"American.... mid-life crisis"?

Rating: 7/10 (27 March 2016)

American Beauty (1999): 5 academy awards, recognized all over the world as a great masterpiece, wonderful rating by famous critiques. My expectations were probably too high and that could be one of the reasons that pushes me to say that, in my opinion, other movies should have deserved an Oscar in 2000. The story-line is based on a Married man who fantasizes to sleep with the girl friend of his daughter. The plot alone is quite troubling. Every character seems to be mentally in-stable but it is in fact portrayed all as mid-life crisis.
Nevertheless, there are some wonderful scenes such as the ending one and the philosophical ones which bring out important quotes. In this movie alone there is also a recurrent editing technique which is used to slow down central scenes. This technique focuses on one movement and cuts back and forth to repeat it several times, only after this can the story continue. Additionally, the music by Thomas Newman is fantastic.
Personally, this movie is very similar to Donnie Darko (2001) in terms of mental instability. I do prefer though Richard Kelly's movie to American Beauty. Could it be because it actually teaches the meaning of time and coincidences in life, instead of teaching me how to flirt with a 19 years old girl? You tell.