A look at the real world

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2001)

Although this film was the award winner and the masterwork of the year, I found it to be too much to digest at one time. This film is an obvious attempt at fitting every controversial subject into one two hour movie. It includes adultry, homosexuality, drug use, child abuse and child pornography. Some would claim that this is the most pure and honest way to make a movie, but American Beauty defeats itself by stringing together one eye-opener after another instead of focusing on one or two issues, thus killing the effect. So instead of this being an enjoyable movie with a real plot, it falls more into the category of the hordes of daytime talk shows and professional wrestling. Not to say that I wasn't in the least entertained, It was wonderfully acted by all involved and it made for some of the most believeable characters in recent films. And of course we all have our guilty pleasures of listening to gossip and being interested in the "who did what with who". But as far as making a film out of it, count me out. I could just phone a relative and get as much dirt as is in this movie.