an existential crisis

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2000)

American Beauty revisits the existential dilemma, the banality and absurdity of life. Spacey faces the realization that life is meaningless, at least in as much as what he's asked of it, and takes drastic steps to react against that. Camus or Sartres would have liked this film I think. There is no true resolution, as there never is in these circumstances, and the "meaning of life" remains elusive, or rather hints that such a search is ultimately an exercise in futility. Life is to be accepted for what it is, and lived accordingly. If the mundane is pursued, the mundane is achieved. A brilliant film...