No one is ever innocent, no matter what.

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2000)

I wish people would stop saying this movie is overrated. It's becoming a tired excuse. This IS the definitive movie of the 90's because it IS the 90's.American Beauty is sadness- this society is sadness. Kids shoot other kids, there's rape, terrorism, racism, oppression of all kinds wherever you look. And American Beauty is one of the greatest mediums i think- it lets us look at what we have become as a society- don't try to deny it, don't try and say you don't masturbate, or fantasize about under aged girls, or smoke pot. Or have ever done any of those things, ever. No one is innocent, ever. i don't care who you are. This movie wasn't made to destroy society- that's already gradually happening. The fact that the characters are mostly instruments of contempt is completely justified by looking in the newspaper.It was made to make us stop taking OUR lives for granted and try to make something more meaningful out of them, tear away society's cobwebs (i.e. media, false gods) and look at ourselves and think, nothing lasts forever, so maybe we should take notice of all the beauty in the world before it's too late and we're a media-glorified story in the paper. That message has never so accurately been portrayed in a movie before. Watch it again, and look closer next time, will you?