No winner

Rating: 5/10 (27 February 2000)

I finally saw American Beauty the other night. I like to see all the oscar nominees. I was really stunned that this movie was nominated for an academy award. The movie got off to a slow beginning. The characters were incredibly dislikable. The issues were cliche, and I think if the overall message was supposed to have been "there is beauty all around us, even within all this ugliness", that it was so subtle as to be practically insignificant. The movie simply wasn't beautiful enough for me to pull it out of all the ugliness. I found it disturbing, with little depth. If these people are "modern archetypes", then please just kill me now because I sure wouldn't want to be living in their neighborhood, I don't think I do, nor any of the rest of us..at least I hope not! I have never been so stringently opposed to a particular movie winning the oscar in my life. This was one of the least uplifting films I have ever seen..my feeling..just not that many good movies made this year and American Beauty is one of them. It is elevated to a status it doesn't deserve. It frightens me a little that people seem to identify with it so strongly..are we really such an angst filled people? I found it depressing and ultimately disapointing.