Rating: 
Summary: One of the best films of all time!
Review: AMERICAN BEAUTY is, by far, an excellent film. With rich acting, and an engrossing plot, the film shows us how life really is. It seems that most films today are about a murderer trying to kill someone, and then a year later the murderer comes back for a sequel! Most of us don't deal with such horrendous issues. Our problems lie in work, marital status, and our parents or our children, which is what AMERICAN BEAUTY revolves around. The metaphorical rose is also a nice tie-in, as it symbolizes that life blossoms but can die in the blink of an eye. Ms. Benning deserved this oscar, as well as Mr. Spacey. Although AMERICAN BEAUTY didn't win the Oscar for all it's nominations, anyone who's seen it knew it would win best picture :)
Rating: 
Summary: It Could Have Been Great
Review: So now vulgarity gets the Oscar. Do I need my nose rubbed in vulgarity to make a point with me? No. I'm not that thick, and most other people aren't either. Yes, I can see the point Lester makes at the end, but sadly, too many people were offended by this movie to even GET the point. Do some people actually think Americans invented materialism, hypocrisy? Study history, and ancient history at that (I thought some of the examples to make these points were ludicrous). My opinion? The dumber the person, the greater they consider this movie. The more offended they are, the higher the intelligence.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, But Overrated
Review: This movie was good, but it is nothing compared to the kind of press it got. Every year it seems, the media picks up on an "intellectual" movie to praise so they can seem intelligent. This movie was the entry for 1999. Kevin Spacey is entertaining as Lester and the rest of the actors are fine, especially Thora Birch who plays the harried daughter perfectly. Unfortunately, for me, the film seemed to be content to go over stuff that has been worked through many times in the 1990s. Dysfunctional families like this in 1997s Ice Storm, a few Usual Suspects style plot twists, and a Lolita complex. What is so special about Sam Mendes' contribution to this film is, I do not know. It just looks like a competently shot film with a few dream sequences in which rose petals (hammer us with the symbolism a little more why don't you?) float around a lot. The Rickey Fitts character is also a little disappointing, being used a) as a weirdo for visual purposes/ directing gimmicks and b) as a mouthpiece for the film's philosophy-lite. It was a good movie, but if you really want a film that looks into twisted human nature, go watch Herzog, not Sam Mendes. If you want to learn to appreciate beauty in the world, take a walk in the woods. I don't think this film really knew what it wanted to do. Did it want to teach you a lesson, or did it want to shock you with taboos that have been gone over a hundred times? Watch the film. It is interesting, but watching it does not mean opening up Pandora's box as many have suggested.
Rating:
Summary: The finest film of the year
Review: I went into this movie not sure of what to expect. I had seen the posters (you know, the ones that say "look closer") and heard the buzz surrounding this film, so I went to see it with an open mind. And that is how I came to "look closer" at the beautiful film that is American Beauty. From the images of the pristine suburban backdrop in which the characters attempt to live their lives, to the image of a lone plastic bag dancing in the wind, I saw beauty in a way I'd never seen it before. I let all the glorious, and at times, troubling, images seduce me and lead me into a world that cast me under its spell. I've never walked away from a film so utterly immersed in my own perceptions of what I had seen until I left the theater after the first time I viewed this extraordinary masterpiece of the modern-day human condition. I was so mesmerized, in fact, that I went back two more times, just to lose myself in the world of the Burnhams and the people that affect their lives so profoundly. The strangest thing about this film, and the reason it is so wonderful, is that you lose yourself in a world that could very well be the world in which you live. So don't just "watch" American Beauty; EXPERIENCE it.
Rating:
Summary: overrated...
Review: Perhaps "American Beauty" is a revelation--but only for those that are criminally shallow. The plot revolves around familial and personal alienation in a progressively isolated society...unfortunately, the entire thing reads like a caricature, with unbelievable and cartoonish characters (gay nazis and suburbanite teenage drug-dons...c'mon!), instead of like the intropective and sincere examination of contemporary emotional struggles it promises to be. Mendes' direction (his first attempt, by the way) is one-dimensional, trite, and seriously lacking--there are certainly no strides in innovation occuring here (the pitiful use of symbolic imagery is laughable). The film is a perfect example of an attempt by a filmmaker/writer to be poetic, without the understanding that cinematic poetry should flow naturally and be an honest depiction of the human spirit. AB is contrived, but for those familiar only with hollywood celluloid, it may to provide some sort of awakening--this is NOT a film for connoisseurs of contemplative or provocative works...it suffers from being philosophically mediocre. There are far better contemporary films that present the sentiments of alienation and the struggle to command one's own existence with much more artistically satisfying strides in style and story--namely, "Magnolia".
Rating:
Summary: Not worth all the hype
Review: I think I'm one of the few people who thinks that this movie wasn't deserving of all of the hype that it got. There were countless better movies released last year (Fight Club, Dogma, Being John Malkovich, Magnolia, to name a few). Was it a good movie? Yes, absolutely. Was it the best movie ever and deserving of the Oscar? No way. It's the same dried up story line--yes, the actors were brilliant, the screenplay was great, and the movie was very funny in parts, but it wasn't anything that we've never seen before. Kevin Spacey's obsession with his daughter's friend was much more disturbing to me than than the violence in Fight Club. When I went to see this movie, I fully expected to love it, but instead I just thought it was sort of okay. I felt like they were trying to cram every single issue on the face of the earth into two and a half hours--adultery, unhappy marriage, drug use, teenage sex, job unhappiness, etc. It felt like too much to me, and ended up feeling forced. I gave this movie four stars, because I did think that it was good, but I didn't think that it was great, and certainly not worthy of all of the attention that it got.
Rating: 
Summary: The Emperor's New Rose
Review: I know I am in a distinct minority, but I intensely disliked this film. Satire works best when the creator loves his characters, flaws and all. Alan Ball clearly despised his creations, and I echo his sentiment. There is much about middle-class suburban life that lends itself to ridicule, but there is also room for intelligence, compassion and wit, qualities I find all but absent from American Beauty. Being invited to smirk at and feel superior to freaks -- this is art?
Rating: 
Summary: Okay but not great
Review: I was eager to see this once available on rental because I was wondering what all the fuss was about. After having seen it, I'm still wondering. At the risk of inducing a lot of indignant e-mail, I have to say that I didn't think this film was all that great. As a matter of fact, it was only somewhere between okay and good. Admittedly, it was an effective lampoon of American culture, with the clear message that life is ironic and we need to get our priorities straight. But it was far from a defining moment in cinematic history, as has been implied in all the hype. The fact that it is being referred to as one of the greatest movies of all time sends me an even more frightening message about American culture than the film itself. The film had a sardonic tone and a wry style, most certainly by design, but it was taken to excess to the point of being bizarre and cartoonish. The humor was sophomoric, the characters were more like caricatures than people, and everything in the film was dreadfully cliché. The story gets high marks for irreverence, but not for realism or subtlety. The direction by Sam Mendes, other than that of the actors, was really nothing special. Other than a few vista shots, some rose petal shots and the dancing paper bag, it was visually pretty mundane. It was also structurally unsound as a first person narrative. The narrative format is from the speaker's perspective and implicitly must limit itself to events the speaker experienced directly or of which he had indirect knowledge. The film included numerous scenes and conversations of which Lester could not possibly have had any knowledge by the end of the film. That's just sloppy storytelling. The one area where this film shines is the acting. Though I don't agree with the character interpretations, the character presentations were superb. Kevin Spacey was fantastic as Lester. He got better as the movie progressed as he was allowed to break out of his caricature. Annette Benning was not allowed that luxury, but played the fanatical yuppie role to the hilt. Thora Birch as daughter Jane had the good fortune of playing the only realistic character in the entire movie. She was quite impressive, playing the part with a sensitivity and poise belying her experience as an actress. This was a decent film, no more, no less. There were so many excellent films in 1999, that it is hard for me to understand this film's mass appeal. Perhaps we have become so overwrought as a society that this film struck a chord. That is decidedly to its credit, but it doesn't make it a great film. I rate it a 6/10. A huge disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Message
Review: This was going to be yet another in a long, dull line of Hollywood diatribes against the stultifying, boring and banal existence of suburbia as they perceive it. It starts off that way. Kevin Spacey is 14 years into a job he loathes, he can't communicate with his wife or daughter, and everything in his life is dull. His wife, real-estate agent Annette Bening, is obsessed by success. She begins her day by repeating some stock motivational phrase: "I will sell this house today; I will sell this house today." She ends her day by almost breaking down when she doesn't. Their daughter is an uncommunicative selfish brat, who hates them both. This story is so hackneyed and these characters are so insipid that the first part of the movie plays as a dark comic romp. But then Kevin Spacey perceives beauty. It is in the form of his daughter's cheerleader friend, a blond-haired teenaged nymphet. He is obsessed with her, lusts for her, dreams for her. Her beauty, this beauty, changes him. He begins to dismantle the life which he has lethargically allowed to be constructed around him. "When was the last time you felt joy?" he desperately asks his wife. "You're going to spill beer on the sofa," she replies. In the meantime, their daughter has become infatuated with the next door neighbor's kid, who himself is fascinated by videotape. He shows her one of his favorites. It is nothing more that a piece of trash, a plastic bag, blowing around in the wind. But he perceives beauty in this; an order; a sense of calmness; a benevolent force. In fact, he sees beauty in everything. It sometimes overwhelms him. Kevin Spacey finally realizes this too, in the last moments of his life. That there is beauty around us in every single day of our lives. A white cloud against a blue sky, a green field in the spring, a woman's face, a baby's cry, a piece of music, a young girl, a bag blowing in the wind. We must open ourselves to this beauty, for there is something incredibly important behind it. A benevolent force. A kind force. It tells us to relax, to enjoy. To not be afraid. We are loved.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty THE best movie ever made
Review: When I first saw American Beauty I was stunned. At how wonderful this movie is. I feel I can relate to every character on at least some level. Annette Benning, Thora Birth, Wes Bently, Mira sorvieno (sp?), and of course Kevin Spacey did a wonderful job. After watching the movie it made me think.. and reflect on my life and how I live it. And belive it or not, but it actually inspired me to care more about myself, to work out, and to look at the little things in life. I saw this movie 9 times in the theatre and watched once renting it. And yes, this may seem excessive..but once you watch it you will see for yourself how great of a movie it is.
|
