Rating: 
Summary: Unconventional Oscar winner
Review: I didn't quite know what to expect before viewing American Beauty. Having seen a trailer for the film, I expected it to concentrate heavily on the character of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey). I suppose it does - Spacey, one of cinema's great actors, dominates the film. The relationships between the other main characters both add and detract from the success of the film. Particularly strong performances from Burnham's neighbours (British spelling!) - the ultimate disfunctional family headed by Colonel Frank Fitts US Marine Corps (as Chris Cooper regularly introduces himself), father to drug dealing son Ricky (Wes Bentley) and husband of sorts to depressed Barbara (Allison Janney). The Colonel despises gays, owns an original piece of Nazi cutlery and takes every opportunity to express his dominance. His son secretely videos the Burnham family home, especially Lester Burnham's teenage daughter Jane (Thora Burch). The pair eventually meet and gradually fall in love. I use the word gradually deliberately. Their relationship is one of the film's weaker points. Their subplot is ponderous and could have been dropped altogether without harming the film. Meanwhile, Spacey's character transforms himself from a subserviant, meek door mouse, dominated by his extravert wife Carolyn (Annette Bening), into a carefree devil-may-care guy who quits his job, sells his sensible family car to buy a cool classic, the car of his dreams. The catalyst of this transformation is his daughter's friend Angela Hayes (Mena Survari), who he meets and immedialtely lusts over. When she returns his affection, Lester begins working out, turning his garage into a private gym, until he realises that they can never consumate their relationship. American Beauty is a fun ride, mainly thanks to the charismatic Spacey. Lester Burnham does what many people would love to do - trade security for freedom before it's too late. It's not a perfect film and was perhaps fortunate to win so many Oscars, but it's well worth watching and includes another great Kevin Spacey performance.
Rating: 
Summary: best movie of '99
Review: Even though most of this film portrays anger, alienation, and loveless realtionships, American Beauty's closing words will leave you feeling upbeat and ready to take on the world with this new way to look at life. Lester Burnam is a "loser". He has been unhappy for as long as he can remember. When Lester meets Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), he is inspired to get his life back. He quits his job and opts for a job with less resonsibility at the drive thru at Mr. Smileys. He starts working out and smoking pot again. He buys a red sportscar. One could choc this all up to a mid-life crisis, but there is more here than that. Everyone at one point or another has felt trapped by their situation, but maybe no one ever did anything about it. Lester is very easy to realte to, and even though his frankness makes him sometimes seem like a jerk, the audience can't help but love him. Annette Benning did an amazing job playing Carol Burnam. Looking happy is more importaint to Carol that actually being happy. She barely even talks to her husband, and spends all of her time working as a real estate woman. She starts having an affair with her rival Buddy "The Real Estate King" (Peter Gallagher) after learning that he is just as ambitious and appearance oriented as she is. Carol has become "joyless", all that's importaint to her is peoples perceptions of her and material things. What is interesting about Carol is that she has surges of emotion, as if she can't hold it all in, before becoming abusive to herself in order to stop. She doesn't want to be thought of as weak. Wes Bentley is very intriging as Ricky Fitts. He is the boy who just moved next to the Burnam family. he is high on life, among other things. Ricky is able to find beauty in anything, a dead bird, a plastic bag, and even a girl who thinks she is the ugliest thing in the world. Ricky is confident, even though his father is abusive. Ricky really gives you a sense of hope throughout the movie because he can love anyone and anything. Ricky's father (Chris Cooper) is an ex-colonel, who believes everyone should obey orders and stay in line. He is filled with hatred twards gays ,and other people not like him. He makes his son take a monthly drug test. How could someone like Ricky come out of a household like this? Ricky just gives me a little more hope in the kindess of man. Jane Burnam (Thora Birch) has a very low image of herself, and wants to get comsetic surgery on her breasts. She is friends with Angela perhaps because Angela is "beautiful" and Jane wants to be like her. We later learn that Jane is the one with beauty inside of her, and Angela is a liar, who never really took the time to find out who she was. Angela just depends on her good looks to get her through life. She wants to be a model. She thinks celebrity will make her less lonely. The characters of American Beauty are layered becaue the cast did so well at playing them. After watching the film, you can spend hours discussing the relationships between everyone and what each character is REALLY thinking. American Beauty will leave you feeling as if you've just heard the secret to life.
Rating:
Summary: nicely done
Review: Words can hardly do justice to this instant classic. A perrineal portrayal of everyday people, living everyday lives, doin very everyday types of things that we probably don't like to notice ourselves doing. The fact that Kevin Spacey can fall over walking down a crowded row of bleachers at a basketball game and look like a loser says one thing: how obsessed we are with image. Then we think, "Doesn't beauty rest in image," and this movie tries to say, "Not the way we think it does." The wife in this movie makes this painfully clear in the beginning with her matching apron and ratchet: a nice little thing, but hardly beautiful. As the strange adolescent guy next door illustrates, beauty is essentially something inside of ourselves. He illustrates this clearly when he is watching one of his videos, and besides just liking what he sees, he speaks in a stream of consciousness and reflection. Clearly, there is more than meets the eye in real art. This symbolism described is repeated throughout the movie, and little of it is terribly new: a handsome, charming, and succesful man; rebellion by doing something unattractive; or simply deviating from routine. However, it avoids monatony by having each moment delivers something comic and develops both plot and character. It is nearly impossible to feel a lull or that you are not gaining personally from its meanings.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of potential, but ruined
Review: There are many themes in American Beauty, but the primary one is of its motto, Look Closer. Indeed by the end of the movie, nobody is as they first appeared, and it almost makes you think. Almost, that is, because director Mendes decided to change so much of the beauty and satire in it to pure people appeal. Breasts and sex are in abundance, and for no really good reason. Mendes did this for the broadway musical Cabaret, which added to it, and made it one heck of a good time, but in American Beauty, it takes out how "deep" the movie is. Indeed, American Beauty breaks all 10 commandments. The acting is fairly good, with, as usual, a brilliant performance by Spacy, and certainly his scenes are the highlight of the movie, being witty, fun, and hillarious. It's a film that almost makes you think, before you realize that it was a film designed to make people think its deep, when it really isn't. It could have been great, the premises certainly are, but its often slow-moving, unrealistic, dumb, and sexed up for appeal. Definetely should have been an art film.
Rating: 
Summary: American Ugly!....
Review: I saw this movie for three reasons. 1, it's a "Comedy/drama," and being an aspiring actor, I wanted to learn something. 2, it looked interesting, 3, my friend badly wanted to see it, so we went to the theatre. From beginning to end I wanted to leave, but kept thinking "well, I'm sure some good will come out of this movie" (none did). Yes-the acting and directing was supurb and phenominal, but the content was filthy! This screams American trash, garbage, and filth all rolled into one! Before I go on I'd like to say happy for those who liked this film and they are entitled to their opinions. And if you have seen this, or going to see this because your favorite actor, director or producer was apart of it, hey, the more power to you. Located in the rich suberbs, Kevin spacey stars as Lester, the husband and father of a disfunctional family, whom from the beginning is masturbating in the shower because his wife is to controoling to be with him. Annette Benning's character is a shallow, phony, snob who ends up cheating on her husband with somebody she works with. Their teenage rebellious daughter sleeps with the neighbor boy who was following them around with a video-camera from the beginning, and she hangs around a filthy-mouthed friend whom the dad tries to sleep with. Then again it was my fault: I didn't know much about the movie, and it was rated "R" so I should have known better. If you want to see it, borrow it from somebody you know, check it out at the library, or rent it. But don't buy it. If you see it and don't like it, remeber-I warned you.
Rating:
Summary: American Ugly
Review: "American Beauty" is a new low in American cinema. The buzz that you might have heard from critics needs to be put in perspective: You see, many of the top film professors and critics read the film text as a pointed criticism of Reaganism and the fall of the WASP male. With this in mind, they praise the film for politics rather than power. Moreover, the studios are trying to turn a British director into a mainstream, American director, a move which always requires a little push from the liberal-minded critics. Furthemore, the film is problematic because it tries to present left-wing politics as a middle-American staple. Many people would like to labor under the illusion that this scenario is all too familiar in America; but rather the reverse is true. What exists in "Beauty" can hardly be labeled typical. I've often wondered why a British director intrepreting middle American life receives less flack than when a male directs a feminist film. Ridley Scott was criticized as being unqualified to film "Thelma and Louise," because it was a feminist film, and, obviously, he was male. But the same outrage doesn't take place from the critics when British director Sam Mendes interprets American life--he too is unqualified for a balanced take; especially since he embodies leftist politics. But that's precisely it, isn't it? He is reinforcing a view of America that most critics would like everyone else to believe in. It's also a little known fact, except in Hollywood circles, that "American Beauty" is considered a joke amongst filmmakers, just like the tag-line which equated "Traffic" with "The Godfather." Most people in the industry are so familiar with the politics and intrigue that was used to package a terrible film like "Beauty" to everyday Joes, that they write it off. "American Beauty" is not really considered a classic amongst professionals, but rather by people who are too ignorant to realize they are being swept up in agenda. There were many foreign films that easily could have garnered Best Picture from the Academy--films that far surpassed "Beauty" in subject and style; but they were pigeon-holed by the superflous "Best Foreign Picture" category, in order to keep Hollywood as the film mecca. A film like "American Beauty," however, suggests that America might be losing that claim.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Red roses. White roses. Red blood. Red lips. Bars. Reflections. Look closer. Don't watch American Beauty when you're distracted. More than any film I have ever seen, the cinematography and direction give details so intricate that even the color scheme has caused heated debates amongst my group of friends. The film has everything that makes a moviegoing experience, from a pitch-perfect cast (even the Smiley Burger drive-through woman is ideal) to the masterful lighting. Though much has been made of the mature themes of the film, any viewer who has handled The Usual Suspects (another Spacey masterpiece) or The Silence of the Lambs can appreciate American Beauty for the, well, beauty that it is. The DVD provides some insight into the fascinating cinematography, but focuses more on the cast and direction. I was hoping to learn more about the film by watching the director's commentary version, but was disappointed in that Mendes did not mention many of the details I had noticed myself. Still, the American Beauty DVD is fitting for a movie of such brilliance.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my type
Review: I have to say honestly that this movie upset my stomach. I know that many will say that the symbolism and lighting among other production qualities were magnificent, but when you get right down to what the characters are doing--the plot, I was pretty disgusted. The dream scenes and the reality scene were basic child molestation. I believe this movie was nothing more than art for art's sake. I liked the music, but found the story to be very cold and distant, definitely not a touchy-feely-feel-good kind of movie. I find it disturbing that a film with the subject matter as this one has won top honors.
Rating:
Summary: A Daria episode after a lobotomy
Review: How do you win a boatload of Academy Awards? Just use this formula: 1. Pretentious dialogue. 2. Banal symbolism. 3. Overacting to the point of earnest emotional farce. Unless you enjoy the "Angst Ridden Overprivileged White People With Problems" genre of films, then this film isn't for you. Funniest moment that wasn't supposed to be funny: Annette Benning's emotional breakdown following her merciless cleaning of a house she was showing. While there are plenty of cultural products that elucidate the boredom and banalities of suburban life (like Daria on MTV and the music of Sonic Youth), this movie fails in the delivery of its message. Instead it wallows in its own diminished self-worth. Boomer navel gazing has never been so funny. Like I am supposed to care for any of these characters? At least the characters on Daria are appealing.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome...
Review: It is full of brilliant moments that make you feel in the middle of joke!
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