American beauty, American excellence

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2016)

American Beauty...is such a special film in that if you saw the trailer and knew about the basic plot, skimmed through the actors, you'd expect one thing - a predictable tale of modern America's criticism of how the middle class is decaying and has created a society full of dysfunctionals and sickos underneath the surface... - and that one thing you expected, is exactly what you get; however, they still made it a brilliant film. The subplots contribute to the overall feel of the film, so mysterious and magical. The characters are extreme but mirror our society so perfectly that they are outright fictional caricatures and yet remind us of people we all have known. This is a modern fairy-tale motion picture which holds as a main theme the despondency of all members of our society, each layer (teenagers, young adults, parents...) with its own specific existential fracture. The story is excellent, right from the start and throughout the bulk of the movie, up until the excellent climax at the end that is oh so fitting and a true powerful finish - and there is a romanticism about the atmosphere whether through narration, music or image; like a poetry of death. And it's actually moving, rather than plain immoral or silly. This sick world we've put around ourselves.