American hustle
JUST WHY IS THE GREAT AMERICAN MOVIE SO HARD FOR NON-AMERICAN FILM-MAKERS TO CRACK?
Two intriguing movies arrive this month, both of which explore the underside of American life and both of which bristle with talent and promise. First up is War on Everyone, from Anglo-Irish writer and director John Michael McDonagh; a week later comes American Honey, from British writer and director Andrea Arnold.
These two auteurs — a lofty term perhaps, but one that suits Arnold certainly — have already had critical success with films set closer to home. McDonagh has made two highly respected black comedies starring Brendan Gleeson: The Guard in 2011 and Calvary in 2014, about an Irish policeman and an Irish priest respectively. Arnold made Red Road in 2006 and Fish Tank in 2009, both exquisite, naturalistic studies of feisty female leads living difficult, deprived lives. The Guard became the most successful Irish independent movie of all time; Fish
Tank won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2009 and the Bafta for “Outstanding British Film” in 2010. So perhaps it was inevitable that these two would seek larger spoils.
Just as there has always been a steady stream of British pop groups crossing the Atlantic to prove themselves on a bigger stage, so too is there an impulse for filmmakers to ply their trade Stateside; it is, after all, where most of the serious money is. While British directors such as Joe Wright and Christopher Nolan have been able to capitalise on reputations for lush period pieces and smarter-than-average action films, for indier, artier directors with traditionally smaller budgets and more esoteric stories, the pearly gates to the US market are harder to open. Both McDonagh and Arnold’s new films attempt to transpose some of the successful traits of their previous works into an American landscape and the results are, it must be said, mixed.
McDonagh’s effort, War on Everyone, which he has written and directed, is a highenergy, wise-cracking comedy starring Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña as policemen buddies in New Mexico whose morals are as loose as their suits are sharp. When they get wind of a high-stakes robbery that’s about to take place, they decide that, rather than bring the plotters to justice, they’re going to try to get their cut.
American Honey, which Arnold also directed and wrote, follows Star (Sasha Lane), a young girl in Texas who runs into a rag-tag bunch of misfit teenagers fronted by Shia LaBeouf (sporting an attractive rat’s tail and looking very much like early Dexys-era Kevin Rowland). These Lost Boys and Girls are travelling the country in a minibus selling magazine subscriptions to the Great American Public, and Star decides to cut her minimal losses and get on board.
War on Everyone is a skip-along crime caper with badinage aplenty, even if the jokes often fall with a bit of a thud. American Honey is a beautifully slow, sun-drenched
McDonagh throws everything in the mix — resulting in a film with all the form and finesse of a Mississippi mud pie
paean to the lost youth of lost youths. Where both films have problems, however, is their sense of scale.
War on Everyone is a Seventies cop TV show/movie homage, but rather than trusting his knack for zingy dialogue and observing human idiosyncrasies, McDonagh throws everything he can think of in the mix — tracksuited Irish felons, transvestite strip club owners, even burka-clad tennis players — resulting in a film with all the form and finesse of a Mississippi mud pie. It’s hard not to conclude that the pressures of making a film with wider, ie, American, commercial appeal caused the whole project to bloat.
Arnold tries to take on the topic of the US more directly with her road movie that’s also a handy tour of the different societal strata — rich, poor, but all unsatisfied — that the country has to offer. Her characters come out with statements as bald as, “I feel like I’m fucking America!” (ambiguity no doubt intended), and make references to “40 acres and a mule”, the promise given to freed slaves that was subsequently reneged upon.
For a film-maker whose work is so delicate and nuanced — Arnold loves the metaphorical possibilities of a lingering shot on a fly or a moth buzzing on a pane of glass — the references feel clumsy and say little about the US of A that hasn’t been explored before: you mean the American Dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? (It’s also about 45 minutes too long, which the loss of a few of those fly-meets-window shots might rectify.)
For both of these eminently talented writer-directors, this trip across the Atlantic and out of their comfort zones will hopefully expand their audiences and increase their future budgets. They certainly deserve it. But on behalf of British and Irish audiences, you hope that they booked a return ticket.
— War on Everyone is out now; American Honey is out on 14 October