"...A Rose by any other name..."

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 1999)

"...A rose by any other name..."
The storyline shadows the hidden passions of Lester Burnham who masquerades in his freedom to disregard, with great joy, every social and ethical or moral family and work standard. His cohabitant Carolyn is some sort of "bitch wife" played as a preposterous "career driven" eccentric. Their daughter; Jane, is the most coherent of this dysfunctional family and neighbors, and her attraction to the Ricky Fitts, a somewhat deranged drug pusher, only skirts reality. The only other near straight character is that of Colonel Fitts who dictates his prejudice without being loony. Jane's best friend; Angela, is finally confronted by lascivious Lester, revealing both as some sort of delusion of their egos.
This would be "great movie" graces my ego cloaked as a brainless idiot who once believed poetry and Shakespeare were valued scholarship. My most unbearable embarrassment is the discovery I must be simple-minded to remain in this movie, (not a Freudian slip). I literally despised myself as a human being for thinking I could consider this film my American Beauty. I pray to God to relieve my anguish and destroy this life instantly if what I view is really entertainment. I was not prepared for this creative genre eulogizing lust and a promise of death with zany interludes of human moral decadence. I was stripped of self love and self trust; and all my friends who I loved and trusted so much. This is pure poison and as such must be labeled to protect those of us who don't want to be ambushed and die. it is a caricature of inhuman spaced out psychedelic drug culture reality. To position this theatrics movie as even comprehending great roles, not to mention, great acting, is preposterous.