Falls victim to the vapidity that it targets

Rating: 5/10 (4 March 2000)

"American Beauty" is an interesting first film from a promising director. Still, like many first films, it lacks depth and proportion. At times, the film conjures images that cleverly lampoon the vacuousness of suburban America. However, these images never develop into much more than a knowing snigger. As a result, the film ends up appealing to the very smugness and complacency that it pretends to criticise. In fact, the movie's plot and imagery too often wallow in a jaundiced flippancy that sends middle-class audiences streaming out of cineplexes feeling oh-so-clever, but hardly challenged, and not even a little bit threatened.