HOLLYWOOD—It’s that all American story. The hero hits the road on a journey of self-discovery, finds love, and tries to forge a better life for them self. This is no Jack Kerouac though. Instead, “American Honey” is a mature, sad, insightful, and often beautiful exploration of America through the eyes of one lost teenager.

The story follows Star (Sasha Lane) as she leaves her impoverished, abusive home and hits the road with a group of young magazine sellers led by Jake (Shia LaBeouf) and Krystal (Riley Keough). The plot follows their adventures through the center of the country as Star develops strong feelings for the enigmatic Jake.

The cast in this movie is awesome. A truly exceptional job was done by one and all. This was Sasha Lane’s first performance, and I think Hollywood has a new star. She’s tough, resilient, and always sympathetic. She 100 percent keeps up with the far more experienced LaBeouf, and their romantic interactions are wonderful. Speaking of LaBeouf, he brings charisma and passion to his character. His flirtations, anger, all of it is intense but not overdone. Keough is great as the manipulative Krystal. She has this Machiavellian quality to her. A regular Cersei Lannister of the Midwestern interstate.

I’ve read that director/writer Andrea Arnold street cast much of the magazine crew. I think this worked to perfection. They were all great together. There was tremendous chemistry in the van, parties, and motel rooms. It reminds you of your own group of friends. It was a beautiful thing to see.

Arnold has really outdone herself here. The script is a master class in dialogue. There are a few scenes that drag, and I felt she could have cut the run time a bit. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan tends to be a bit to in love with that whole over bright sun in our eyes thing as well. Still there is much to be admired. Ryan really renders those skies and plains, and we have to give it to Arnold for her ability to make us feel for her characters while simultaneously celebrating and critiquing the very land they roam through.

Really this movie is about the America dream in the broadest sense. The symbolism is everywhere. Cowboys, oil workers, truckers, flags, suburbia, highways, and even a mention of “40 acres and a mule.” We can’t help but love some of it. The freedom to roam, some of the nice people we meet, the beauty, the enormous skies (“oh give me a home, where the buffaloes roam,” “O beautiful for spacious skies”).

There’s a dark side to. The pursuit of money and personal satisfaction at the expense of others, exploitation, the existence of that scarcely acknowledged underclass. The Confederate flag makes an appearance in a few places (on Krystal’s bikini, behind Star’s abusive father). You can’t ignore the racial dynamic here. Star is the only black person on the team. When Krystal talks about her keeping a quarter or less of her profits, and demeaning her in that manipulative, cold way we can’t help but feel the flag’s presence. It looms large in history as an ultimate symbol of exploitation, and it seems that here to it hangs over Star as a symbol of her exploitation.

I can’t help but feel there’s something less than romantic about this, the magazine crew lives as well. Yes, you get to live life without many restrictions and party every night. The flip side is you start living solely for yourself. You start to steal (dogs, jewelry), lie, and manipulate. Krystal talks at one point of abandoning people she thinks aren’t pulling their weight. When you take this lifestyle to the extreme this is the logical conclusion. You can’t help but feel that master salesman Jake is working an angle on everybody. He too will do what he has to do to get that dream of his. Everything is a sell. Everyone is kind of out for themselves, and Star’s desertion of her siblings to go with the magazine crew is connected to this. This is the dark side of the American dream.

Arnold isn’t all darkness though. Like I said this movie celebrates America to. The constant pop references are great. One magazine crewmember’s love of Darth Vader is telling. She sees him as a sympathetic, heartbroken man. Maybe she sees this in Jake, Star, and all of the people around her.

The references to music are spot on. We are constantly hearing songs. The radio blasts, one of the crew members plays guitar, and even the title itself comes from the Lady Antebellum song “American Honey.” That scene where the whole crew is wistfully singing along to the eponymous song is really touching. All of them are on their own journeys that lead them to that van, to each other.

Maybe that’s the point of “American Honey.” When we look back at Star’s journey through the film, especially the interaction with the family she meets near the end, we can see it comes full circle. Maybe we’re all searching for a family, a community. That’s the whole purpose of having land, money, and prosperity. Our lives are then free from the oppression of poverty, and we can pursue what really matters. That this serves as an indictment of a system where some people go without is glaringly obvious. Arnold’s beautiful film shows us the good and bad of America. Maybe it also showed us an American dream we didn’t even know we had.