A beautifully crafted masterpiece which absolutely deserves a "10!"

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 1999)

American Beauty was a fine example of neo-expressionism in cinematography, replete with mystical imagery, multileveled symbolism, and of course, a woven tapestry of intermingled lives and the plots that they so graciously generate on the behalf of the director. The glimpses and snapshots of lives filled "with quiet desperation" fused with the ethereal impressionist images of flowers,colors, textures, and other tangibles, gives the viewer a Vance-Packard style white light exposure of fictitious existences in a graceful artistic format, freed from the 60's style concreteness of the film's predecessors. The film is more palpable and yet more transcendental at the same time. This is because the viewer allows himself to be caught up in the up-close n-your-face passions, but still sees the action like a bird in flight,soaring high above the cozily wooded streets below. American Beauty, even the title is multileveled, on the surface is about a guy who experiences his personal equivalent of the oft-maligned "midlife crisis". Is there something vaguely reminiscent of the classical Greek "fatal flaw" in our protagonist, or is he merely buffeted by the forces of fate around him. Did the presence of all of the "Brads" in the world simply catch up with him, or was he just a tired middle aged man looking for a pick-me-up in his shabby Willy Loman life? An attractive 16 year old girl is hardly, by anyone's reasonable standards, an appropriate choice for this 42 year old fellow old enough to be her father. But after the repetitive assaults on his self-image, the audience actually comes close...not quite there all the way...but close, to forgiving him.
There are too many subplots and character analyses to get into here, but I did find myself wondering who was the most totally screwed-up, boogered up, psychopathological specimen in the film. At first I thought it was the "psycho kid" next door. You must admit, he was weird with that video and all. But then, hey, little Jane bore a striking similarity to that kid in Beetlejuice, dark side and all. The real estate agent and his "projection of success" was a bit cartoonish, but what about the Colonel. Now there was a piece of work. It was a pretty close duel for dufusness between him and his brain-dead wife, who obviously got that way through years of putting up with his militaristic craziness. Little Miss Perfect was really a cartoon of herself as well. So, when the chips were counted, I figured that they were all nutty in their own way, with maybe the Colonel out in the lead. And just then, after the credits rolled and the lights came up, I looked around. And I realized that there were some more weird people in the audience. Lots of em.