Destined to be the most Overrated Movie of the Year

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 1999)

AMERICAN BEAUTY, or DAVID LYNCH DIRECTS THE WONDER YEARS, is the VANITY FAIR crowds idea of a great movie. You know, those people whom decry narrow mindedness then stereotype everyone whom disagrees with them. The crowd who decries materialism, while riding around in their Volvos or Mercedes Benzes. AMERICAN BEAUTY has something to offend everybody: explicit adultery, drug usage, teen sex, statutory rape, teen nudity, masturbation, males kissing, extreme domestic violence, voyerism, excessive profanity; let's see, have I left out anything? The movie IS (mostly) well acted (especially Mena Suvari and Wes Bentley), the exceptions being the campy homosexual couple, played by Sam Robards and Scott Bakula. PLEEEASE! Can't we have some non-swishy homosexual role models for once? Of course not; it's THAT kind of movie. And, of course, the LEAST screwed up character in the entire film turns out to be a teen drug dealer. He "sees" the REAL beauty in the world, including that in Kevin Spacey's "homely," "flat- chested" daughter (Thora Birch). BEELIEEEVE ME; Thora Birch is NEITHER homely NOR flat-chested! Director Sam Mendes and Writer Alan Ball DO provide SOME surprising moments. However, both the "revelation" about the nubile teen temptress (Mena Suvari) and the "surprise" killer are, at once, too pat AND unconvincing. AMERICAN BEAUTY is not even as quirky, imaginative, surprising or funny as the average episode of NORTHERN EXPOSURE. And, as the VANITY FAIR crowd LOVES to do, AMERICAN BEAUTY celebrates the beauty of life while focusing on its ugliness. A REAL quibble. In at LEAST three places in the film, transition marks are clearly visible on the print (as though we were watching workprint, rather than a final "cut"). Are Spielberg, Katzenberg, and Geffen THAT cheap that they wouldn't afford to reshoot those three scenes? Criminy, one of them was an AERIAL shot with a Kevin Spacey voiceover!
Considering the glowing reviews, this is DEFINITELY destined to be the most overrated movie of the year.