Make Mine Shallow and Pretentious

Rating: 1/10 (14 November 1999)

Perhaps no film of the last five years is such an instant candidate for inclusive in a Bad Cinema course as "American Beauty." As craven as it is confused, the contempt that it displays towards its characters and subject matter suggests that it is the product of those whose knowledge of film (and life)doesn't go much beyond the Nineties. Reveling in the trendy cynicism of our times and dismissive of anything that resembles two-dimensional characters, it is depressing to see such an otherwise outstanding cast utterly wasted here (Kevin Spacey, Chris Cooper, and especially Annette Benning in acting so hysterical as to make Al Pacino's work in "Scent of a Woman" a model in nuance and subtlety.) Scattered are scenes of some promise, industrially the technical work is competent, and the teenage performances are fine. It is the director who must take the blame, a man too young to have any conception of a midlife crisis, too English to understand American suburban life, and too new to art to understand that, as Andrew Sarris says, "it is cynicism, and not idealism, that is generally the mark of youthful immaturity, or rather it is the cynic who is generally the most foolish romantic."