Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (28 March 2020)

When I first watched this film,I quit half way-what on earth it wants to talk about?Ridiculous and preposterous and just typical black humor with unbearable vulgarity and eroticism(say the aberrant love with a child-girl etc.)However,when I have a second or maybe a third and fourth try,I find something different.

Conspicuously,this one is nothing of those ubiquitous funny,silly,superficial,comedic films that can make you brainlessly laugh to death and render you an unprecedentedly good frame of mindset after watching.This one is,in great contrary,rather complicated,unspeakably gloomy-much more abstruse and incomprehensible than any other film.Outwardly,it tells a droll and messy story of a family of three;inwardly,it recklessly,mercilessly,trenchantly reveals the most fragile yet authentic part concealed in everyone's life,hidden in everyone's heart.It may include those immoral desires for sex(Lester Burnham ),torturing despondency and failure(Carolyn) in life,trouble in puberty,irreconcilable conflicts with friends(Jane)...all of which most of us-"it's sad but true"-never dare to admit,and which everyone prefers to hide in their own secret nook forever.No one wants to face them,but,just as the film tells us,they are there,inevitable whether you want or not.So maybe a little vulgar,the film does tell the truth,which accounts for the controversy it arouses.
Moreover,American Beauty teaches us a lot about what is reality and what is iridescent illusion.Anything that appears to be as placid as the transparent surface of a still lake maybe be deadly perilous.So it is with our life.While many of us are under the delusion that everything goes on smoothly,all is well,life is totally in control ,etc ,etc,the film obnoxiously shatters your dream:Oh Please wake up!Don't be so naive!Life is rather unpredictable and uncontrollable than you think.While we deem ourselves as masters of our life,actually we much more resemble the plastic bag shown in the film-at the mercy of the wind,the wind of life.Who knows when it will spin desperately out of control and dreadfully give you an unanticipated and fatal blow?(just see the Lesters )And when it happens,the only thing you can do is to return to reality.Wave adieux to your fantasy just like Lester does to his Angela.Go back to your real life,though it's not that snug and cozy!