• Not groundbreaking by any stretch but the cast and consistent southern soundtrack lug it through into the archives
  • Shia LaBeouf certain has found something with his southern hobo trashy (almost like he’s auditioning for a Harmony Korine film) charming romantic lead—he plays on a variation of American Honey here- his greatest role to date- and he’s strong here carrying the film
  • 93 minutes- key- breezy, lots of sweet montages of comradery
  • The ensemble is strong- John Hawkes doesn’t have more than 30 words but it’s a role if you were closing your eyes you’d cast him as (southern villain in a wife-beater), Thomas Hayden Church, Bruce Dern and Dakota Johnson
  • Mark Twain in the text and it is that- a yarn – a fable- and the reality vs. fable element) is played up with the mentions of his fake “birthday party” and we get the happy ending before a potentially surreal scene (not unlike The Florida Project from Sean Baker of Zack Gottsagen’s “Zak” blowing out the candles
  • Life-affirming—positive, sweet
  • like Wind River and Widows Jon Bernthal (who is always good) plays dead character shown entirely in a flashback– weird
  • Is essentially Rain Man-lite
  • Recommend but fringy—won’t get near the top 10 of 2019