The Best Film of 1987

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2000)

I finally got around to seeing this, and, while it wasn't a bad movie, and the acting was strong, I can't believe it was so overwhelmingly adored when a vastly superior film in the same vein, The Ice Storm, was all but ignored just recently. The Ice Storm touched on very similar themes in far more subtle and rich ways, and didn't rely on the cheap "shot" in the end for its devastating effect. The lost, bewildered father, Kevin Kline in the Ice Storm, is left alive to face life and hopefully resurrect his family rather than ascending to omniscient bliss on the wings of his own self-centeredness. Maybe I'm just holding this movie to a higher standard because of all of the awards and hype--it had its moments. But the Annette Benning character didn't do a thing, Kevin Spacey's character displayed every single self-referential, moral relativist trait that makes the baby boomers like a plague of locusts on this nation, and the bit about videoing the dead bird and the paper bag, may seem hip to many moviegoers but is merely regurgitated 1980s art school trickery. The one thing I really liked about American Beauty was the handling of the gay marine next door--it was incredibly touching when he came into Kevin Spacey's garage and then disappeared again into the rain--it was also incredibly satisfying to see this stereotype, the hardass, homophobic marine blown apart once and for all--fag-hating marines will never be able to show their faces again in the neighborhood after this treatment sinks into the country's consciousness.