Rating: 
Summary: Look Closer
Review: Have you ever said to yourself, "My life seems so boring. I don't know what the point is anymore?" I know you have, because at one point or another, everyone has. This film gives an incredible insight into the "average American family." From the midlife crisis father (played incredibly by Kevin Spacey, I might add) to the power driven mother, the rebellious daughter, the innocent friend who wants to be a woman before her time, the new neighbors next door who don't quite seem normal...who doesn't know these people? These everyday characters are brought on a journey, an piece of everyday life for most people in some aspects, but while looking in on them one can find startling revilations. It begins with the faintest of hints, in the begining of the film, with a small sign on Lester's (Spacey's) desk at work, which reads "Look Closer." If someone were to ask me what the point of the film is, that is it. Look closer. This theme is played out throughout the film. The new boy next door exposes Jane to the beauty in the little things, things that we, as a society, take for granted every day. He also awakens Lester, pulls him out of his every day slump, with the help of Jane's cheerleader friend of course. Ahh..the cheerleader friend. Some may say that this display of a married man lusting toward a teenage girl is disgusting. I disagree..the display was needed in the film to portray the loss of innocence of a girl, something that happens too much in our society, the refinding of innocence of a man. Glancing at this family and their lives, we might say that they are boring, typical; and so we all are. But upon closer inspection we see that it's the little things that make them special, the little things that make life worth living. As simple as a plastic bag blowing in the wind, life is a beautiful thing. This film is a beautiful and inspiring work, for me along with others I know. Open your mind and look past the ovious, to find something beautiful. Look closer.
Rating:
Summary: words aren't enough
Review: The acting, direction, etc... are all great. I watched this movie after my brother said it was great. I didn't hear the hype first. I sat in that theatre absolutely riveted to my seat. Regardless of those bad reviews other people have done, you simply must check this movie out for yourself. Quit reading this trashing and hype. Do yourself a favor... when you watch this movie, imagine yourself as a critic, like Siskel and Ebert. Look for the use of red in the film's cinematography. Watch the angles used on steps, which is like a Hitchcock or Orsen Welles' film. Listen to the tight dialog. Watch for suburban satire subplots. There are a ton of things this movie speaks to. Watch for it. Like The Usual Suspects (another great Spacey film) this movie is simply gripping. For many, you will find its pedifile overtones disturbing. Others will reject this film because they are homophobic. Others may simply reject this film because although hilarious, it has some VERY dark and disturbing undertones. Regardless, it is a MUST SEE. Rent it, and if you love it like most of the reviewers here, get it on DVD for the supplimental materials. I can't wait to hear the directors' comments during the film, which comes on this DVD. If you are still in Tape-land, do yourself a favor and buy a DVD player, then buy this movie and the Matrix. Science and art combine for home entertainment which is unmatched and life enhancing.
Rating:
Summary: Either you get it or you don't
Review: If you look beyond the surface of this movie, its not trying to make a statement, its about life. I think the title may throw people off a bit. For those who didn't see it the first time give it another shot and try to think about what our main characters are realizing. Life is just life, you only really get one shot, don't waste it. Life is about living. Perhaps you can realize it without having to go through these situations yourself. This is why this movie is so great, IMHO. -g
Rating: 
Summary: Good, But Overrated......
Review: American Beauty is very well-acted, and first-time film director Sam Mendes shows real flair with his direction and staging, but when I hear people praise this film for being "audacious" and "challenging" (which is quite often) I have to say I'm perplexed. What startling, difficult truths is it presenting? That older men can be sexually attracted to teenage girls? That homophobia is wrong? That smoking pot might not be the terrible sin some people make it out to be? That people shouldn't be so absorbed in their careers at the expense of their families? I'm sorry, but these "messages" should hardly be considered new or challenging. Maybe I'm alone on this, but when I hear words like "masterpiece" and "audacious" being thrown around, I expect a film to push me out of my comfort zone a bit and to force me to see things in a new way. American Beauty does a nice job of confirming truths like those listed above, and there are some truly wonderful moments in the film, but I think credit for this should be attributed to the performances and some nice directorial touches, not the script itself, which I thought really derailed itself in the last half hour, spelling EVERYTHING out for a viewer rather than allowing us to "look closer" outselves and draw our own conclusions. If you want to see some truly unique, challenging, and audacious filmmaking from 1999, try films like Magnolia, Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Election, Eyes Wide Shut, or Boys Don't Cry instead. I would easily put them above a good (but not great) film like American Beauty.
Rating:
Summary: A Gross Exaggeration of Stereotypical Americana
Review: After all the hoopla about this movie, I had to give it a try. The first half-hour was almost unbearable and I wasn't sure if I could endure the entire film, I did. There are numerous cliches played out here, the burnt out husband in a loveless marriage with his neurotic wife, the teenage daughter with low self esteem, the brutal, homophobic Marine Colonel and his ever serving, apologetic wife and rebellious pot selling son oh, and of course, the professional and well mannered gay couple next door. This movie had me gagging one minute, laughing the next and feeling joyous at times throughout. I think this movie is highly overrated but if the purpose of a film is to provoke thought and emotion, it certainly did that. There were some far fetched scenarios, for instance, we're supposed to believe that these people live in this beautiful house in this beautiful neighborhood and Dad is making under $60,000 a year. Even with his wife's income this is ridiculous. This film really defies definition so I will simply say that this is a bizarre quirky movie that I hated to love...or...loved to hate. The day after and I'm still not sure whether or not I like this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Family Values
Review: "American Beauty" is one of the few great films to come out of Hollywood in recent times. It is a film of irony and contrast with a deeply revealing title. The film contrasts two different kinds of beauty: the material objects (money, home, sex partners) that we think are beautiful and the potential we have as human beings to enrich each other's lives. It is often our misconception of beauty that hinders our attainment of the real thing. Although the film takes place in suburban America and shows us the gnawing misery, and dissapointment that many of its denizens feel, it is not an assault on anyone's values or way of life. Instead, it is a study of the confusion and misdirection that most people feel and which drives them to inadvertantly hurt one another. Lester Burnham is angry at his wife because she appears to be an obsessive materialist to him. His wife despises him because he does not do the things that she believes are necessary to ensure the family's survival. Lester's daughter hates him because he lusts for her best friend. This is a bit of a gray area because on the one hand her resentment is based on sincere revulsion, and on the other hand it is based on a sense of loss of her fauther's attention in a psycho-sexual manner. Lester's neighbor appears to be a typical bigot, and homophobe, while the neighbor's eccentric son is the only person who seems to actually see what is going on in other peoples' lives. The son furtively films the Burnhams and in the process he gains insite into their disenchantment. He also falls in love with and has an affair with Lester's daughter. The film questions why we choose to lead the kind of lives we do and what our fixations--many of which are rooted in materialism--really amount to. Lester lusts for his daughter's friend, but in the end he redeems himself by caring for her in a compassionate manner rather than taking advantage of her. The biggoted neighbor on the other hand is unable to transcend his homophobic fixations which--no surprise here--are rooted in his own repressed homosexuality. One of the most tragic and sympathetic characters in the film is Lester's wife. In the process of struggling to look after her family in the best way she knows how (selling houses and keeping her own home spotless)she is left with a sense of yearning but no idea of what she is missing or how to obtain it. At the end of the film, moments before his death, Lester looks at a picture of his emotionally estranged wife and daughter and shakes his head in happy disbelief. Despite the problems, fights, and misunderstandings he realizes that they are the source of his happiness and and that they have many possibilites together. The evolution of Lester's sense of beauty--from lusting for a teenage girl to feeling genuine love for his family--is similar to Socrates'sense of beauty in "The Symposium". The film does not give us a neat and tidy ending. Lester dies before he can act on his realization and it is unclear whether his wife and daughter will achieve the same understanding he did. "American Beauty" shows us that most of our unhappiness is illusary. We are afraid of things which may or may not exist and we are struggling to obtain things of marginal importance. In the process of disecting these things, the film also reveals our tremendous possibility for happiness. This possibility is surrounded by obstacles and is often invisible. It often comes on the tail end of many mistakes and only if we are open-minded or perceptive enough to grasp it. But it is very real and it is out there for all of us. This is the actual American beauty.
Rating: 
Summary: A Contemporary Masterpiece
Review: Did you ever feel like your family was\is dysfunctional? Or know someone who came from one? If you answer no to both of these questions,DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO WATCH THIS FILM! You'll find it to be disturbing,crude,and offensive,which is everything it isn't. Times have changed,we're no longer living in a "Brady Bunch" world,and believe it or not,but the Burnham's are actually your typically family. Screenwritter Alan Ball has managed to write a dazzling portrait inside an american family. He makes everything seem "real", and as I stated before,there are families out there like this one,we believe everything we see on screen,this isn't just due this a great screenplay,we have very good performances here too by Kevin Spacey,Annette Bening,and Thora Birch as the Burnham's and Mena Suvari also gives a good performance. There's a line in this movie which goes something like this...There's so much beauty in the world sometimes I just can't take it. That one line is the whole point of the film. We have Lester(Spacey)a man who hates his job,him family and seemly life in general. And he goes through this whole transformation,for what? He's changing but is anything else? Everything will remain the same as before. And it's at the end of the film he finally thats notice that while he thought things were awful he didn't realize that he was happy. Now did this movie deserve all the Oscar's it got? No. At least that's my opinion. I felt that Eyes Wide Shut was looked over(It didn't even get a nomination!),should any of the actors have won? No. But it would of been nice to see Mena Suvari and Thora Birch nominated,I don't think they should of won but a nomination would of been nice. What did deserve to win was this truly great screenplay. Here's a film.that if you look at it in the right context,can actually give one hope for things to come,but you have to "look closer" to find the beauty in this film. And I think as time passes,people will take notice.
Rating:
Summary: Its not so good for 5 Oscars!
Review: Well its a quite originall story but it doesnt deserve the Oscar for best Acor and Picture! I dont understand why everybody loves that movie! "Cider House Rules" or "Green Mile" where much better than that the movie and the actors were much better! But at least A.Benning dindnt won the award oh, and what happened to her baby I didnt heard anything about it AFTER the oscarnight! Afterall the Poster looks good!
Rating: 
Summary: "American Beauty" Appreciative of Neither America nor Beauty
Review: Let's take a break from the sycophancy no doubt inherent in the reviews below (as in the media) and cast a critical eye on "American Beauty", shall we? The most useful method for conducting this analysis is to compare it to the pro-American movie it slyly parodies, "Forrest Gump." This is not the departure it may seem---a key image from "Beauty", a trashbag floating about the street, is clearly a backhanded homage to the feather so prominent in "Gump." One of the main characters refers to this image of wind-borne litter as the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, which should confirm the skewed vision of the film. This movie is the anti-"Gump". For those who don't recall, "Gump" exploded on the scene in 1993, a pro-family, pro-South, pro-America, pro-military movie which absolutely stunned the critics with its success. It portrayed an America in which people were generally kind and decent, no matter how conflicted and unhappy they could be from time to time, usually through the prevalence of drugs, sex, and alcohol abuse. In "Gump", the protagonist, though not hip or savvy, managed to succeed merely by virtue of being a good man, eventually passing on his homespun wisdom to his son. The success of this film no doubt made a big impression on the creative forces behind "American Beauty," for they sought at every turn to craft a successful, critically-acclaimed movie which would be the complete opposite to "Gump" in vision. In "Beauty", the "heroes" are a middle-aged, pot-smoking pedophile lusting after one of his 16-year-old daughter's friends; his dealer, who happens to be dating his daughter; and the daughter herself, a shrewish little girl who hates her parents (with some reason). The cast is rounded out by a homophobic, latent homosexual Marine Colonel who happens to be the dealer's dad (how original for Hollywood); the main character's hideous whore of a wife; and the only character in the film with the least bit of humanity, the object of the protagonist's perverse affection, played with great talent by Mena Suvari. The movie's plot is an unholy mess, revolving around the protagonist's mid-life crisis and how it brings about his demise. This is merely a narrative gimmick to allow the director to string together yet another series of scenes depicting how life in the 'burbs is simply hell on earth. This is typical Hollywood Baby Boomer drivel. The only saving grace of this movie is the fantastic performance of Mena Suvari, who brings brass and vulnerability to the portrayal of her character, a normal girl amidst a bunch of fools. Even the normally superb Spacey is wasted on this script, which calls for the audience to identify and sympathize with a character we'd loathe outside the theater. Don't believe the hype. "American Beauty" is a terrible movie. If you want an indictment of life in suburbia, pick up "Doing Time on Maple Drive," "Ordinary People," or "The Great Santini" instead. If you want a movie which is a true reflection of America, pick up "Forrest Gump." Either way, your time will be much better spent than on this piece of Hollywood pap.
Rating:
Summary: A triumph with a message.
Review: Get ready for the real America with "American Beauty." A movie with all forms of cinema categories: there is comedy, suspence,drama, fantasy, etc. Topics of everyday life tumble with everyday families: pot, adultery, betrayal, abuse, homosexuality, and obsession; all rolled into one. This is just the type of movie that speaks the truth about everyday living, and how beauty is blind to a lot of people. The casting couldn't be better, the acting couldn't be better; definitely to go down as a classic. Hell, it got Best Picture didn't it; and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey, plus the other 3 this movie received. If you haven't seen this must-see yet, you don't know what you're missing.
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