One of the truest movies concerning modern American culture ever made

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2003)

Kudos to Sam Mendes, Alan Ball, Kevin Spacey, and the entire cast and crew of this great movie. `American Beauty' is one of the most memorable movies I have seen in recent years because of its powerful, resonating theme - the importance of being happy and true to oneself.
In the beginning, the only two characters in this movie who are happy are Jim and Jim, the two gay lawyers. The two Jim's are the only ones being true to themselves. Every other character is living a façade in one way or another, until Lester begins to make his transformation at the end of act one.
The lesson to be learned here from Lester Burnam is that life is too short not to be happy - too short not to see through the corporate mass marketed, Hollywood enhanced, pop culture BS formula for how we should live, where we should shop, what we should look like, etc.
Like Lester, maybe someday we can all work up enough courage to say `screw it', and live our lives the way we want to. Either that, or try to keep up with the Joneses, be someone we aren't, and live a life full of self-regret, self-hatred, unhappiness, and misery.
The choice is up to us.