This is the best film of all time!

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2001)

American Beauty. Where do you start talking about a film that has so much depth, so many wonderful characters, such glorious acting, writing, directing, sometimes a surreal feeling, and such powerful themes about our everyday life? For many (my parents included), American Beauty is a trashy disgusting movie about a sick old man and his sick neighborhood. I hate to say it, but there are many who feel that way. And the thing is, they're kindof right. Is Lester demented? Maybe a little? His daughter and her friend talk numerous times about having sex with adults and have some really, Hmm, how to put it, not so Leave it to Beaver-ish conversations. But, from what I've heard from girls, and know, being that I'm a guy, it's very realistic. People do talk about these things because people are curious. Nothing wrong with that.
American Beauty is perhaps the most realistic movies ever made. Take anyone's neighborhood, ANYONE'S and you search deep into those people's minds, and I think you'll find things much more startling than what's in this movie. Because, EVERYONE problems. A friend of mine didn't like it because he couldn't find a "Likeable character." I told him that's because we know everything about them. In most movies, we don't know ALL about the characters, but here we do. It's hard to like someone when their entire life, all of their thoughts, are exposed. Society today hides their problems for the most part. People cover up their demons and throw them in the closet, and they throw away the key. That reality is questioned here. Lester even says, (SPOILER if you haven't seen or heard anything about this movie) "Our marriage is for show. It's a comercial for how normal we are when we're anything but."
All that being said, I found this to be one of the most redeeming movies ever. Lester is a man trapped in a little box called life. And it sucks. (Some may see this as a spoiler. WARNING!) Throughout this movie he is searching for happiness, that's my feeling anyway. He stops trying to control everything and he realizes that he needs to start living. And the at the end (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!) when he's looking at his family picture, his three simple words communicate everything: "Man, oh, man." Nothing else needs to be said.
The acting in this movie is just top notch. Kevin Spacey is just "THE MAN" He always chooses interesting movies, and this film is his best in my humble opinion. He is dramatic, funny, sarcastic, sad, everything. I thought Annette Benning did very well, too. She didn't win the Oscar, and I don't think she should've but she was great. And someone tell me, where was Chris Cooper's Oscar nomination? WHERE? He deserved one. Wes Bently was great as Ricky Fitts, the two teenage girls were both very good as well. Alan Ball's script was nothing short of breathtaking and awe inspiring. He's now writing the HBO series, "Six Feet Under" and I've heard nothing but great things about that. And director Sam Mendes, who's now working with the likes of Tom Hanks and Jude Law, did a fabulous job directing. He took us inside the mind of Lester, with eerie dreams and fantasies, and what a beautiful neighborhood that was.
Everything about this movie is brilliant. My 8th favorite movie of all time is "Ordinary People," which is very similar. But "American Beauty" seems more like a combination of that and Billy Wilder's "The Apartment," which deals with masking sexuality and lying, etc. Interestingly enough, all three of these films won the Best Picture Oscar. Hmm. And I saw a lot of "American Beauty" in another great film, recently, starring William H. Macy called "Panic."
This film works on so many levels. It is funny while being deeply moving, sad while offering redemption. What more could anyone possibly want in a movie?