Overall Rating
  Awesome: 73.96%
Worth A Look: 13.69%
Just Average: 4.17%
Pretty Crappy: 4.61%
Sucks: 3.57%
30 reviews, 492 user ratings
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| American Beauty |
by LitzaMo
"It took me five days to process American Beauty."
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That's right. Five days after I saw American Beauty, in its Feb/Mar re-release, I thought I'd come to grips with the ending. I walked out of the theater unable to speak any work except "Wow." And that hasn't happened to me since Pleasantville. Except this time it was much, much more pronounced, and much, much more emotional.I then dragged my (now ex, but we were still dating then) boyfriend to the theater, since I thought he'd appreciate it. A good reason to break up with a guy would be a totally unimpressed reaction to the film. And honestly, it was a factor, as dumb as that sounds. He did tell me, though, not to let my mom see it. Ever. She's too much like Annette Bening's character Carolyn, he said, and she'll hate it. How true. How prophetic. I promptly forgot all about being told this and rented the video for my mom. She fell asleep, and almost got disowned by half her family.
All this being said, on Oscar night I was a pretty happy camper. The Matrix won many well-deserved FX awards, and American Beauty walked home with five of the major awards. Reaction in my dorm hall was ecstatic, honestly, there were the four of us who originally went to see the film running up and down the hall yelling in utter joy. It was hilarious.
And what kind of movie elicits this reaction from a bunch of 19-year-olds? A movie that tells us exactly what's happening in our lives. My own mother IS Carolyn. I could see myself deeply rooted in the daughter, right down to the boob job (although I must say that I need it FAR more than Thora Birch). A close friend was nearly in tears by the end, as his father is an Army dude and apparently similar in temperament to Ricky's father.
Kevin Spacey's character, Lester, really honestly does what we all want to do. He encapsulates it too, at dinner (the famous asparagus scene) in one of the funnier moments in American Beauty. (My personal favorite is the RC car and "I rule!") Lester has quit his not-too-rewarding job after reflecting on the best summer of his life, spent flipping burgers to buy an 8-track, and gotten a job flipping burgers at a greasy fast-food joint. He's blackmailed his boss. He bought the car of his dreams and sold his stodgy Camry. He drinks beer, smokes weed, and works out. Why? Well, there's this girl.
Angela, played by Mena Suvari to near perfection (but it's hard to sound authentic yelling "Cunt!" as in, it never does even in real life), is Lester's savior. She is his daughter's best friend, a model, and quite raunchy. She brags about her sex life. She's on the dance team and she drives one hell of a nice car. And boy oh boy, does Lester have the hots for Angela. Fantasy-land here we come. And all those rose-petal shots. God, the cinematograhpy was beyond belief. Angela unknowingly changes Lester into a health-shake-drinking, weightlifting machine with one reasonably innocent comment.
And there's this boy, Ricky. Ricky is the next-door neighbor and carries around a video camera. He films Lester's daughter, dead birds, and a plastic bag, amongst other things. Ricky runs into Lester at a business party for Carolyn, where Ricky is working for the caterer. He proceeds to get Lester rippingly high and becomes the dealer of choice. He also becomes the Boyfriend. And wow. I wish I had that kid's perspective on life. He seems to have down pat what every person is looking for in their life: a sense of the absolute love of a higher power. God love him, he isn't even Christian. (Funny note: The Nazi china is my aunt's wedding set. Oops!)
Carolyn, Lester's wife, is a very uptight woman. Her gardening clogs match the handles on her shears. She is obsessed with success to the point where she is no longer interested in anything else, even getting into an affair with the local Real Estate King to advance her own career. Upon failing to sell a pretty icky house in one day, she cries-- and then punishes herself, slapping herself silly for being too weak. (At that scene, the only sound in the theater was the giggling of two people who didn't know how to react. Powerful.)
Anyway. I'm writing too much. I'll just leave it at: I saw it twice in the theater. That never happens. So far, I've rented it at least three times, once on the day it was released. Any movie that warrants this, and only gets better every time, is worth ALL the effort it takes to see it. Amazing. Good job to everyone. Props.GO SEE MOVIE.
link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=1852&reviewer=222
originally posted: 07/28/00 01:09:24
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USA
15-Sep-1999 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
26-Jan-2000 (MA)
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