Perfect

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2000)

A testament to competence. This is what happens when excellent directing, cinematography, acting, and writing appear in the same film. When I went to see this movie, half of my group saw it with me and the other half saw "Mystery Alaska" (the hockey movie) because they had heard that this movie glorifies people's vices. What it does is portray them, making the characters appear tragic, and they and the world they inhabit seem beautiful. While the movie is very sad as a result of its plot, the tone is well-balanced, with brutal scenes juxtaposed with touching or comic scenes. Attention to detail and aesthetic sensibility dominate the production, without causing the makers to lose the spirit of the story, and so American Beauty sidesteps the two most common pitfalls: sloppiness, and dwelling so much on making a great movie that the movie ends up mediocre. Something that sets good movies apart from bad is if while watching, you think of the characters by name. Humphrey Bogart movies do this (who can forget Captain Queeg?), and so does American Beauty, boasting some of the most memorable characters of any film. It is a snapshot of universal human experience (which is frequently seedy) set in suburbia, and anyone who dislikes this movie simply doesn't understand it, or has no appreciation for beauty.