Incredibly Clever

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 2003)

American Beauty is to me the best movie of the 90's.
It is about the suburban-everyday-life man Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), who learns that there is more to life than just working and having a marriage "just for show".
In terms of the script, it's the best work done since "The Usual Suspects" (although it's entirely another genre) which also features Kevin Spacey as a lead actor. The dialogue in this movie is not only incredibly funny, but also intensively deep and interesting, resembling the tagline "Look Closer". The characters for this movie are also very believable and fascinating (and sometimes horrifying to watch). The title sequence is a thrill to watch everytime, actually it is one of the best title sequence of modern cinema.
The acting of the movie is also amazingly well done, having Kevin Spacey doing his perhaps best performance to date. (The "Would you like smiley sauce with that"-line is yet to see it's superlative)Annette Bening is also very intense, and the supporting actors are also very well cast.
I especially like Chris Coopers work on Colonel Frank Fitts, whose depth and discipline is scary but also very exciting. Thora Birch's work as an insecure teenager who finds herself again is also the best thing she has done to date.
But what impresses me the most is the work the crew have done to make everyday life look immensively beautiful. The death (SPOILER WARNING) of Lester is actually very pretty, and the dancing plastic bag is about as original as it is pure beauty. The rain in front of the red door in the end is a threat to the eye.
All in all, this movie is the most intellectual in the recent years, totally deserving its five Oscars. The fantastic thing is to go beyond, to look closer, to really experience and adore this movie as much as many people (including myself) do.
This is truly American Beauty.