If men think like this, no wonder they are in trouble

Rating: Null/10 (12 October 1999)

My favorite reviewer, David Denby of the New Yorker, highly praised this film and I was expecting a lot from it but I was disappointed. Lester, played by Kevin Spacey in a wonderful performance, is bored with his suburban existence. It's not surprising as Lester is really a boring character, obsessed with his own personal freedom, smoking pot, avoiding responsibility, screwing teenagers, etc. He's never grown into an adult, yet longs for another adolescence. If he were just an object of satire, that would be one thing, but I think the filmmakers expect us to view him as a hero; yes, he has a couple of moments of human decency near the end of the film, but they do little to make me care about this self-involved narcissist. The elements of satire here are somewhat amusing, but nothing really insightful. Bourgeois suburban life is a pretty easy target.
Mostly this is the view common among thoughtful adolescents who have little understanding of the complexity of life. I'm sick of reading about poor unfulfilled housewives in a lot of popular literature; now we have the poor house-husband to worry about. As I was watching the movie, I wondered how the unemployed might feel about poor Lester's whining about his boring job.
The movie left a sour taste with me--the "artist" character was so creepy and morose. The notion of beauty he advances (the plastic bag) seems pretentious and a bit silly. I like a good, nasty movie every now and then, especially if the nastiness comes from irony or superior intelligence (think of Jack Nicholson), but this movie's nastiness is just based on contempt and a feeling of superiority on the part of the filmmakers.
I expected more from this movie based on its reviews. Contrast this movie with "Dreamlife of Angels" (France) and see which you think is more profound.