Director Andrea Arnold presents an intriguing glimpse into the subculture of street kids selling magazine subscriptions door to door in her impressive, if uneven, directorial debut.

Over 20 years ago, director Larry Clark and writer Harmony Korine stunned the world of independent film with the release of the film Kids via Miramax Pictures. Kids depicted the life and culture of kids growing up around the rave and drug scene of 1995 New York City. Its use of non-actors in leading roles was ground breaking as was its frank depiction of the prominent role of sex and drugs in their day to day life versus that typically presented in studio films. Harmony Korine would go to use this same lens of exploration in his own directorial efforts like 1997’s Gummo, which showcases life in an Ohio town for the survivors of a destructive tornado, and 2013’s Spring Breakers, chronicling the descent into the drug scene of Florida for a group of girls partying in Florida.

Arnold’s film lands somewhere between the middle of the aesthetic of these two films and its clear that Korine serves as a tremendous influence on the life of this film. American Honey follows the day to day life of star (played by newcomer Sasha Lane), a charismatic teen stuck in a dead-end abusive relationship in Florida. The despair and lows of this relationship are brought to life much how Korine showed us the horrors of the lifestyle of Xenia, Ohio in Gummo; flies crawling on foodstuffs, children digging for chicken in the trash; this all serves to make the situation Star finds herself all the more dire. So when she meets Jake (played by a charismatic and electric Shia Labeouf), one of a group of poor street kids who make their living selling magazines on commission for would-be entrepreneur Krystal (Riley Keough) around the country, she jumps at the chance to escape this life for the mere chance of something more.

When American Honey works, it is primarily due to the chemistry and charisma of its two leads in Lane and LaBeouf. The film is mostly improvised, not unlike the Larry Charles film Borat with actors and non-actors given a loose idea or scenario to see what develops. Lane shines in the positions she’s placed in; seeming real and genuine and someone whose life is entirely open to whatever road she may take. LaBeouf projects the blend of stability and rebel who would be of interest to someone like her character and the scenes between them feel real and inspired and it is in this mode that film is at its best.

However, the film inevitably starts to drag due to multiple factors; not the least of which is the fact that the relationship between Jake and Star is really the only plot line developed. The majority of the film plays as the kids move to a new town witha variation on the type of person they sell magazines too. It becomes formulaic and there aren’t any other performers whose work is on the level of LaBeouf or Lane in the film. Keough, who impressed in Starz’ excellent The Girlfriend Experience isn’t given much more to do than “white trash madam/babysitter/bus driver,” she finds a location, tells the kids what hustle to use and then disappears until the next mise en scene. This, coupled with the film’s unwieldy length (its run time is almost 3 hours), makes it an endurance challenge to sit through as it becomes more of a Vice piece than an actual film.

That’s not to say the film is without merit. The film’s cinematography is something to behold; reminding at times of Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. This is undercut by the almost crippling handicap of the film being filmed and presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Starring at a film mimicking the boxy format of a full screen television makes the film a chore to sit through at times. The offbeat nature of the soundtrack; ranging from southern country music to crunk/trap hip hop makes you feel like you’re watching a time capsule of a moment in the life of these people not unlike Kids. However, this is undercut by directorial choices and aesthetic (a scene of the cast and crew breaking out into the song American Honey plays more like a ripoff of Almost Famous versus an homage or truly spontaneous moment).

Ultimately, despite its run time, American Honey doesn’t say much about its characters, the magazine subculture, or Jake and Star as people. It does detail a moment of existential ennui that does exist in a kind of youth right now. A need to both escape and belong that is true of the millenial mindset and in that the film is a success. Director Andrea Arnold does have a good eye for composition. However, that is undercut by the need to achieve a certain aesthetic at the expensive of narrative and conventional storytelling. The film owes more to the work of Korine and even something like Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny than it lets on, but the strength of LaBeouf and Lane’s performances definitely makes it one to seek out at least once this season.