One of the best dramas of all time

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2019)

Sam Mendes's masterpiece still shines two decades later, showing why its Best Picture win at the 2000 Oscars is still very much deserved. Kevin Spacey stars as a middle-aged advertising executive who experiences a mid-life crisis when he pulls a "Lolita" and becomes obsessed with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by Mena Suvari. The film experiences themes such as the mirage of American suburban exceptionalism, beauty, and sexuality.
Mendes forces the audience to look at the sad marriage Kevin Spacey's character, and his wife, played by Annette Bening, experience by looking at it in a sort of forced conformity. Both characters feel like they're in a prison, not free to make their own choices while they accuse the other of controlling them, resulting in a toxic relationship that soon spirals out of control. Yet no matter what themes we explore, the film seems to transcend critique by refusing to be seen through only one interpretation, hence the fascination audiences and critics everywhere have for this film. Such a characteristic is one of the many reasons why this is still one of the greatest dramas of all time.
The acting, writing, cinematography, and editing are all excellent, and Spacey, although now tarnished following recent news about the actor's terrible choices in his personal life, delivers a performance in which you can sense the pathetic and shameful feeling that his character, Lester Burnham, has about everything: his job, his marriage, his sex life, etc. The exploration of the American middle-class, and the film's interpretation of it as a metaphor for conforming to a normal boring life, serves as an echo to other films in 1999 that explore similar themes: Magnolia and Fight Club, to name a few. The film remains one of my personal favorites and a staunch reminder of the reality of our own conformity and the prison it comes with if we do not strive to become unique.