

Secondly, this film suffered from bad dialogue, and maybe overall just bad writing in some parts. Like I said, it started off good, but then went nowhere.

And thirdly, with everything seeming so pointless and all, this film was way too long. The running time was ridiculous. The only upsides I'll give this film is pretty solid acting performances, good cinematography, and it did have a personal raw feeling at times. But overall, it didn't live up to what I hoped for. I feel like I wasted a lot of time really. I wanted to like American Honey... but nah. Don't think I'll be watching it again.

[–] Adam60z (3766) 4 years ago

I'm watching now. Interesting beginning. Reminds me of The Florida Project which was real good. I'll let you know when I'm done. Update: okay I saw it. Agree, totally pointless. It could have been a good film, but we just don't care at all about the lowlife characters. Nothing to justify sitting through over 2 hours of low budget schlock. 2nd update: I was thinking about it and on one level this film succeeds: namely it's deeply disturbing. Maybe that's what the filmmaker Andrea Arnold was going for, however it had such a low-budget feel (intentionally?) that she didn't even bother to put an ending. It's disturbing mainly because it seems realistic, i.e. that's how these "actors" really are I suspect. If the filmmaker was too lazy to make an ending she could have simply added captions at the fade out:
"The next day:
Jake was killed by 3 pissed off Texans.
Krystal was arrested for running an illegal sales operation across state lines: she got 10 years in Federal Prison.
And Star was arrested for prostitution, was sent back to Oklahoma where she later became a counselor helping kids leave the magazine van sales life. However she was already pregnant with Jake's son who grew up to run his own magazine van sales scam."
But barring that it had little redeeming value.

[–] CinemaDemon989 (1286) 4 years ago

Yep, pretty much.

[–] legnadibrom (6214) 4 years ago

TFP is just a movie about trash people, i don't get how you can say it was real good

[–] Adam60z (3766) 4 years ago

Well American Honey is little more than softcore porn. It was the first film I saw with Shia LaBeouf, and hopefully the last--what an Ahole!
For a good road movie Easy Rider is my pick. As for Florida Project there was a lot to it. Willem Dafoe of course, and it was good at creating a whole alternate reality of that Disneyland motel. The actors were all good: Moonie (Brooklynn Prince) & Bria Vinaite (Jancey). It makes you care about the characters, or at least want to. But it was entertaining, comical, and I think well done.

[–] SickSpazmoid (843) 3 months ago

You summed it up pretty well. I will only add that they ruined the raw feeling with the cowboy shootout scene and Shea's character being overwritten.

It is a pointless lazily written borefest. There is a ton of online amateur documentaries about impoverished people more poignant than this "bourgeois award winning movie".