Drowning in American Beauty

Rating: 10/10 (20 October 1999)

American Beauty is a deeply moving film, taking me back to the loathing and torment of high school, in the perfect mirage of images to become lost in. Driving home from this film left me numb because of the sadness, the inexplicable rollercoaster of hope and hopelessness, and how I felt this perfectly mirrored my life. Kevin Spacey was frighteningly good in this movie and I foresee a mighty prominent future for him in films. I appreciate him as an actor and he brings an amazing complexity to this film. As others have discussed, the ending is disappointing, because the resolution feels conflicted and somewhat convoluted, but the realism of this film made me realize the misery of our world today, and how many of us are truly wandering blind and emotionless, and how this film was the honest step into the brain of our world today. A menacing, thought provoking, blissful knockout.