Excellent film that deserved the Best Picture Oscar (spoiler warning)

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2004)

Regrettably, I wasn't able to see this film while it was in theaters some 5 years ago but after hearing and reading many rave reviews I decided to purchase the DVD and was glad I did. This movie is one of the funniest, saddest, and most interesting films that I've had the pleasure of seeing. It serves as a dark reminder that the suburbs are not as they appear.
:SPOILER ALERT:
I have many favorite scenes of this movie such as the "Spartanette" scene where Lester first fancies Angela, the famous "Plastic Bag" scene, the scene where Ricky and his Dad quarrel right before Ricky decides to leave, and the scene where Frank kisses Lester in the rain. This is a powerful film that appropriately received the Best Picture Oscar.
:SPOILER END:
The acting in this movie is stellar of course. Kevin Spacey totally became Lester Burnham and injected life into the character. Annette Bening was awesome as Caroline and should have received the Best Actress Oscar. Thora Birch played the tormented Jane Burnham to a T, Mena Suvari was great as the deceptively seductive Angela, Chris Cooper was excellent as the Colonel Frank Fits, and everyone else was wonderful as well.
The direction, the script, the cinematography, and the score were excellent as well. It's too bad Thomas Newman didn't win the Oscar for Best Score because his music underlined the context of this movie perfectly. Hopefully, he'll get the Academy Award he deserves one day.
The only quibble I had with this film was the script was bordering on pretentious a few times. Other than that, it's a superb movie that will hopefully be remembered as a classic one day.
10/10