Star (Sasha Lane), the teenage lead of American Honey, is barely older than a kid herself, but she's responsible for taking care of her two young siblings while their mother's off partying. It's a rough situation made worse by her having to evade her stepfather's groping when she's home. No wonder that when a magazine sales crew blows through town, she's entranced.
They look so free, this collection of rowdy teens piled into a van, laughing and yelling out the windows — especially Jake (Shia LaBeouf), who, in the movie's best moment, causes a scene in the middle of Kmart for Star's pleasure. He leaps up onto a checkout stand to dance as Rihanna's "We Found Love" blasting over tinny store speakers. It sets the mood for everything that follows in the film, which leans heavily on music and promises infinite possibilities, at least for the space of a song.