These characters are really annoying (Spoilers)

I've been back and forth about whether I actually like this movie or not. I thought I could get behind the whole idea of "These are the faces whose stories you never see!" approach that the director so desperately wants to us to be impressed with. She slightly - not overtly - but slightly glamorizes this vagabond lifestyle. Outside of our main characters there does seem to be a sort of comradery with this group that we're following around that's supposed to feel warm and chummy even through the chaos.

The problem is, our main character, and damn near everyone we meet, just sucks. Starting with Star's... parents? Foster parents? I don't know. There's the sexually abusive dad and the mom who'd rather dance at the country club than take her kids - literally telling Star, "I can't take them." Both of them are cartoonishly evil with no redeeming qualities.

Moving on, the first time Star encounters Jake in the Walmart, he's acting a fool, dancing to the Rihanna song, hopping on top of counters and having to get chased out by security. So he sucks automatically. But Star herself sucks for even being attracted to this dipshit behavior.

So then comes time for her to meet Krystal. Riley Keough only knows how to play Krystal one way, glaring at everyone with her mouth half open or chewing gum. Her first words are something like, "So you're the little redneck Jake found" or something. Okay, wow, who even addresses someone they just met like that. I know, it's textbook abusive behavior, and it's obviously to establish authority to get the kids to do her bidding. But man, she sucks.

Moving on to the rest of the faceless characters. They're all one-dimensional white kids who wanna be black. Me being black myself, I'm VERY familiar with this archetype, whether you want to call them wiggers or white trash, it's one in the same. They're all unsavory as fuck. One character whips his dick out as soon as he meets Star and asks to fuck her. She remains unfazed and joins these weirdos as they smoke, drink, and blindly recite the lyrics to these dumbass songs as if they're brainwashed completely.

Nobody is rounded out or has a human element that would make us feel compassion for them. Shia Lebouef's Jake only knows one mode, which is "act like the coolest motherfucker in the room" lol. His line delivery, facial expressions, and erratic actions all feel over-the-top. Star ends up making questionable decisions throughout the whole movie as well. Yes, yes, she's 18 and just now tasting freedom away from a very shitty homelife - but still. For example when she straight up blows up Jake's spiel in the first home they come to, I wanted to be like bro, shut the hell up. Who in the right mind comes on to a job and straight sabotages it like that.

Then, the tensions between Krystal and Star get so bad it's almost like Krystal had no other reason to be in the movie other than making Star's life miserable. She's not well rounded at all, we know nothing about her except how she leeches off these kids who have no other options in life. (Also, that makes her a shitty person too) Even when they come back to her hometown that might have been an opportunity for us to learn more about her, but the director didn't even take such a golden opportunity. Maybe she runs into a relative who hasn't seen her in years and we get a fucking crumb of backstory, but no, I guess that was too much to ask.

I'm rambling - but the bottom line is this:

Every character in this movie sucks, and that's why this movie sucks. If we even had 1 reason to care about anyone else besides Star, maybe the movie would be marginally better, but as it stands, it's not that deep, it's actually kind of fake-deep when you think about it.